Desert Blooms - Ground Cover

When designing your commercial landscape, variety of plants could bring an eye catching appearance to your property.  Trees bring shade, cacti are easy on your water supply and flowers bring not only their own beauty but that of butterflies and hummingbirds. Like these, ground coverings not only add a gorgeous variation to your landscape, but they can assist in preserving the soil.

Trailing Desert Broom 
The NATIVE species of Desert broom is a vertical, evergreen, densely-branched shrub usually 3 to 6 feet tall. Its many fine twigs are green with tiny, linear leaves, that are deciduous during dry periods. These plants bloom in the fall. The wind-dispersed, white-tasseled seeds are produced by the female plants in such abundance that the plants and nearby ground appear to be snow-covered. This litter of flowers can sometimes make the plant undesirable for landscaping, but as luck would have it hybrids have been developed. One of the first to be introduced for use in low-desert landscapes was developed by the University of Arizona. These plants grow to about 3 feet tall by 4 - 5 feet wide in about ten years of growth.

They are evergreen with bright green foliage and inconspicuous flowers. This provides a low-maintenance, long-lived alternative plant to grow in difficult locations. It has a prostrate growth habit, a tolerance of dry heat and drought. It also provides greener foliage than most other desert plants, and it works well in transition plantings on golf courses, medians, and along roadsides. 

Red Spike Ice Plant
The size and beauty of this groundcover’s flowers are quite surprising when you consider the diminutive size and unimposing characteristics of its succulent foliage. Buds appear abundantly in late winter to early spring, opening around mid-day into a radiant hot pink or carmine red starburst-shaped bloom with a 2 inch diameter. Red spike ice plant grows in tight clumps and spreads only a couple of feet, but its fibrous roots and superior drought tolerance make this perennial a great soil stabilizer for banks and slopes. Its thick, gray-green leaves can take on reddish tones in cooler weather, and their quirky, upright growth habit adds architectural interest to mixed succulent planters, rock gardens and borders. Provide this stunning evergreen with good drainage and locate it where it won’t be stepped on to keep it growing happily in your garden.

Bush Morning Glory
Morning Glory produces soft, silver foliage on a low mounding shrub that looks beautiful on mounds, in rocky landscapes and near cactus as a contrast. Silver Bush Morning Glory can really stand out when used in raised planters and containers for a nice contrast. Beautiful abundant white flowers bloom in spring and fall. Shear in spring every couple years to keep it fresh and full. This plant prefers full to half sun with well draining soil.

Trailing Dalea
Despite a soft, delicate appearance, the trailing dalea bush is one of the toughest groundcovers around. The feathery, silvery green compound foliage makes the clusters of tiny, rosy purple flowers stand out at close range. The blooms, which occur most heavily in spring and summer, return sporadically the rest of the year. This plant is excellent for stabilizing soil on slopes because its stem nodes root wherever they come in contact with the ground. Trailing dalea is a tough, attractive ground covering plant that is native to the Southwestern U.S. It can be grown in full sun and should be planted in well-drained soil. It also should be mentioned that it likes reflected heat.

It doesn’t matter to us whether you want lush lawns, desert landscaping or some type of landscaping in between, we can help your commercial property.  To find out how give us a call at 623-848-8277.

Presented by:
Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, LLC
623-848-8277
http://www.commerciallandscapecare.com
greenskeeperllc@cox.net