Plant now. Plant with the top of the bulb buried twice as much as the height of the bulb, that's about four inches on top of the daffodil, or a hole about six inches deep. In Phoenix you will have to water them during winter and spring. They like a rich moist soil, but can stay dry over summer. More importantly you will have to chill them. They need two or three months of temperatures constantly below 50F. Not gonna happen? Put them in the fridge away from the fruit and veg.

one CAUTION ... foundation plantings should mean.. plantings to hide the foundation ... THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE PLANTED ON OR NEAR THE FOUNDATION .... plant them as far away from your house foundation as possible ... i grew up in a pasture that was turned into suburbia in the late 50' ... by the 90's all the cute little bushes planted within 3 feet of the 'foundation' ... were taller than the houses ... those who had foresight.. removed them sooner ... other still remain .. and they make the whole neighborhood look like carp ... make big beds.. and place stock appropriately .. i know they will be tiny.. and sparse for a few years.. but in 10 years.. you wont be tearing them all out ... good luck ken as an example.... there is a tiny bed on the foundation ... then the sidewalk.. and the bigger plants exterior to the sidewalk ... another view ... i may regret that i left the rhodie there.. but it was the only ornamental on the 5 acres when i moved in .. and i was sure it would die... lol ... and i doubt the azelia will ever outgrow the spot in zone 5 ... the bed is 5 to 6 feet wide and another .... think outside the box..

Welcome to the forum, and to Arizona gardening! I think this is the MOST fun, interesting, and festive gardening climate in the U.S. Great stuff! The first thing I'd suggest is that you get your hands on some of the many good, LOCAL gardening books. They will really help give you a lot of information on different styles of gardens, and their plants, and then what those plants need. They'll also remind readers that our long, easy gardening season is autumn, winter, spring and early summer, not the way folks did things "back home". You can search this AZ forum for recommended books, and I'm sure folks will chime in with suggestions too. You'll be happiest growing plants that do well here (that applies to any climate of course, LOL), and there are TONS of leafy and non-leafy plants, plus citrus and all sorts of fun shrubs, vines and trees. Just remember that not everything here wants rich loamy soil. Most desert plants don't want a ton of organic materials in their soil, though things like roses, veggies etc do. There are a lot of great books for this area that will save you heartache, most are available at large local book stores, and all are available at the big online book sellers too, and again search the forum's archive to see various lists of books folks have suggested. Just off the top of my head here are a few: "Arizona Gardener's Guide" by formerly-local author Mary Irish "Desert Gardening" by George Brookbank. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, but the advice is great and really helps explains to gardeners how the soil, climate, watering and plants work here. "Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest" also by G. Brookbank. It's really great if you can get over the B&W photos. Good information that is timeless. "Plants For Dry Climates: How To Select, Grow, And Enjoy, Revised Edition" by Mary Rose Duffield "Native Plants for Southwestern Landscapes" by Judy Mielke. Don't let the "native" part discourage you--most of these plants are now very popular in the nursery trade (and can even be found at the Big Box hardware stores, plus local nurseries too). Great information on where these plants are found in nature, and how to keep them happy. If you're concerned about a plant's tolerance of our warm summers (and warm summer nights especially), check out "Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants That Thrive in Your Region's Warmest Weather." It's a fun, interesting book that helps us weed out plants that just won't make it here (and it highlights and confirms the many that thrive here). If you want a lot of fruits and veggies, "Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts" by David Owens is good, if a bit slapsticky at times. Good information though, especially for veggie growing. Those are just some quick thoughts, but spending just a little money and time on some or all of these books will give you tons of information and entertainment, and will get you get up for a wonderful Arizona garden. Plus being on this forum will be really helpful too, and fun! So many folks here have wonderful, wonderful gardens, and there's no substitute for hands-on experience from real gardeners of course. Just for fun, I'm putting a link to my little garden's pics from this month. All of my garden photo albums are viewable, so you can scroll through them to see what's blooming when (I organize them by month and year). So many great gardeners here will be willing to help out too. Oh,and we love pics too! :) Happy gardening! Grant Here is a link that might be useful: March 2012 garden pics

Wow. It is almost the end of August !! Time is really flying !! Thanks again for all the advice and for the seed offer. I would love to see your gardens someday and get very jealous... Hope you all had a great summer ! We are still stuck in the apartment and can not get the house yet since we still own our Florida house. With all the economy problems, we are just scared to make another purchase at this point. With all the real estate changes our Florida house really dropped in price and we can not sell it now without loosing a lot of money...Ah..hh. My garden had grown sooo much and we are not there to eat the goodies and trim the trees the "right" way. With all the tropical rain that Florida gets in the summer, my garden became a jungle... I am worried about the garden more then a house I guess...isn't that weird ? We have a nice lady renting it for now, but I wish I could just swap my house in Florida with a similar one here. Is that possible at all ? Did anybody hear anything like that being done ? Or is it just one of my silly dreams? Any of you gardeners want to relocate to Florida to my Eden garden and let me happily take over yours? :) I catch my self day dreaming more about my lush green garden there while it is so hot here in Arizona. I started to propagate my Chaya plants (perennial Spinach bush) that my friend sent me from my garden. So far it made tru the summer and got bigger. I will get another package of Chaya cuttings and Lemon grass suckling from Florida in the fall. If anybody wants to have a Chaya cutting, I might have some to spare. I can ask my friend to send extra if needed. It is a very rare and wonderful plant to have in the garden. It is also very delicious when cooked, very nutritional and healthy. It supposed to grow here very well because it is not picky at all. I looked at many nurseries here and could not find these plants, which were my favorite in the garden. Hope everybody's gardens made it well thru this very hot summer, which is not over yet as I understand. My patio garden is not happy at all and many plants burned. I can not really move my heavy boxes much and some of the plants got too much sun and decided that they did not want to live any more. I planted my favorite jujube from the seed and it is doing well. It is about 1 foot now and I have good hopes for it. It is a very tasty variety from my garden and I hope it will come true to the seed. We will see. I could not find any of the Indian jujubees here either. They are very hardy and can stand sun and poor soil and very fast growing. Talk to you later my fellow gardeners :)