I was looking for bulbs that bloomed in the summer and were deer and rabbit resistant.

Liatris attracts butterflies like this Monarch.

I loved my lilies, which grow well here in my desert garden.  Unfortunately, the deer and rabbits love lilies too and my most recently planted ones had been so chewed on that only the stems remained.  I came across Liatris in a catalog of bulbs and the description said it was deer and rodent resistant.  Therefore, I decided to try them.  I am glad I did because the birds and butterflies love them and the plants appear to be thriving with no damage from deer or rabbits.

What is Liatris?

Liatris, also known as Blazing star or Gayfeather, is a perennial flower native to the continental United States.  There are several species of Liatris but the one most available from companies that sell bulbs is Liatris spicata, a native to the eastern half of the country.  Bulb companies sell it because it reemerges every spring from a corm.

In late spring, grass-like foliage starts to emerge from the underground corm.  From this rosette of grass-like leaves, a stalk shoots up to between 18″ and 24″.  All along this stalk are buds that start opening from the top about midsummer and progress toward the base of the stalk as the season progresses.

Best conditions for Liatris

In spite of my desert garden being so different from the native range of Liatris spicata, it is thriving.  It appears Liatris spicata tolerates a wide range of soil pH, soil text, sun exposure and humidity.  My Liatris is on the west face of my garden with afternoon sun

Liatris is a member of the Asteraceae. It produces a stalk of flowers that start opening from the top of the stalk and the last flowers to open are the ones closest to the base of the plant.

and the soil is alkaline and well drained.  The flower bed I planted my Liatris in gets waters every other day with micro sprinklers for about an hour.

The sun exposure in this bed is morning shade, mid-day filtered sun, and afternoon direct sun.  In spite of the sun exposure being during the hottest, driest part of the day, my Liatris is about 18″ tall and very stiff.  Birds, bees, hummingbirds, and quail visit daily in the morning hours when the temperatures are still relatively pleasant.  Our daytime highs have hovered around 100°F almost every day and it has been very dry.

I know that if I did not water my Liatris regularly it would die in my extremely dry climate but other than that, the fact that my soil dries out regularly, has resulted in sturdy stalks and plants that are very attractive to birds, bees, and butterflies.

How do you plant it and care for it?

Starting Liatris in your garden is achievable from seeds or corms.  I recommend, if you

Quail like Liatris too.

want a guaranteed display of Liatris flowers, that you plant corms in spring.  Liatris seeds germinate slowly and plants started from seed will not flower for at least two years.

There are several species of Liatris and I do not necessarily recommend Liatris spicata over the others for desert gardens like mine.  In fact, Liatris punctata is native to regions of the country that are drier than where Liatris spicata grow native.  If you can get Liatris punctata, you should try it in your desert garden.  The reason I used Liatris spicata is that it is more readily available in the convention gardening market.  Many companies selling bulbs will have it available.

Plant Liatris corms 2″ to 4″ apart in the flowerbed at a depth three times the diameter of the bulb.  Water the flower bed regularly and then just watch as first leaves, then stalks emerge, and finally, flowers open.  This flower needs little or no care even in your desert garden.  Just make sure it gets regular water in soil with good drainage and allow the surface of the soil to dry out between watering.

Then sit back and watch the birds and butterflies as the flowers emerge and mature.  The show is very entertaining.

The bee balm in my garden has done exceptionally well this year.  Most years it just gets about a foot and a half tall and struggles by the time daytime high temperature are 100°F or more.  I can only speculate the good late winter and early spring moisture we received this year helped this plant develop a better than usual root system this year.  This is not a drought tolerant plant in my desert climate but with regular watering, it is adaptable to my soil if I keep the water coming during the hottest part of the growing season.

What is Bee Balm

Bee balm, Monarda didyma, is a perennial plant in the mint family.  Its aroma tends to

The flower is actually a head consisting of many flowers. When these flowers have been pollinated the corollas will fall off and leave a ball of seeds.

repel deer and rabbits but its flowers attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. The flowers can be lavender, purple, red, or white and very small.  The flowers appear on each stem very tightly at the tip so they look like a pompom.  After pollination, the corollas in the pompom fall off and a ball of seeds remain to ripen.

