Tag Archive for: desert Southwest

10 Shrubs for Full Sun and Reflected Heat

10 Drought-Tolerant Shrubs That Thrive in Full Sun and Reflected Heat in the Southwest

One of the most challenging situations in landscaping involves cultivating plants in areas exposed to both full sun and the unforgiving embrace of reflected heat. Reflected heat is the result of surfaces like sidewalks, walls, and patio decks absorbing daytime warmth only to radiate it back out later.

It’s easy to understand that the combination of intense sunlight and reflected heat can make it a daunting task to find plants that not only survive but also enhance these areas with their beauty.

Fortunately, there’s a selection of attractive plants ready to thrive in these sun-soaked and heat-kissed spaces.

flowering_pink_fairy_duster_Calliandra_eriophylla

1. Pink Fairy Duster (Calliandra eriophylla)

Native to the desert Southwest and northern Mexico, Pink Fairy Duster boasts airy foliage that transforms in spring with pink, feather duster-like flowers. These blossoms not only please the eye but also attract hummingbirds. While it can survive on natural rainfall, deep watering once a month in spring and fall and twice a month in summer enhances its appearance and flower production.

2. Feathery Cassia (Senna artemisioides, formerly Cassia artemisioides)

Hailing from the arid regions of Australia, Feathery Cassia presents fragrant yellow flowers against finely textured gray-green leaves in late winter and early spring. Its foliage adds a gentle green contrast to the landscape when not in bloom. The plant’s resilience to reflected sun and light shade makes it a versatile choice.

Chuparosa (Justicia californica)

3. Beloperone (Justicia californica)

A native of the Sonoran Desert, Beloperone or Chuparosa, graces your landscape with red trumpet-shaped flowers in winter. Its bright green heart-shaped foliage offers a visually refreshing element to your garden, although it may be absent during drought periods. Beloperone is a favorite of hummingbirds, providing them with nectar during lean blooming times.

Little Leaf Cordia

4. Little-Leaf Cordia (Cordia parvifolia)

Native to the Mexican desert regions, including Baja, Chihuahua, and Sonora, Little-Leaf Cordia offers papery white flowers that complement other colors in your landscape. Despite its delicate appearance, this shrub is robust and can withstand heat, sun, and drought, making it an excellent choice for low-maintenance gardens.

Texas Ranger Leucophyllum frutescens

5. Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum frutescens)

Commonly known as the barometer bush, Texas Ranger bursts into purple blooms during periods of increased humidity following rain. Its gray foliage, covered with tiny hairs, reflects sunlight and has a velvety texture. Texas Ranger’s beauty shines when it’s allowed to grow naturally rather than being pruned into formal shapes.

Jojoba green plant with fruits on a farm

6. Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis)

Jojoba, native to desert regions in Arizona, California, Baja, and Sonora, stands out for its evergreen foliage. The leaves are covered in a waxy coating that helps it withstand heat and reflected sunlight. Its vertically arranged leaves protect it from direct sun exposure, making it a hardy and versatile choice.

yellow bird of paradise

7. Yellow Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii)

Native to South America, primarily Argentina and Uruguay, Yellow Bird-of-Paradise offers finely textured foliage and large yellow flowers with red stamens, adding color to sunny garden areas. It thrives in hot temperatures and can withstand both extreme heat and occasional frost.

bougainvillea in container

8. Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spp.)

Bougainvillea graces your garden with vibrant colors during spring, with bracts surrounding tiny cream flowers. Its lush green foliage conceals thorns and thrives in areas with full sun and reflected heat. Proper irrigation includes deep watering followed by drying out before the next watering. These shrubs do great in containers as well.

gold lantana

9. ‘New Gold’ Lantana (Lantana ‘New Gold’)

Butterflies are attracted to ‘New Gold’ Lantana’s golden yellow flowers, covering bright green foliage from spring through fall. With its low growth habit, this shrub adds color to your garden’s lower sections. While typically grown in zones 9 to 11, it can survive winters down to Zone 8.

Natal Plum

10. Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa)

With dark green leaves, Natal Plum offers an alternative to boxwood in intensely sunny locations. It produces white star-shaped flowers with a jasmine and orange blossom fragrance in spring. This South African native comes in various sizes, making it suitable for different sunny areas. Note that the sap of Natal Plum can irritate the skin, and the plant has thorns.

The above 10 shrubs are fantastic examples of plants that can handle full sun as well as reflected warmth. All the shrubs need consistent irrigation, but strong drainage.

Do you have a plant that you like that does well in full, reflected sun?

**For additional shrub suggestions, I recommend Mary Irish’s book, Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest.

A Dime Store Magnifying Glass and a Whole Miniature World at Your Doorstep





 

Got Frost-Damaged Plants? How and When to Prune…

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Do you enjoy winter?

I do. Surprisingly, the desert Southwest has definite seasons and winters can get cold with temps dipping into the 20s.

