Plant Spotlight Review for Spring

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: [email protected]

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 br...