Expert: Long Island Gardener - 4/19/2007

Question
We have moved to Los Lunas, NM, 87031 (just south of Albuquerque).  My house faces north. What can I hang on the front porch (I'm thinking boston ferns, but what about wind?) and what can I plant in the ground in front of the front porch?  Thanks a million.

Answer
This question makes me nervous, but I'll give it my best shot. What worries me is your comment about wind.  I am not a resident of Los Lunas; it does not appear from Weather.com data that your region is windier than, say, a city like Buffalo, or Chicago (the 'Windy City'), where Boston Ferns are common sights every Summer.  Every once in a while, someone will say something that makes me wonder if there's something I am missing -- so be warned, I wonder, Am I missing something here?  And please feel free to correct me, it's part of the learning Allexpert process, Susan.

First, you are lucky to be home for the USDA's Los Lunas Plant Materials Center.  Their website explains: 'The Los Lunas Plant Materials Center develops, tests and transfers native plants that can help solve conservation problems...Plant scientists evaluate hundreds of plants for their capacity to solve problems that plague our modern world.'  Capital location you've selected.

Albuquerque itself is a Zone 7 location.  That means you will still have to bring in most houseplants in the fall; unless these are hardy, they won't stand a chance when the real Winter arrives.

Boston Ferns do not have the weeping, sweeping silhouette of an ideal hanging plant, but they would be splendid in pots and on stands and tables.  Asparagus Ferns and Spider Plants are better choices for anything you hang.  They will enjoy full sun if you can give them an occasional visit to a sunny side of the house, but since they are foliage plants, they will tolerate shade -- they just won't bloom.

I strongly encourage you to consider a vine of Sweet Autumn Clematis in a part of the porch that would benefit from a fragrant, vigorous, late summer vine twirling and swirling around the railings and ceiling.  Bluestone Perennials sells this and has a photograph (http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/CLPAP.html) but the fragrance is a warm, deep breath of summer.  And its white color blends with any color scheme you are working with.

Back to your hanging baskets.  Flowering plants are hard to find, but there are some that would be quite happy hanging from your porch in baskets.  See photographs on the Plant of the Week website of:

scarlet-flowered Hibiscus schizopetalus 'Japanese Lanterns' Vine
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week091.shtml)

Clerodendrum thomsonae, sold via Mail Order at Logees Greenhouses
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week006.shtml)

Begonia acida
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week182.shtml

Selenicereus brevispinus 'Moon Cactus'
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week316.shtml

Exacum affine
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week251.shtml

Zebrina pendula
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week280.shtml

All of these flowering plants will do well in the semi-shade of a North facing porch in summer.  They will have to be brought indoors, however, in fall.

On the ground, a list of shade-loving groundcovers hardy to Zone 7 would include Alchemilla Mollis (http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/ALMOS.html), a variety of Ajuga, Pulmonaria and Lamium, and the 'Christmas Rose' Helleborus, not a Rose at all.  You can see photographs of all of these at Bluestone Perennials (www.bluestoneperennials.com/).

Long answer, short question -- oops, I did it again.  Sorry.  I just can't shut up sometimes.  Thanks for asking.  Any more questions, I'm here.  Enjoy your new New Mexico home!