Arizona Herb Association

06/09/2026

Excellent summer pollinator plant for Low Desert gardeners. 👇🏼Here is a detailed comparison from Spadefoot Nursery in Tucson, so you do not get mixed up with nasty Puncture Vine and accidentally pull out your Arizona Kaltrops Poppy (Az Summer Poppy). Seeds for this native poppy germinate June-July, and bloom into late fall.
Seed is at some local nurseries or online from Native Seeds/SEARCH one of our Arizona heirloom seed companies.👇🏼👇🏼-mike

https://www.nativeseeds.org/products/wf003?variant=40717798047898

06/05/2026

Fun June meeting tonight as Drew taught us about growing & using and we snacked on Lemongrass Tea and tasty snacks with Lemongrass ingredients.
After a break to shop for & and other plants & gardening books, we settled in for our main speaker.
Maureen with the Maricopa County Master Gardeners taught us about product labels to watch for as we shop local nurseries and garden centers for seeds, plants, soil amendments and other gardening products. Maureen cut right through the mysteries & confusion over different products.

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND our September meeting as our guest. Meet new & fun plant people, share tasty snacks and learn about growing herbs & pollinator plants in our unique climate, soils and water.-mike
(See Notes On Pics Below)

05/27/2026

🌿 Join the Herbies for our June meeting! 🌿

Have you ever stood in the garden center staring at bags of soil, amendments, fertilizers, seed packets, and “plant helper” products wondering what is actually worth buying?

Our June speaker will help us sort through the hype.

Smart Shopping at the Garden Center
📅 Thursday, June 4
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 UofA Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Office
4341 E Broadway Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85040

We’ll learn what to buy — and what to skip — when it comes to soils and potting mixes, common amendments, and popular garden products. The presentation will also include practical tips for choosing seeds, reading labels, understanding organic claims, and setting your plants up for success in the low desert.

Since early June is also the perfect time to think seriously about summer protection, we’ll also touch on choosing proper shade cloth for Phoenix gardens.

Bring your questions — and bring your most confusing product label!

This is a great meeting for new gardeners, experienced gardeners, and anyone who has ever wondered whether that expensive bag, bottle, or box at the nursery is really worth it.

Guests are welcome. Come learn with us!

05/22/2026

Upcoming great event for Arizona Herbalists😁 Flagstaff June 13th, perfect time to visit the mountains. Click below for details and to register before space runs out👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

https://www.willowbendcenter.org/events/herbfest

05/20/2026

today to celebrate the diversity of the Earth’s 20,000+ bee species, and the critical role they play in our environment. Arizona is blessed with 1,300+ species of native bees, almost 30% of the bees native to North America. It’s not all about our friends the honeybees & the work they do. So we challenge you to learn more about the different native bees in your own neighborhood and what you can do around your home & garden to help these critical endangered species.-mike

05/16/2026

Solid Arizona based information on Milkweeds, from local experts.
-mike

We want to share a note on tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). Many of you have read things online about how this plant isn’t good for monarchs and are wary of this species. We’re here to tell you, you should be careful, but not for the reasons you read about online. You may have read that it keeps monarchs from migrating south. This is true in the north where all their native milkweeds are deciduous and them going dormant is a sign for the monarch to move on. But we live in a subtropical region near Mexico, and we have several native evergreen species. Monarchs are here in winter, even if they sometimes go into a sort of sleep for a few colder days. You might have heard of the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) a protozoan that causes them problems. It’s not as much an issue in our region, because OE prefers wet climates, which we are not.
Tropical milkweed is a near native for us (it can be found near Hermosillo, Sonora). It is a favorite of our monarchs and queens. But you SHOULD be careful where you source them. As far as we know, we are the only nursery in Arizona to completely abstain from pesticides. Many tropical milkweeds found in the market come from giant greenhouse growers that use a lot of pesticides and don’t tolerate aphids. It’s unfortunate because when you walk into a nursery you expect they would feel the same. But most nurseries care more about the sellability of a plant. They want perfect looking plants with no “bugs”. Our milkweeds often have bugs. We allow our plants to look dormant or have aphids. And we are trying to get you to also change your expectations of how a healthy plant should look. Hint: plants that look perfect in the market will probably not look that way when you take them home. Because that plant was made to sell, not succeed. We make plants that are locally grown, without pesticides, and not in a greenhouse, but outside where you’ll also be putting your plants.
We have a total of 8 species of clean-grown Asclepias right now.

05/11/2026

PLANTING FOR POLLINATORS🦋🐝🌸🌹🌺🌻Online Class. Sign Up Now. Thursday May 21, 2026. Knowledgeable local presenter.
DETAILS BELOW👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FKpBpPr6D/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/02/2026

At today's W**d and Feed and Lost and Found Event, May 2, 2026; a dedicated crew of volunteers turned out. The garden looks all the better for their efforts. Join us Thursday, May 7th at 7:00 p.m. at the Maricopa County Extension office, for "Herb of Year: Turmeric" presented by Master Gardener, Mike Hills. Come early and tour the herb demonstration garden.

04/29/2026

Herbie and Maricopa County Master Gardeners Pam shares some good tips on a great tasty summer green for Low Desert gardeners. I’ve eaten them raw/fresh and cooked - Tastes like spinach-mike

04/24/2026