The best landscape plants for a heat-loving garden in 2022 is the subject of this article. As temperatures rise, plant varieties that are hardy and resilient to extreme weather fluctuations will become more popular.

The “low maintenance desert landscape plants” are the best choice for a heat-loving garden. These plants can handle the high temperatures and low humidity of a desert climate. They also require little to no water, which is important because it’s difficult to find water in deserts.

Be inspired by nature while designing desert landscape plants. Desert plants form families in nature, with large trees shade higher bushes, which in turn protect seedlings of other plants. These plants, in turn, provide shade for the shrubs’ roots. Each plant helps the others survive by contributing to the overall ecosystem.

We’ll talk about some of our favorite desert landscape plants in this post, and how they’d go well with your desert landscaping ideas.

Contents Table of Contents

 

Contents

Vines, trees, and ground covers

Trees are the backbone of desert landscape plants, providing a diversity of seed pods, blooms, and hues. They are huge, persistent, and visible year-round. Desert trees provide food and shelter for birds and animals. Find deciduous trees to shelter your home’s east and west-facing exposures during the summer and allow light in during the winter when the branches are bereft of leaves.

In the garden, desert ground coverings reduce glare, control dust, and avoid evaporative water loss. These desert plants offer color and texture to bare soil or enormous rock expanses, helping to integrate and combine disparate parts of the desert environment. They also soften hardscape elements like low walls, walkways, and patio spaces by shading exposed surfaces, adding visual interest, and softening hardscape features like low walls, walkways, and patio areas.

Vines need relatively little water and may produce a natural canopy of shade that is 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding garden landscape. Many have lovely blooms that offer beauty and scent while taking up little space on the ground. They also give the landscape an attractive vertical line.

Succulents And Cacti

Succulents are all cacti, but not all cacti are succulents. Many cacti have spectacular blossoms and are very flexible and adaptable desert plants that thrive in a variety of environments, including containers. Cacti need much less watering than other desert plants due to their capacity to retain water, although they still require irrigation on occasion. Spiny cactus specimens must be handled with caution. Wear gardening gloves that are thick.

Succulents from the desert are a contemporary gardener’s best friend. Designing your garden with these fashionable plants allows you an unlimited range of forms, sizes, and colors due to their simplicity of maintenance and broad diversity of shapes, sizes, and colors. Succulents may be grown practically anyplace. These drought-tolerant plants can survive for many years if you give them with proper drainage, sandy soil, and enough of sunlight. There are several options to pick from. From the well-known ghost plant to the crassula plant’s architectural beauty.

Annuals, perennials, and grasses

Grasses are available in both perennial and annual forms. Ornamental grasses are fantastic for softening your environment and creating movement. Birds are drawn to seed-laden spikes beyond the bloom time because the color and shape of grasses vary throughout the year, generating seasonal appeal.

Perennials are ideal for bringing color into your yard. By reseeding, certain perennials may survive for two to four years, resulting in fresh desert plants year after year. Others who live for a long time might become a permanent part of the environment. Perennial and annual wildflowers may be blended to provide color throughout the year. After the bloom season, remove flower heads to keep plants looking fresh, and give them a gentle pruning every now and again to promote new growth.

Although many wildflower annuals are produced from seeds planted in the autumn, several species may be obtained at nurseries in containers in the spring. Look for locally cultivated, high-quality seeds. Start your wildflower garden by sowing tiny sections to explore what you like and gain experience. As desert plants reseed, spread, and grow over time, your garden will have its own personality.

Desert Plants that are Simple to Grow

Below are some Desert Plants that are Simple to Grow to use in your drought-tolerant garden.

