More Waterwise Landscaping

Gardening Tips for May

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to give a gift of a living plant. Gardenias, hydrangeas, hanging fuchsias, and ivy geraniums are sure to please her. Gladiolus make wonderful cut flowers throughout the summer. Plant some every two weeks for continuous blooms.

• Hang codling moth traps in apple trees to reduce the number of wormy apples in your harvest this year. Be sure to use a fresh pheromone (attractant).
• Feed roses to encourage a beautiful display of color later this month. Treat plants to prevent insect and disease problems.
• Plant an herb garden in a container near the kitchen door for convenient fresh spices like basil, oregano, parsley, and thyme.

Waterwise Landscaping

Water-efficient landscaping includes grouping plants together with similar water requirements, watering just to meet the plant needs, and using decks and patios to enhance your enjoyment of the yard. Water zone 2 is made up of plants that can survive on watering twice a month. Of course, they need to get established before they can handle such infrequent watering.

Large Shrubs

• Common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris): Hybrids come in many different colors and shrubs generally grow to be about 12 feet tall. Their fragrant spring flowers are a delight.
• Forsythia: A spring-blooming shrub with bright yellow flowers, very durable, and announces "It’s Spring" each February when it blooms.

Medium-Sized Shrubs

• Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea’): A thorny, purple-leaved shrub that grows 4-6 feet tall and makes an excellent hedge.
• Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles japonica): Well-known for its red flowers that are among the first to bloom in the spring. It is also thorny and a very dependable shrub.

Low-Growing Shrubs & Groundcovers

• Arctostaphylos uva-ursi: An attractive native groundcover, a low-growing type of manzanita that spreads quickly and always looks good.
• Bearberry Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster dammeri and Cotoneaster horizontalis): Evergreen groundcovers that grow only 1 foot tall and spread 8-10 feet wide. They are good-looking year-round and have red berries in the fall and winter.
• Snow in Summer (Cerastium tomentosum): A grey-leafed plant that grows about 6-8 inches tall. The showy white flowers that appear in spring and summer give it its name.

Perennials for Color

• Blanket Flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora ‘Arizona Sun’): A showy perennial with large, red and yellow daisy flowers that blooms much of the summer.
• Daylilies (Hemerocallis varieties): Have attractive trumpet-flowers that come in many colors. They make a large clump and are always attractive.
• Penstemon: Many varieties can live on occasional watering. Showy varieties include purple Midnight and red Firebird, but the native Penstemon heterophyllus has lovely sky-blue flowers.
• Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys): An excellent perennial groundcover. It grows about a foot tall and covers itself with rosy-pink flowers in early summer.
• Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldstrum’): Comes into full bloom in late summer with bright, golden-yellow daisy flowers. It is a tough perennial that spreads willingly.

Your waterwise garden need not be without color! Choose some of these attractive and hardy plants to brighten your landscape.