What conditions are best for Bee Balm

My desert region of the country is not an ideal climate for bee balm.  Though it is native to North America, it grows at the edge of wooded areas and along stream banks where soils are moist but not soggy and rich in organic matter. In my desert garden, I have to create those of conditions if I want bee balm to survive and look good.

How to compensate for less than ideal conditions

In my garden, there are a number of microclimates created by the planting of trees and shrubs.  Trees and shrubs provide shade, reduce wind, give off moisture as they transpire, and deposit organic matter that when left in place enrich the soil and improve its water holding capacity.  The trick is placing my bee balm in the garden is to find just the right location that gives it adequate light exposure and protection from drying winds and extreme summer heat.

I planted my bee balm where it gets morning sun but afternoon shade.  The area also

Bee Balm is a perennial that likes moist, organic soil.

had leaves and residue from previous weeds that had piled up and sat there for a number of years.  I cleared the pile out but much of the residue that was at the bottom of that pile was well broken down.

My dry climate can dry the soil out quickly so I made sure I had a good drip system in place and other plants that were in the same perennial flowerbed had similar water requirements.  In the hottest part of the growing season, this flowerbed needs watering every two days to keep the plants from wilting.  Fortunately, the surrounding trees and shrubs help maintain a more humid microclimate around my perennials that are not naturally adapted to my hot dry climate.

 Is it worth compensating for less than ideal conditions?                                                                

In its native range, bee balm can grow to 4′ or 5′ tall but in my garden, I’m lucky to have it reach 1′ to 2′ in height.  This year was unusually wet from March to May and my bee balm grew to 5′ in height.  The hummingbirds have been really enjoying it and the butterflies have been putting on quite a show.  In spite of deer visiting my garden, the

Bee, humming birds, and butterflies are attracted to bee balm.

bee balm is untouched.  I wish I could say the same for my roses that I have had to spray with a foul-smelling concoction I purchased at a local garden center.

I would not plant a lot of bee balm but a few clumps placed in just the right microclimate in my desert garden has been very appealing to the eye and drawn desirable wildlife that I enjoy watching.  I just don’t expect it to achieve its full glory every year.  This year has been a treat.

The beginning of October my Maximilian’s Daisy (Helianthus maximiliani) was at peak

These sunflowers may be small compared to their annual cousin but they are still showy and attract pollinators, butterflies, and birds.

bloom.  This sunflower, native to the Great Plains has bloomed reliably in my garden for a number of seasons and I don’t have plant it every year because it is perennial. In fact,

Maximilian Daisies are a sunflower you don’t have to plant every year but you see them every year.

it increases in density every year giving me a prettier floral display than the previous year.

It has smaller flowers than most annual sunflowers and its flowers are arranged hollyhock style up and down the top 1/4 to 1/3 third of the stalk.  The leaves are also smaller and narrower than most annual sunflowers but this plant is still in the same genus and all the other sunflowers.

The flowers are 3″ to 4″ in diameter with yellow rays and darker centers start to open in August.  Flowering continues until the first frost in fall or sometime in October.  This year the first frost to kill freeze these flowers didn’t come until about the third week in October.

Amazingly, it will do well in almost any garden condition from very dry to very wet. It is not picky about soil texture or pH either. However, you will want to give careful consideration when placing Maximilian’s daisy in your garden since it can reach 10 ft in height. It also spreads out but is not an aggressive invader.

These small sunflowers are perennial and delight to see in late summer and early fall.

A good place for Maximilian’s daisy is to plant it along fences to prop up sagging branches. In addition, when planted against a fence, the mass of flowers it produces is less likely to obscure some other features in your garden. Plant Maximilian’s daisy with tall grasses or for more color plant perennial blue salvia in front of them.

