Colorful Desert Garden
The Colorful Desert Garden design provides the full beauty of a dry landscape, from the sculptural shapes of succulents to the gorgeous and long-flowering color of our favorite desert shrubs and trees. While our area of inland southern California is not naturally a desert climate (it is a semi-arid Mediterranean climate), many people like both the look and the very low water demand of this style of landscaping. Additionally, this plant list works very well for extremely hot microclimates, like parking lots or west-facing areas of the garden that may experience reflected heat from driveways and cinderblock, brick, or stucco walls. The plants in this palette can take the heat while serving up beautiful blooms loved by hummingbirds as well as a variety of other birds and pollinators.
Description
The combination of succulents and colorful desert shrubs and trees truly enhances the look of a desert garden. The contrast between these plant types enhances the visual impact of each other, resulting in a far more balanced look than a garden solely focused on succulent plants.
The succulent plants we have included here were included primarily because they are beautiful, easy to grow, and widely available. However, there are many other options available, especially at nurseries that focus on waterwise plants.Â
Most succulents and cacti have very similar care and irrigation requirements in the garden, so feel free to do some research about other options available at the nurseries you visit and mix in additional succulents as desired.
This plant palette is available as an option for the Waterwise Community Center’s Landscape Design Assistance Program. Visit cbwcd.org/design for more details.
Horticultural preferences
Plants listed in the Colorful Desert Garden palette are well adapted to warm climate areas with sun, high summer temperatures, aridity and wind. Some species show sensitivity to winter frost. When grown in Inland Empire gardens and landscapes, most plants do very well with normal winter rains and low amounts of summer water.
All of these plants prefer sandy or rocky soils with good drainage. This also makes them well suited for raised planters and on banks and slopes. Some of these plants can tolerate heavy or clay soils as long as they are not overwatered (and in clay soils prefer to be planted a bit high so that water will never pool at the base of the plants). If you have clay soil, check the information in each individual plant profile to see if they are adapted to clay soils.
Aesthetic character
The Colorful Desert Garden is designed to provide a dynamic balance of forms, textures, and colors of both flowers and the bold greens and blues of the succulent plants. Depending on the size of the site, plants can be used as groupings of the same plant repeated or as individual accents. Most often, the smaller succulents are visually most effectively used as groups of either three, five, or seven, although small spaces may require the use of individual plants. Be sure to utilize a balance of shrubs, flowering perennials, and succulents to achieve the best-looking results. Background areas are usually best occupied by shrubs, which create the best looking back drop for the sculptural succulent forms.
Moisture needs
Low water Use Plants – Irrigation Schedule 1
| Jan* | Feb* | Mar* | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov* | Dec* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs per Month | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 0x to 2x | 0x to 2x |
| Inches per Run | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ |
| Inches per Month | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 1″ | 0″ to 2″ | 0″ to 2″ |
Range of supplemental summer water: 7"
Range of supplemental winter water: 0"-10"
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0″-2″ |
1″ |
1″ |
1″ |
1″ |
1″ |
1″ |
0″-2″ |
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| Jan* | Feb* | Mar* | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov* | Dec* |
