A Walk in the Garden – March GBBD

As you read this, I am on my way home from a visit to “The Refuge”.  I love visiting my sister and her family and will have lots to post about in the coming days….

In preparation for March’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, I took a walk out into my front garden.  I had a good idea of what was flowering, but also met up with a few surprises along the way.

Red Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) reaches it’s peak blooming period in my garden during the month of May.  The bees are busy and the blooms are beautiful.

Another of my Globe Mallow shrubs, but this one produces delicate white flowers.

And last, my Pink Globe Mallow.  If it wasn’t obvious before, this is one of my favorite shrubs in the garden.  Beautiful flowers, drought tolerant, low maintenance….what’s not to love?

A single flower from my Valentine shrub (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’).  Still blooming, although blooming will start to slow and will end sometime in April.

Numerous yellow blooms from my Desert Senna (Senna artemisiodies sturtii) reach towards the sky.  I can view these shrubs from my kitchen window.

Plumes of flowers from my Firecracker Penstemon, (Penstemon eatonii), act as focal points in the front garden during both winter and spring.

Goodding’s Verbena, (Glandularia gooddingii), is now covered in lavender blooms.

**I had planted a couple of these perennials in the garden over ten years ago and did not replace them when they died off 3 years later (Verbena are short-lived perennials).  Six years later, we had a very wet rainy season and guess what?  Some old seedlings from the original plants began to come up.  The Verbena above is one of the ‘babies’ from the original plants.  While I was out today taking pictures, I noticed two more ‘babies’ coming up.  I am so happy!

People either love or hate Bougainvillea.  I happen to like them, except for when it comes time to prune them.  They are beautiful and drought-tolerant.  One of my Bougainvillea was protected by a tree from frost and is now producing flowers earlier then those that were unprotected.

As I was walking through the garden, I noticed a flash of color from my Radiation Lantana, (Lantana camara ‘Radiation’).  I was not expecting any blooms yet, but soon my Lantana will be covered with brightly colored flowers.

I hope you have enjoyed this ‘walk’ through my garden.  Please visit May Dream’s Gardens to view other bloggers and their gardens who also participate in Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."