Plant Spotlight Review for Spring

The Feathered Desert Podcast

Summary: When we started our podcast, we always did a native plant spotlight at the end of each episode. We’ve compiled some of our favorites here so you can get those natives planted and attracting birds and butterflies to your yard!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Plant Sale Info: https://btarboretum.org

www.gardenia.net/plant/calliadras-california-baja-fairy-duster

Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest by Marcy Scott

Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [e-mail]

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (bird calls and songs play)

Cheryl Into: when Kiersten and I first started to do these podcasts, we included a plant spotlight at the end. Now that spring is on the horizon here in the Phoenix area, I thought we would highlight some of our favorite and most successful native plants to attract birds and butterflies.

Kiersten: Perennials Hummingbirds love.

Firecracker Penstemon: This is a showy plant with blossoms of fiery red (a color hummingbirds see very well) tubular flowers. This plant is an important nectar source for hummingbirds nesting and migrating though your yard. For much of the year it is a tidy evergreen until the stems start to grow and the blossoms appear. it requires excellent drainage, full sun, and it heat tolerant.

Chluparosa – Is a semi-evergreen shrub with long -blooming tubular flowers in various shades of soft red. Not only is this plant an extremely important source of nectar for hummingbirds but it is known to attract orioles, warblers, goldfinches, house finches and White-crowned sparrows. It is also the host plant for the larva of the checkered spot butterfly.

Mexican Honeysuckle- Is a handsome hummingbird plant that is a real workhorse, cranking out blooms most of the year. Red-orange tubular flowers with a distinctive three-lobed lower lips, are extremely valuable for wintering hummingbirds. It has a graceful upward spreading form and bright green heart-shaped leaves. It is a Sonoran Desert native found in sandy washes and rocky canyons bottoms at lower elevations 1,500-3,500 feet. It is fast growing and likes well-drained fertile soil part to filtered sun depending on the elevations.

Cheryl: Now let’s highlight two trees that hummingbirds love.

Baja Fairy duster-This is one of my personal favorites, the fairy duster is an evergreen woody shrub/tree with bright red, powder puff flowers. Blooming year-around with a peak display from spring through fall, the long-lasting and attractive blooms are highly attractive to birds such as verdins, and warblers, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies too. It is extremely heat tolerant once established, needs well-drained soil, and its water demands are low. It is virtually pest-free and disease free. Pruning is generally unnecessary.

Desert willow-this graceful tree both perching sites and nectar flowers for hummingbirds. It has ruffled orchid-like, pale pink to rich burgundy flowers that peak in springtime but often continue throughout the summer. This lovely tree is visited by hummingbirds and lesser goldfinches. Lesser goldfinches feed on the fringed seed pods. With light green willow like leaves and big blossoms this is a lovely addition to the front landscape. Desert willows tolerate most soils and it is quite drought tolerant, it blossoms best in full sun. If you water it once or twice a month in the summer that will prolong the tree’s blooming. So, let’s talk about butterflies…

Kiersten: Butterfly weed-milkweed VS Butterfly Bush…

Butterfly weed-Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and south western North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by it’s color ad its copious production of nectar. Clump-forming perennial grows from tuberous roots to a height of one to two feet and is characterized by glossy-green, lance-shaped leaves and clusters of bright- orange- to -yellow blooms that are rich with nectar and pollen.

Butterfly bush- Buddleja Davidii or more commonly seen in nurseries as Butterfly Bush is an invasive plant from China. We do not want you to confuse it with the above-mentioned plant Butterfly weed which is a type of milkweed. It is deciduous shrub that can grow up to 15 ft high. This bush cone shaped flower clusters at the ends of branches and has been cultivated over the years into many attractive colors such as pink, blue, magenta, purple, and yellow. In nurseries it is advertised as being a wonderful

Plant to attract butterflies and it does attract them but many of the cultivars have lost any real nutrition in their nectar offerings. It is also only useful to the adult butterfly. Any native NA butterflies cannot use it as a host plant because it is unfamiliar. It is highly invasive and grows well in our country. It’s not quite as good at withstanding our desert heat but I have seen it offered in many nurseries in the valley.

Once established in your yard it will seed after blooming and those seeds will spread and choke out any native plants nearby that are essential to a butterfly’s life cycle. One more thing it attracts the male Asian mosquito who drink the nectar from the flowers and where the male goes a female follows…waiting to suck your blood.

Cheryl-I have two natives to the southwest that will do well in your backyard. The first one is chocolate flower. It is a fast-growing bush, grows to 1ftx2ft, full to partial shade, low water once it’s established, well-draining soil. This pretty, yellow daisy-like flower blooms from spring thru fall. It has no thorns but the flowers have a distinctive chocolate scent. Great for native bees and butterflies, birds eat the seeds in the fall, great native flower to add some color to a garden. Right up there with Blanket flower and the Desert marigold.

Next is Flattop buckwheat. I like the name. this is a shrub that is ever-green and it grows to about 1 foot tall and two feet wide. It blooms from march to November with a white or pale pink flower. It prefers full sun and well-drained soil. It will need only a little water once established with supplemental water during the heat of summer. Its naturally round form is useful on slopes for controlling soil erosion and needs very little if any pruning. In the fall its seeds will provide food for birds and other desert animals and it is the host plant for the metalmark Butterfly and the Acmon blue butterfly. Wonderful for native bees.

Kiersten- here’s one for the Bats!

Parry’s Agave (Agave parryi) This plant is native to AZ, NM, and Mexico this agave will produce gray green rosettes that grow 7-20 inches. The leaves do have marginal teeth and a sharp tip but it makes a great accent plant in the desert as is needs little water and is very low maintenance. It is a slow grower, so you’re in this for the long haul, but when it blooms it is spectacular. Twenty-foot-tall blooms with 20-30 offshoots that are red in buds and yellow when in full bloom. It can take full sun and may need water every two weeks in the drought portions of the summer. Needs very little water in the winter.

The main plant will produce offshoots that will grow near by and do well if allowed to spread out a bit. The off shoots can be dug up and removed if desired, after 5-10 years the agave will bloom and then die. The off shoots will remain if left alone. This is a great plant for the Lesser-long Nosed Bat and other nighttime pollinators.

Cheryl- So I have a sticky one but its short.

Desert hackberry- this is a shrub that is a host plant for several butterflies in the southwest including the American Snout, hackberry Emperor, and the Empress Leilia. It also has berries that birds such as verdin, Northern mocking bird and Cedar Waxwings love. This shrub requires low water once established, full sun, good drainage, and room. It can grow to be 8ft high, 10 feet wide but with pruning it will stay contained. It does have thorns but birds love thorny bushes to keep them safe from predators.

Kiersten-Our last plant is the Scrub oak. We saved the best for last.

This is a smaller oak at 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide. It has leathery gray-green leaves that cover rigid branches. This oak is native to AZ. It does best at higher altitudes but can grow in the valley. It will need supplemental water in the heat of summer and afternoon shade is beneficial but can take full sun at higher altitudes. Like most sols and should be pruned only to remove dead leaves. It can make an excellent hedge but it is slow growing. Dense foliage provides shelter for birds and small reptiles and mammals. Many desert animals eat the acorns and it is host plant to several desert butterflies. Just a note of caution: it is not a good choice for horse properties because acorns are poisonous to horses.

Cheryl-Closing

What a list! Remember to think native when you are planning your spring gardening. You cannot go wrong. The birds, bees and butterflies will thank you and reward your efforts. Happy Spring!