Maximilian’s daisy works great to control erosion on larger properties with erodible soils. The dense rhizomatous mass at the base of these sunflowers does an excellent job of holding soil in place.

If you want to attract wildlife to your yard, Maximilian’s daisy will do that as well. The seeds are a magnet for goldfinches in the fall. Monarch butterflies feed on the nectars produced by this sunflower. Deer will also graze this plant but only in the late fall when other types of forage are no longer green and the stalks of this daisy are still green. However, the deer do little damage to this plant since next year the new shoots will sprout undamaged by deer and probably remain so until late in the season.

You can purchase seed of Maximilian’s daisy from many native seed companies and even a few companies that don’t specialize in native seeds. Seeds of Maximilian’s daisy doesn’t as easily as annual sunflowers but still will germinate without any treatment.  I usually germinate my Maximilian’s daisies in my greenhouse and transplant them to the garden in spring.

Once Maximilian’s daisy has germinated, it becomes an easy plant to establish and maintain. Some of the newly established plants will bloom the first summer but otherwise, it takes a second year of growth to see many flowers on this sunflower. As the years go by the number of stalks from a single plant will increase every year and you will have a mass of sunflowers from one plant. Some seed will also germinate from spent flowers in previous years.

Maximilian’s Daisy does not require a lot of water but more water will increase the height the plant. If you live in the arid western United States, expect to water Maximilian’s Daisy deeply at least once a week. Other regions of the country may not need to water this plant. If planted in a location with an abundance of soil moisture, Maximilian’s daisy stalks will likely grow to be 10 ft plus and need staking.

In winter, cut the dry stalks down to make way for new shoots. New stalks will spring from the clump of rhizomes at the base of the dead stalks.

Not many pests ruin your display of Maximilian Daisies and they will come up year after year with no effort on your part.

Most flowering trees and shrubs bloom only in spring.  Once the spring flowers

This desert willow is only about 8′ tall and has been allowed to grow as a shrub.

have expired, these flowering trees and shrubs do provide shade and their green leaves can provide texture with their shape and size but it is nice when you find a tree that blooms when others are not blooming.  Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) is just such a tree.

Desert willow is not a true willow.  Instead it is related to the catalpa with flowers, that if they weren’t pink, would look like catalpa blossoms.  It gets the common name willow because the leaves, unlike the catalpa, resemble willow leaves.  Also unlike the catalpa that only blooms in the spring, desert willows bloom from April to November in their native range.  Here in Churchill County, my desert willow stays dormant until May and doesn’t start blooming until June.  Last year it bloomed until the first fall frost.

Desert willow is native to Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah,

This is a close of of the blossoms on my desert willow.

Nevada, and California.  In the wild, it grows along washes with gravelly or sandy soil and high water table but it will tolerate almost any alkaline soil from sand to clay.  It is very drought tolerant but it does need at least weekly deep watering during the hottest part of the growing season.

In Nevada, desert willow is only found growing wild in the southern part of the state and I live in the northern part of the state.  In northern Nevada, my USDA Hardiness rating is just on the margin of what some garden guides recommend for desert willows.  I say some of these guides because there is no consensus.  Some recommend desert willow only in zones 8 through 11 and others recommend it in zones 6-1l.  Still others say 5-8.  Most guides say desert willow will tolerate freezing temperatures and some say it will survive temperatures down to -15°F.  Parts of its native range have climates where occasionally temperatures can dip below 0°F but also experience highs greater than 100°F during the summer months.  How cold hardy a particular desert willow plant is may depend on the region where were collected.

The growth habit of desert willow is that of a large shrub with multiple stems reaching a size of 6 to 30 feet tall and 6 to 30 feet in diameter.  Proper pruning can turn this large shrub into a small tree that is an appropriate size for a small residential lot. In my conditions, which are marginal for desert willow, I’ve found I’m lucky to get a nice flowering shrub that stands about 8 ft. tall.  I have two desert willows, the one that is 8 ft. tall and one that has assumed a prostrate form due to severe winds in the winter.

