[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Chris Trask]

>
> Could you please tell me what plants do well in the southwest desert area
year round?
>
> Thank you,
> Shelly Moser
>

    I can think of a number of native plants that do well year round, such
as:

SHRUBS

    Hopbush
    Wolfberry
    Desert Sumac
    Yellow Bells
    Desert Honeysuckle
    Sugar Bush
    Jojoba
    White Thorn Acacia
    Rosemary Babybonnets
    Woolly Butterfly Bush
    Burro Fat
    Mormon Tea
    Desert Rose Mallow
    Superstition Mallow

TREES

    Desert Willow
    Desert Hackberry
    Velvet Mesquite
    Western Soapberry
    Yellow Palo Verde
    Blue Palo Verde
    Museum Palo Verde
    Ironwood

SUB-SHRUBS

    Turpentine Bush
    Fairy Duster
    Paperbag Bush
    White Ball Acacia
    Globe Mallow
    Arizona Bluestar
    Brittlebush
    Green Brittlebush
    Goldeneye

PERENNIAL BUNCH GRASSES

    Big Sacaton
    Alkalai Sacaton
    Arizona Cottontop
    Big Galletta
    Purple Threeawn
    Sand Dropseed
    Cane Beargrass
    Green Sprangletop
    Sideoats Grama
    Blue Grama

    Next time you go to a nursery, see if you can pick up a copy of the FREE
booklet "Landscape Plants for the Arizona Desert".  You will undoubtedly be
able to find a copy at the fall plant sales at the Desert Botanical Garden
(Phoenix) or T'Ohono Chul (Tucson), as well as Desert Survivors (Tucson),
Treeland (Mesa), and Shady Way Garden (Apache Junction) nurseries, which are
also the best places to look for native landscaping plants.  It's probably
the best plant selection guide available for the lower desert areas.


Chris Trask
Outings Leader, Sierra Club (1981-1991)
Palo Verde Group Outings Chair, Sierra Club (1985-1988)
Grand Canyon Chapter Outings Chair, Sierra Club (1988-1991)
Member, Arizona Native Plant Society
Member, Arizona Governor's Advisory Council on Invasive Species (2005-2006)
Member, Arizona Riparian Council
Member, Central Arizona Weed Management Area

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/wildflowers.html

     We cannot command nature except by obeying her.

                                 - Sir Francis Bacon