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HI, I am going to be starting a vegetable garden soon but there are some patches in my backyard that I've always wanted to fill. I live in Southern California in the desert and it gets reaally hot in the summer up to 110 degrees. I was wondering what flowers or other plants (not vegetables) can withstand this kind of heat that last for a while. It also gets very cold in the winter. It can get into the low 30's. Thanks!

-Amy

Key to your success will be growing plants that belong in the desert and are adapted to it. I grew up in Southern California and too many people were trying to grow the same plants they grew up with somewhere else, which requires constant watering and babying. Water is a precious resource, especially where you are (where I am now it just falls out of the sky frequently in the summer! ).

So a few suggestions of plants that will like your hot weather and not need much water (once established, everything needs a little help getting started) : Bird of paradise has gorgeous, sunset colored flowers, rosemary is a nice herb, with a wonderful scent, comes in ground-cover or upright forms, ocotillo grows very tall and slender with bright red "flowers" at the tops, is very striking in the landscape. Yuccas, agaves, cactus are other traditional desert landscape plants.

Look up xeriscaping - ie. dry gardening. Other perennial flowers for xeriscaping include: gaillardia (blanket flower), lavender, salvia, penstemon, yarrow, anise hyssop.

Thank you so much! That helped a lot!

Hi Amy,
I live in the desert also. For me the biggest problem has been the soil..or should I say sand and the fact that we almost skip spring and go right to summer.
I've found that starting or transplanting anything is best when it's still cool and add mulch frequently, as sand has no nutrients.
Bulbs do well here and you don't have to dig them up so I do a lot of bulbs mixed with annuals. Daylillies also do well here.

My favorite plant has become the purple salvia. Here in Idaho you can get them as an annual, but where you are they might overwinter. I did have luck growing them from seed also. They bloom from summer till frost and are a form of sage I think. I have a problem with deer and bugs and they don't seem to be bothered by either one. Good luck!