Desert willows allowed to grow like shrubs need very little maintenance.  In my garden, I’ve found it has no pests and attracts lots of pollinators.

I must have dumped some wildflower seed out because I didn’t remember

This approximately 1″ diameter flower is born on the tips of each stem of the blue flax plant.

planting these beautiful blue flowers I saw in my backyard late one spring.  They were blooming when I had just experienced a lot of frustration with bulbs I had planted the previous fall hoping for a mass display similar to the pictures in the catalogs.  Instead, with our unpredictable spring I was only getting to enjoy a bloom for several days before a late frost would nip it.  The mass display of bulbs blooming at the same time never happened that spring.  So these beautiful blue flowers were a welcome surprise and I didn’t even remember dumping the seed in my backyard.

These blue flowers are either Linum lewisii or Linum perenne.  The common name for both is blue flax and both are perennial.  What distinguishes the two species are very fine differences in their floral anatomy that I won’t discuss here but both behave very similarly.  Neither is invasive and only Linum lewisii is native to North America. Most likely, these are Linum perenne because at the time I likely dumped the wildflower seed, it was common to put the introduced species, Linum perenne, in wildflower seed mixes.

 Linum lewisii is native to North America and a number of online native seed vendors sell seed for this species.  The seeds of this short-lived perennial germinate readily without any special treatment.  My experience is that you can directly plant the seed in the garden or you can plant them in trays in the greenhouse and transplant them in the young seedling stage to the garden in spring or early fall.  Flowering will not occur until the next season.

In May and June of the second year after perennial blue flax seeds have

This blue flax plant has is several seasons old and has a vase shaped structure. It is about 12″ tall.

germinated is when the first blue flowers will appear and each plant will only have a few stems.  When this plant is several years old, it will assume a vase like shape of many stems bearing short fine leave along its length.  Each stem will terminate in a blue flower and when planted in mass, the effect is a patch of blue in late spring or early summer in your garden.

Blue flax is a low maintenance perennial that requires only a small amount of watering in a desert climate.  It’s not picky about soil type but those planted in sandy beds will need more water.

Removing stems from the previous season is not necessary but removing old stems in late spring will make the plant look tidier.

Blue flax is hardy in USDA zones 3-8.  The plants last a few years but if you let the stems stay on the plant over winter, allowing seeds to drop in the flowerbed, they will naturalize in that bed.

As I write this post, daytime highs are in the 100°F+ range and most flowers if even open

Many of my trees and shrubs have taken on a dull green cast despite adequate water but skunkbush sumac is looking quite green and inviting in spite of the 100F degree heat.

are looking ragged as they dehydrate while in the bud stage.  The most interesting activity in my garden isn’t flowers in the summer but wildlife.  Recently I’ve been watching the quail scurry all over my yard.  I’ve even had a friend tell me I have the most quail she has ever seen.  Could it be something about the plants I’ve selected for my garden? They seem to like the skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata) I planted in several random locations.

Skunkbush flowers in the early spring and they are not very showy so I did not plant this for it floral display.  Instead, I planted it for the greenery it would provide in summer and its extreme drought tolerance.  Of all my plants, it looks like it is suffering the least from these 100°F+ temperatures.  Besides the summer greenery, this shrub also can be quite colorful in fall when its foliage turns various shades of yellow, pink, red and orange.  In my yard, I have one that seems to turn pink and the other yellow.

What I did not expected, but have since found in the literature and observed in my yard, is

In the mornings I look out my kitchen window to see lots of quail feeding under my skunkbush sumac.

that quail love skunkbush sumac. The literature on habitat favorable to quail indicates that skunkbush sumac provide both cover and food for quail.

Many people will think poisonous when they hear or see the word sumac but not all sumacs are poisonous. In fact, the berries of skunkbush sumac have been used to make a refreshing “lemonade flavored” drink. However in my yard, the quail get these berries and instead I get to watch adult quail with their young scurrying about under the sumac and occasionally an adult flies up into the foliage to snatch some berries. What berries I do get to see are also quite ornamental.

