I've been growing an heirloom variety, William Setchell, for 6 years and I've seen a fair few people growing them in the old part of Phoenix without care or fussyness. They have been in several locations having moved with me. Last year ('23) I suffered significant losses, the rizomes had all been covered by 1/2 to 1 inch of light soil, first time I had ever planted them that way. I pulled everything up I could save. Stored it for 2 months while I amended the soil, then plopped everything very haphazard back into the ground in early October. Then my aunt gave me a few of her Cayenne Capers plus a yellow offspring that appeared. I dropped those into the bed later October and left them uncovered per usual. Phx had December and January rains, I did not water. Low and behold the Cayenne Capers started blooming mid February with William Setchel about 8 days behind that and then week or so after that the yellow seedling from Cayenne Capers shot up and is still blooming plus I'm starting to see other plants showing spikes including some dwarf I haven't seen bloom since 2016. So my take; I'm not sold on covering the rhizomes completely. I think dappled midday shade is likely healthier for them. I've had them planted on every side of the house at this point but a midday sun break is helpful. They will get brown tips in summer. Mine did the best in loose compost and soil mixture with a weekly watering.
