This woman fell in love with the Sonoran Desert. She wrote a wellness guide on its plants

Rosie Crocker grew up in the Phoenix area surrounded by mostly concrete, as she remembers it. It wasn’t until she moved to Tucson that she started to notice, explore and love the Sonoran Desert — and all of the plants that grow in it.

Today, she goes by Sonoran Rosie. She owns a little shop called Arizona Poppy in downtown Tucson, showcasing local makers and now, she’s out with a new book called "Seasons of the Desert: The Wellness Wisdom of Southwestern Native Plants."

It’s a season-by-season guide to desert herbs and plants — and all of the ways you can put them to use. The Show spoke with her more about it — and the very first desert plant that captured her attention — what else? Creosote.

Full conversation

ROSIE CROCKER: I wanted to kind of capture that scent and be able to like wear it. And I also knew it was very healing for the skin. So I, the first couple things I made was like a desert rain botanical spray. So that's like a body and room spray and then our creosote and rosemary cream.

So those were the first two. And then I just made them for myself and then shared them with friends and they liked them. And then I was working at a restaurant at the time and all the customers started asking me for them. And then it just kind of went from there.

LAUREN GILGER: Creosote definitely would be a logical entree into this, right? Because everyone wonders what that smell is of desert rain, and it's the creosote that kind of opens up after the rain comes down, right?

CROCKER: Yes. It's prolific all over the desert. And it has super resinous oils. It's really sticky, especially after it rains. So that's why that scent is so strong throughout the desert.

GILGER: Yeah. So I mean, that's a leap, though, to sort of want to know more about what that smell is, to actually capturing it and making it into something we can wear. I love that idea. I want it. But how did you do that? How did you learn about these plants and the herbal aspects of this? It takes a lot of study, I would imagine.

CROCKER: Yeah, I did a lot of my own study, and then I learned from a local herbalist all the basics about using different plants, and then I just applied that knowledge to desert plants that were similar, if that makes any sense.

GILGER: So let's talk about the book itself. I mean, kind of putting these all into a catalog of sorts is a great idea, but where did the inspiration come for this?

CROCKER: So in the desert, the seasons are very unique. There's different plants that come up during different times of the year. I remember when I was first learning about desert plants, I would have like an identification book, but I would have trouble identifying because each season is so different.

So what I wanted to do was put the blooming and fruiting plants separated by each season so that when people go and are looking to identify them, they have an easier time being able to. And I put mostly the main plants and the ones that I think are the most prolific and also easily identifiable.

GILGER: Right. So you're separating 75, more than 75 plants here by season. Talk a little bit about the different kind of way that the seasons play out in the Sonoran Desert. I know there's a joke about the valley only having a couple of seasons hot and hotter, but it's not quite like that, right?

CROCKER: No, the Phoenix area is a little different than Tucson because it's a little drier. But in Tucson especially, we have distinct seasons, although, they're a little different in the timeframes. Like just for example, the springtime comes a little earlier than the spring equinox. So I would say like February is more of our springtime when it starts.

The summertime has two separate little micro seasons within it. So we have like the beginning of the summer that's super dry and hot, and then the later part where the monsoons come in and replenish everything, and then tons of different plants start sprouting up. And the winter time is, or autumn and winter are more like dormant, but that's where you can find like your main plants that are staples of the desert that you see year round.

And then in the late winter is when all the wildflowers start sprouting up because they usually get a lot of winter rain. So for the years that we do get winter rain, then we'll see that. Just like this last year, we have gotten a lot of winter rain. So there should be a good amount of wildflowers here, or actually already are, but there will be, especially in the next month or two.

GILGER: Yeah, different seasons for sure, and the rain is such a part of that. OK, so let's talk about some of the other plants in the book that stand out to you. You mentioned creosote. There's prickly pear in here, desert willow, wolfberry. Some of these things I had heard of, some I hadn't. What stands out to you?

CROCKER: I have been more acquainted recently in the last year or two with desert lavender. mostly because I've been hiking mountains a lot more and you'll find more desert lavender, more slightly higher desert elevation. So like it's still in the desert, but it loves rocky mountains. So I've been seeing way more of it and it just has the most awesome scent. And it works just like other lavenders where it's an antibacterial, antifungal, calming, that kind of thing.

GILGER: Yeah. So one of the things that strikes me in looking through this book is, like, the colors. It's so bright, which is so counterintuitive to, I think, what people think about what the desert is, right? But the Sonoran Desert is the wettest on Earth, right? And I'm sure you're trying to reflect that. Like, the colors of the desert can be super vibrant?

CROCKER: Yes, for sure. I think that is what I love about blooming and fruiting plants. Like I've just always been so drawn to that. And there's actually scientific evidence that shows that humans are drawn to flowers and it makes us happy and joyful. So when I made the book, I wanted to highlight the colors and the vibrancy of the desert.

GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you about the way in which the desert is changing, though, and climate change in this world, you know, it's getting hotter, and we're seeing, you know, the saguaro cactus, which is so iconic to the Sonoran Desert, have trouble surviving. We're seeing, you know, the warmest winter on record so far in Arizona this year. I mean, are you worried about the survival of some of these plants in the future?

CROCKER: Yeah, I definitely am worried about it. Just in the last 10 years, yeah, I've seen such a drastic change in the amount of rain that we get during the summer, the amount of rain we get in the winter. It's just definitely drier and hotter.

And yeah, this last winter, I didn't feel like winter at any point to me, so. But I think that the cool thing about desert seeds, desert plant seeds, is that they can last for up to 10 years. So in the ground, they can be there for a long time and they'll wait for the right environment to come up. So I think that gives us a little, but 10 years is not too long in the large scheme of things, but if this climate struggle doesn't last too long, then they should be OK.

GILGER: Yeah. So what kind of reaction do you get from folks, Rosie? I wonder, like, do people you think crave this kind of connection to the landscape around them and probably often don't know that much about it?

CROCKER: Yeah, definitely. I think I hear that all the time from people that come up to me to talk to me about how they've built a stronger connection to the desert. Yeah, I think that it's super important for us to connect to the land that we live on so that we have an idea of of what goes on around us, how the climate works, so that we can recreate that in our own yards, and just to have an idea of the environment in general, but also for our own mental well-being.

I can't not be outside at least once or twice a week so that I feel calm and relaxed. It's so unnatural the way that we live in our society today that I think that we have to be able to spend time out in nature. And the more we know about it, the more exciting it is.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to an editing error, the story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosie Crocker's name.