Small clusters of small clusters of minute, light green flowers at the tips of most of the

The blossoms on the skunkbush sumac are not particularly showy but the skippers, moths and butterflies that feed on the nectar can provide a show.

twigs precede the appearance of the red berries. Small butterflies are attracted to these clusters of flowers in early spring.

By fall, most of the berries are gone. That is when the leaves turn lovely shades of gold, orange, pink, and red.

A good location for this shrub is the edge of your property or on slopes that are hard to maintain. It can also be a part of a screen or windbreak. Individual plants will grow to a height of 8′ and a diameter of 8′.  It needs water for establishment but once its roots go deep enough it will survive infrequent watering. Since flowering occurs at the tips of twigs, pruning reduces the display of berries so lightly prune by thinning out crossed branches.  If watching birds and butterflies that frequent this shrub, be sure to plant it where it is visible from a window.

These berries attract many birds to my garden.

There are several names for skunkbush sumac, including basket bush, squawbush, and three-leaf sumac. In the wild, this shrub grows under a wide range of conditions from stream banks to dry rocky slopes. It tolerates a wide range of soil conditions as well from highly alkaline to acidic soils.

There are six varieties naturally occurring varieties of Rhus trilobata; anisophylla, pilosissima, quinata, racemuolosa, simplicifolia, and trilobata.  Distinguishing features between these varieties are leaf size, berry pubescence, and plant height.  Additionally, Rhus aromatica, a close cousin of Rhus trilobata is available to gardeners. The only readily apparent difference between these two species is Rhus aromatica’s leave have a nice aroma when crushed leaves and Rhus trilobata’s crushed leave have an unpleasant order.  Unless you plan to crush the leaves, Skunkbush Sumac is an excellent plant for windbreaks, wildlife, and low maintenance. The other big difference between Rhus trilobata and Rhus aromatica is the geographic range over which these two species occur. Rhus trilobata is native to the western United States and Rhus aromatica is native to the east United States. Expect Rhus trilobata to tolerate dryer conditions than Rhus aromatica.

I love having shade trees in my garden when the summer days get long and hot. The only

Golden Columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha) is native to the western United States and does well in the shade.

problem with lots of shade is I also like flowers. Many flowers need full sun and do not do well in the shade. One flower that does do well in the shade and is native to my region of the United States is Golden Columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha).  I have lots of this flower in one of my shady locations and it has now gotten to the point where it has naturalized in that spot. Getting it established in that location took more than one plant and I had to start it from seed since it was not readily available in local nurseries.

Golden Columbine is perennial so it does not need replanting every year. Still it if you want it to last indefinitely you will want it to naturalize. Naturalizing is the process where the plant establishes in a manner that keeps it reproducing new plants and the new plants, once established produce more plants after the original plant has died. To achieve this with Golden Columbine I had to first acquired plants I wanted established in my shady location.

I purchased my Golden Columbine seed from a business that sells native seed. The instructions on the packet said to put the seed in the ground in the fall and barely cover it hoping for a moist winter or I need to cold stratify the seed for 30 days and plant seed in the spring. I chose the latter since winters in my garden are unpredictable and we only get a wet enough winter to germinate desirable seeds every half dozen years.

To stratify my seed I placed it on a moist paper towel in a sealed sandwich bag. Then I placed this bag in the refrigerator for 30 days. After thirty days, I spread the moist seeds on the surface of potting soil in a seedling tray in the greenhouse. I sprinkled a small amount of potting soil over the seed being careful not to put too much because columbine seed need filtered light in order to germinate.

Once germinated the seedlings are very small and delicate. They require considerable maturation before being set out in the garden. In the case of my columbine seedlings, I let them mature in my greenhouse for at least a year before setting them out in the garden.