  1. There are around 40 different types of Curve Leaf Yucca. Their vibrant bundle of brilliant green spears is the start of their aesthetic attractiveness. Their leaves curl under as the plants develop, and they blossom fragrant blooms as members of the agave family. The occasional vivid yellow blossoms arise from the tops of these cacti, which may appear in various hues of green with needles in various yellow tints.
  2. Ghost Plants are often found in succulent gardens, which have grown more popular in desert landscaping. It’s one of the simplest succulents to keep alive. These plants may take on a variety of hues depending on how much sunshine they get, ranging from blue-gray to pinkish-yellow. Its old leaves fall off when new rosettes emerge at the terminals of its stalks. In the spring, you may see the ghost plant blooming with vivid yellow blossoms. Plant ghost plants in rock gardens, along paths, as garden borders, or in containers.
  3. Paddle Plant, often known as’red pancakes,’ adds a splash of color to any desert landscape. The color red in red pancakes refers to the color around the margins of each leaf, which spreads and intensifies when it is exposed to direct sunlight. Paddle plants can provide stunning splashes of red to any desert landscape design because to their color-changing powers. These low-water desert plants are also low-maintenance, needing little attention in order to grow. It produces a solitary blooming stalk from the center when fully grown. Snip off the stem and replant to refill.
  4. Agave attenuata, popularly known as Foxtail Agave, is a favorite plant in desert landscapes and among garden designers. It features a curving spear in the middle from which big green leaves emerge and bend back, giving it the appearance of a giant green flower or fireworks. It has smooth, supple leaves that are fully spineless, unlike its other agave siblings, making it a safe option for garden planting. This perennial keeps its appearance throughout the year.
  5. The tiny blades of Mexican Feather Grass are ideal for creating a beautiful beach-like ambience. This desert shrub is a landscape designer’s hidden weapon. Because it’s a grass, use care while planting it because it will quickly grow and spread. Mexican Feather Grass is also classified as a ‘ornamental’ grass. The plant’s root system is significantly more intricate than that of typical lawn grass, making it difficult to eradicate.
  6. The Jade Plant, also known as the Friendship Tree, is a hybrid of a tree, a flower, and a shrub. They resemble a tiny shrub in size and form. The glossy green leaves of the jade plants are momentarily obscured by an abundance of somewhat pink-white flowers in bloom throughout the autumn and winter months. Jade plants don’t need much water since they’re drought-resistant, but they do like to be outside in the sun.
  7. Flame Katy, sometimes known as a ‘flaming Katy,’ is a relative of the Paddle Plant that comes in a variety of hues and blooms with brilliant, puffy, long-lasting flowers. It’s an excellent desert plant for adding splashes of color to your landscape. This plant has flat, curving green leaves that are comparable to, but bigger than, those of a paddle plant when it is not in flower. Their thick, packed blossoms open with a big flash of color when they do bloom.
  8. Aloe Vera is a very flexible addition to any drought-tolerant landscape design, with its plethora of historical applications. Though sometimes mistaken for a cactus, Aloe Vera is a succulent that belongs to a separate family. It just so happens to take on a cactus-like form now and then. The amount of care needed depends on the size and kind of aloe plant. Aloe Vera plants need just a little amount of water.
  9. Texas Sage’s lavender-colored blossoms are modest, but they’re tough. Texas Sage seems to be an inconspicuous green shrub for the most of the year, but in the summer, small blooms in lavender, periwinkle, and blue cover its branches, and they’ll last until the autumn. Texas Sage, like other desert sages, does not need trimming and thrives in full light.
  10. Yellow Bells are bright, cheery flowers that thrive in the desert, growing swiftly and blooming profusely. Yellow bells are wildflowers with vivid yellow, bell-shaped blooms that are well called for their form and color. Yellow bells demand full-sun exposure and require different levels of care (such as watering and trimming) according on the region.
  11. The Bottlebrush produces one-of-a-kind flowers with blooms that resemble kitchen bottle brushes. The brilliantly colored needles that constitute the blossom of a bottlebrush plant (which may also be grown as a shrub) quickly capture the eye – and attract hummingbirds. Bottlebrush features brilliant red blossoms in the kind most often used for desert landscaping; however, other species of Bottlebrush come in a range of colors.
  12. Bougainvilleas may be seen growing wild all throughout the Mediterranean. The fast-growing desert plant comes in a variety of hues, with magentas being the most popular. Bougainvillea thrives in a variety of natural forms, including shrubs, vines, and even groundcover. It is also feasible to grow a bougainvillea tree with patience and instruction.

Last Thoughts

So there you have it: the key to desert landscaping is to use drought-tolerant plants in a desert-like setting. You can build a desert paradise in your garden with a little study on moisture-retaining techniques like mulching and discovering which plants would work well together. Desert plants are drought resistant and tolerant landscaping plants that thrive in the desert.

The “common desert shrubs” are a type of plant that will thrive in the hot, dry climate. They can be used as ground cover or as a focal point in your garden.

Frequently Asked Questions

What plant can survive the desert heat?

A: The plant that can survive the desert heat is a cactus.

What plant can withstand the most heat?

A: The hottest temperature that a plant can withstand is around 154 degrees Fahrenheit.

What plants are good in Arizona in summer?

A: In the summer, cacti and succulents are good to have in your garden.

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