Frost-damaged natal plum

Photo: Frost-damaged natal plum

Unfortunately, the cold temperatures can wreak havoc on our frost-tender plants such as bougainvillea, lantana, and yellow bells – to name a few.

Let’s face it, no one likes the sight of brown, crispy, frost-damaged plants in the landscape – including me.  Often, my first impulse is to prune off the ugly growth – but, I have to remind myself that I can actually do more damage by pruning too early.

Learn what plants are most commonly affected by frost damage, when to prune, and how in my latest article for Houzz.com

I hope your week is off to a great start!

 

A Birdhouse With Unusual Purpose

Do you have a birdhouse in your garden?  Is it decorative or do have there ever been birds taking up residence inside?

This is a story about the birdhouses on the family farm, including one that has an unusual function.

Double S Farms is five minutes down the road from our house and is where my youngest sister and her family live along with my mother.

Double S Farms

I am over at the farm at least once a week – usually for the weekly dinner that my mother cooks for our entire clan.  It is a special time when I get to spend time with my siblings, their spouses and kids.  We get to catch up with each other’s lives and get to enjoy delicious food, cooked by my mother, Pastor Farmer.

(My mother is a retired pastor who loves growing food on their small farm).

Double S Farms

The backyard is dotted with numerous trees including apple, kumquat, almond, pecan, peach, apricto, plum, orange, lemon and grapefruit.  But, I always seem to find myself strolling by my mother’s raised vegetable beds to see what she is growing.

This past week, she was excited to show me her newest birdhouse.

Now, my mother has is a collector and has passed that gene along to her oldest daughter (me).  One of her collections consists of birdhouses.  Over the years, she has pared this collection of aviary homes down.  But there is still a small collection of birdhouses in her garden…

Birdhouse

I love this birdhouse, which is purely decorative.  But, the chickens seem to find it a nice perch back when it stood in the chicken yard…

Birdhouse

Now it sits with in the fenced-in vegetable garden area.

Double S Farms

The gardens are now fenced in because the netting was not enough to keep the chickens out – including ‘Francie’ my sister’s naked-neck chicken (yes, her neck is supposed to be featherless).

Birdhouse

If you look closely behind the first birdhouse, you will see one that looks like the ‘Tin Man’s head’ from the Wizard of Oz. 

Double S Farms

Like the other birdhouse, it is also decorative.  I remember being with her when she bought it at a roadside nursery just outside of Carmel, Indiana during our Midwest road trip.

There are many nesting sites around Double S Farms and the birdhouse below, is one of them.

birdhouse hangs

This birdhouse hangs from the Mesquite tree.  It is made from a gourd that I grew, dried and then made into a birdhouse for her.  I love this gourd birdhouse and have one in my own garden.

Well, now to the unusual birdhouse…

birdhouse

It doesn’t look all that unusual at first glance.

But, what this birdhouse is hiding is not a nest, but my mother’s hand tools that she uses for her vegetable garden.

They are easily accessible and are always on hand when she needs to harvest vegetables, remove weeds, etc.

She came up with this idea herself and just loves it.  The birdhouse was bought at our local Ace Hardware store and the top lifts up, making it easy to access her tools.

What types of birdhouses do you have in your garden?  

Are they decorative or have you had birds set up house in any of them?

Experimenting in the Vegetable Garden

The past two weekends have been busy ones in my household, or should I say, gardens.

The beginning of October signals great planting weather for all types of plants and vegetables.  As a result, I have been busy planting cool season vegetables in my edible gardens as well as sprucing up my container plantings.

Introducing my granddaughter to the wonders of plants at our local nursery.

Introducing my granddaughter to the wonders of plants at our local nursery.

The past two weekends involved visits to the nursery to peruse the vegetables as well as a few other types of plants.

It is very hard for this horticulturist to NOT get carried away with buying plants.  I try very hard to stick to my list of plants but I often fail and come home with another plant or two. 

cool-season vegetables

In addition to my regular cool-season vegetables, I decided to introduce four other vegetables this year… 

My edible gardens

My edible gardens

Kale (I may try making Kale ‘chips’ and also using the younger leaves in salads).

Swiss chard

Swiss chard (I plan to use the young leaves in salads).

Artichoke

Artichoke(I’m not sure if I will harvest the artichokes or let them continue to grow, since artichokes make great ornamental plants too).

The last vegetable I will be trying this year is celery.  Now, celery is said to be fussy and hard to grow in the Phoenix area.  But, part of the fun of gardening is experimenting.  So, I bought 2 celery transplants, just to see what will happen.

Of course, I have many other types of vegetables in the garden.  Most have been planted, but I still have some still to plant.

Later this week, I will show you what else I have planted in the garden.

Do you grow vegetables?  If not, it is easy to do and you don’t even need a plot of land.  You can grow vegetables in pots if you like.

**Last week, I took you along on my shopping trip to the produce section of my local supermarket in my quest to create a natural, fall centerpiece.  I promise to show you what I came home with and what I created with vegetables and fruit in my next post.