There are two good times to transplant columbine into the garden. The first time for transplanting young columbine plants raised in a greenhouse is spring when the weather has warmed up enough that the ground is workable but before the weather gets hot and dry. The other time is in the fall after the weather has cooled and a couple of weeks before the first killing frost. Be sure to plant a large enough cluster of columbine to ensure pollination between plants and seed set.

Individual plants will last a few years and require regeneration to maintain the species in a perennial flowerbed indefinitely. To do this I let the flowers go to seed and fall naturally between the established plants. Additionally I let leaves and other plant residues pile up between these plants. This residue combined with keeping the soil moist until the first killing frost when I discontinue watering until the next growing season.   The leaves and other plant residues keep moisture in the soil thus creating a good environment for natural cold stratification of seeds.

In the spring when I clear out the previous season’s residues and leaves, I take care not to uproot the newly germinated seedlings. By following these cultural practices, I have established a naturalized perennial bed of Golden Columbine that requires very little maintenance and no replanting.

A friend recently asked for some quick way to rid her yard of goat heads otherwise

Pictured is a shattered seed head of puncture vine. Not the sharp thorns and the shape of each seed is why some people refer to it as “goatheads”.

known as puncture vine (Tribulus terrestis). I cannot blame this friend for wanting a quick solution because this weed with its sharp seeds can make walking barefoot in any garden a miserable experience. Putting shoes on before going outdoors may protect your feet while in the garden. If you do not take those same shoes off before coming inside you could find walking indoors with bare feet also a painful experience. Alas, I cannot offer this friend a quick lasting fix because unless you get rid of the seed bank in the soil, anything you do is only short term. Instead, I have a solution that if consistently applied over several seasons will give you long term relief from goat heads.

Controlling this weed requires a three-pronged approach. You must deplete the seed bank in the soil and you must diligently remove all puncture vines as they appear before

Puncture vine forms a mat on the ground that becomes quite prickly one seeds set.

they set seed. As you get an area cleared of this noxious weed, desirable plants or landscape structures need to be placed because bare ground is just an invitation for any weed to sprout where you do not want it.

The painful nature of the seed produced by puncture vine also makes it an easier weed to control by depleting the seed bank in the soil. To deplete the soil in your yard of puncture vine seeds put containers at all the doors to you house and a stable stool next to the contain so people can take their shoes off and pull out all the goat heads. You can also speed up the process by putting on your shoes and walking all over your garden. Take regular breaks to take your shoes off and pick out all the seeds on your soles. Do this all year regardless of the season because these seeds are present all year. If you are persistent in removing seeds from your yard, it will only take a couple of seasons.

The other part of getting rid of this weed is to hoe out every small puncture vine you see before it can produce seed. This should start as early as the weather warms up enough to work in the garden since seeds start sprouting in late spring. Once flowers

Puncture vine flowers are yellow five petaled flowers. It’s best hoe puncture vine out before these yellow flowers appear because soon after flowers appear they are followed by a five segmented head of seed that has two sharp thorns on each segment.

appear, seed will soon follow and then you have more seeds you will have to collect in your missions to remove the seeds.

Spraying with herbicides, organic or chemical, will not offer any long term solution for getting rid of puncture vine because they do not kill the seeds which remain viable for many years. There are puncture vine seed eating weevils imported from Europe and Asia but they expensive and will not overwinter in climates with cold winters. Herbicide or weevils alone will not control puncture vine. Combining the release of seed eating weevils with properly timed herbicide applications may work just like the solution I propose. You will still have to apply the chemicals and weevils over several growing season and this could be expensive. Additionally chemicals for the breakdown of the herbicide will remain in the environment.

To achieve long-term control of puncture vine, do not leave bare ground in your yard.

Pictured is a puncture vine seed head before it shatters and disperses to wherever some poor unsuspecting creature gets poked by it and transported to its eventual resting spot. Once in its resting spot it waits for ideal condition to germinate and a new vine sprouts.

Avoid reintroducing puncture vine by not parking your car in puncture vine infested lots. Also, do not walk across vacant lots infested with puncture vine.