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Bladderpod
Peritoma arborea
- Plant Form: Evergreen shrub
- Water Use: Very Low
- Mature Size: 4-6 feet tall & wide
- Exposure: Full Sun
- Bloom Time: Year-round; heaviest bloom Feb – June
- Native to: California (between 200 – 6,000 feet)
- Hardiness: Cold Hardy to 25°F
A resilient, low-water evergreen shrub, Bladderpod delights with cheerful yellow blooms throughout the year and distinctive balloon-shaped seedpods. Native to California’s deserts, this underused landscaping gem attracts hummingbirds and butterflies, making it an excellent choice for borders or filler plantings.
Bladderpod is a hardy, drought-tolerant, evergreen shrub with lacy gray-green leaves. This relative of capers produces showy, yellow flowers year-round with only occasional water. Bladderpod derives its name from its seed pods that are shaped like small balloons or inflated “bladders”, which enclose this plant’s pea-like fruit. This underappreciated native of both high and low deserts of California makes a great border or filler and is a magnet for hummingbirds and butterflies. The bright, all-season flowers more than make up for its odd-smelling leaves. Prefers well-draining soil. Avoid overwatering in summer, when it is normally dormant in the wild. Bladderpod is easily grown from seed sown directly in place.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for April
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Desert Marigold
Baileya multiradiata
- Plant Form: Perennial Flower
- Water Use: Very Low
- Mature Size: 18”- 20” tall & wide
- Exposure: Full Sun
- Bloom Time: Spring – Summer, Fall (April – July, and again in Oct. if summer rain occurs or if watered)
- Native to: All of Western US and Mexico at elevations below 6,000 feet
- Hardiness: Cold Hardy to 10°F
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This bright perennial flower is tougher than it looks; it blooms prolifically for many months, self-seeds, resists heat, requires little or no added water, and is surprisingly resistant to rabbits.
Desert Marigold is a cheery, fast-growing but short-lived perennial with bright yellow flowers from spring through fall. At lower elevations, this wildflower may bloom continuously, and can flower anytime in mild winters. Flowers are held on slender stems high above the white-wooly leaves on the lower half of the stems and in a basal rosette. This low, mounded plant can tolerate heat, cold, full or reflected sun, and drought–but not overwatering, which causes root rot. This plant brightens up borders, rock and cactus gardens, masonry walls, and any garden space with good drainage and no organic mulch. While it is short-lived, it does reseed easily (seeds are best gathered in fall and spread for planting). Desert Marigold requires no pampering other than removing old flower heads, but it loves a rock as a life partner.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for March
Firecracker Penstemon
Eaton’s Firecracker
Scarlet Bugler
Penstemon eatonii
- Plant Form: Evergreen perennial
- Water Use: Low
- Mature Size: 2 ft. tall & wide (flower stalks 2-4′ tall)
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Late Winter – Spring (Feb – June)
- Native to: S. California, Colorado, Utah, Arizona (between 3000 – 9500 feet)
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 0°F
Firecracker Penstemon is a hummingbird magnet that is also prized by gardeners for its brilliant, abundant flowers, and ease in maintenance.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for February
Desert Agave
Agave deserti
- Plant Form: Succulent
- Water Use: Very low
- Mature Size: 2-3 ft. tall x 2-6 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (May); Summer (June-July)
- Native to: California, Arizona, Baja California
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 15°F
This sculptural beauty has been a giving plant for the ages…past and present. In years past, its flower stalks and hearts were roasted for food, and its leaves pounded for fiber. Today it is prized for its dramatic form and color in the garden. Desert Agave presents a changing display of brilliant to muted to shadowed green hues as the sun moves across it each day.
Desert Agave forms symmetrical rosettes of fleshy leaves in this slow-growing monocot. Stiff, sword-like, blue-green leaves are edged with prickles, and tipped with a sharp spine. After 8-20 years, a flowering stalk shoots up, growing 5-15 feet tall in just weeks, with a candelabra-type stalk of yellow flowers. The rosette dies after flowering and setting fruit, but new rosettes usually grow around its edges. Desert Agave attracts birds, but repels rabbits and deer. Native Americans prized this plant for food and fiber. Hearts of the agave were baked in fire pits for a sweet staple, as were the young flower stalks. Fibers extracted by pounding the leaves were made into strong ropes, nets, bowstrings, sandals, mats, brushes, women’s skirts and ceremonial costumes. Give this long-lived succulent room to grow over time, and plant away from walkways or other high-traffic areas to avoid its sharp spines. This easy-care agave is beautiful as an accent, in mass plantings, rock gardens, medians, and on slopes, and is also great in containers.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for January
Aleppo Pine
Pinus halepensis
- Plant Form: Evergreen Tree
- Water Use: Very low
- Mature Size: 20-60 ft. tall x 30-40 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (Apr-May); Fruit/Cones: Fall (Sept-Nov), Winter (Dec-Feb)
- Native to: Mediterranean Region
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 10°F
Aleppo pine is a two-needle pine native to the Mediterranean region, so it is familiar with the challenges that our Southern California climate presents. This drought-tolerant, low maintenance evergreen tree has a spreading, irregular canopy, and may grow multiple trunks in age.
Aleppo Pine is a drought-tolerant, two-needle pine that is often sold in California as a living Christmas tree. It tolerates and even thrives in extreme temperatures, drought, high heat, frost, severe wind, and poor soil because it is native to arid regions around the Mediterranean Sea with climates similar to ours. Both male and female cones grow on the same tree; small, short-lived male cones produce copious amounts of pollen in spring, when the new female cones are receptive to wind-borne pollination. The much larger female cones develop through fall and winter, growing either singly or in whorls, changing from green to brown as they mature. When young, growth is symmetrical with upright branching from a single trunk. As it matures, the crown becomes more open, and the tree often develops multiple trunks. These resilient pines can live up to 150 years or more under ideal conditions. They are low maintenance, requiring watering only their first few years until established; after that, occasional deep water at their drip line (outer edge of their branches) is enough to protect them from any dieback from strong winds. Suited to large residential gardens, parks, and commercial plantings, looking at home with other traditional Mediterranean landscape plants.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for December
Moroccan Mound
Euphorbia resinifera
- Plant Form: Succulent
- Water Use: Very low
- Mature Size: 1-2 ft. tall x 3-5 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun, part sun
- Bloom Time: Winter (Feb), Spring (Mar-May)
- Native to: Morocco, Canary Islands
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 20°F
This unique succulent is as easy to maintain as they come. It resists deer, rabbits, pests, and diseases, and needs little to no irrigation most of the year. Moroccan Mound adds carefree interest in any sunny location with well-draining soil, in the ground or in pots.
Moroccan Mound’s defense adaptations against herbivores are what adds to this plant’s striking appearance. Its four-sided stems are covered in dense clusters of spines that vary in color from black to reddish-brown to yellow. Although it looks like a cactus, this slow-growing succulent is in the spurge family, and forms a low-growing, compact mound of thick, cylindrical stems that is well-suited to desert conditions. Its other name, Resin Spurge, refers to the white, milky sap known as latex that is exuded from the stems if they are cut or damaged, which can be irritating to the eyes and skin, and is poisonous if ingested. Small yellow blooms appear along its stem margins in spring. This intriguing plant thrives in well-draining soil in full-sun exposure, and needs little or no additional water most of the year. Once established, it is self-sufficient. This effortless plant is resistant to pests and diseases, and is deer and rabbit resistant. Moroccan Mound is used in borders, flower beds, dry shade, rock gardens, Mediterranean gardens, by patios and pools, and in containers.
