Chamisa and Cholla
In an open spot in the front yard, out in the gravel, I have placed a pot with a pretty orange flowered firecracker plant (cuphea) in it. The hummingbirds love the delicate bright tubes. It's not hardy here in winter, so I'll have to replace it next season.
Behind the firecracker plant there is a dwarf rabbitbrush, the somewhat frothy looking light green blob. Rabbitbrush, or chamisa, is typically a giant, rangy, unkempt looking plant that grows wild all over the sand hills around us. Chamisa grows on no water, it seems to need none. It's a desert weed with gray, dusty looking foliage and bright yellow flowers in summer.
The chamisa behind the pot is a cultivated dwarf form, and it's really kind of pretty. I worried it would become a giant but it stays just a foot high and is tidy looking and green. In late summer it is covered with the typical yellow chamisa blooms.
It looked like this when we moved in last summer (I had a gray cement pot there originally).
But wait, you say. What is that funny branchy thing next to the pot? A cactus?
Yes. It's a cholla, and I do think this will get big. But I won't take it out. I won't go near it, cholla spines are not just sharp, they aggressively jump onto you as you pass (that's a myth, but still . . . ) and they painfully embed in the skin. When it gets too big we'll have to sell the house; I won't touch it.
The dwarf chamisas and the cholla were here when we moved in. They looked a little forlorn out in the sunny gravel in the front yard, so I added the pot.
Many people think of the southwest as all cactus and sand, and when I told people I was moving to Santa Fe they pictured just that -- cacti, yuccas, and agaves. But Santa Fe is high up and it gets quite cold in winter for desert plants. The dominant look is pine forest, and in the city it is fruit trees and shade trees and lovely green plantings.
But it's certainly dry enough here, and some cactus does grow. And yuccas and agaves. And so, despite my attempts at gardening with a wide variety of plants, including some eastern leafy things, I do have a classic desert scene right out in the front yard.
Chamisa, cholla, and a pot of hot orange cuphea. It doesn't get more southwest than that.
Your southwest plant pronunciation guide:
Cuphea = KOO fay ya
Chamisa = Cha MEE sa
Cholla = CHO ya
Or, firecracker plant, rabbitbrush and cactus . . .
Behind the firecracker plant there is a dwarf rabbitbrush, the somewhat frothy looking light green blob. Rabbitbrush, or chamisa, is typically a giant, rangy, unkempt looking plant that grows wild all over the sand hills around us. Chamisa grows on no water, it seems to need none. It's a desert weed with gray, dusty looking foliage and bright yellow flowers in summer.
The chamisa behind the pot is a cultivated dwarf form, and it's really kind of pretty. I worried it would become a giant but it stays just a foot high and is tidy looking and green. In late summer it is covered with the typical yellow chamisa blooms.
It looked like this when we moved in last summer (I had a gray cement pot there originally).
But wait, you say. What is that funny branchy thing next to the pot? A cactus?
Yes. It's a cholla, and I do think this will get big. But I won't take it out. I won't go near it, cholla spines are not just sharp, they aggressively jump onto you as you pass (that's a myth, but still . . . ) and they painfully embed in the skin. When it gets too big we'll have to sell the house; I won't touch it.
The dwarf chamisas and the cholla were here when we moved in. They looked a little forlorn out in the sunny gravel in the front yard, so I added the pot.
Many people think of the southwest as all cactus and sand, and when I told people I was moving to Santa Fe they pictured just that -- cacti, yuccas, and agaves. But Santa Fe is high up and it gets quite cold in winter for desert plants. The dominant look is pine forest, and in the city it is fruit trees and shade trees and lovely green plantings.
But it's certainly dry enough here, and some cactus does grow. And yuccas and agaves. And so, despite my attempts at gardening with a wide variety of plants, including some eastern leafy things, I do have a classic desert scene right out in the front yard.
Chamisa, cholla, and a pot of hot orange cuphea. It doesn't get more southwest than that.
Your southwest plant pronunciation guide:
Cuphea = KOO fay ya
Chamisa = Cha MEE sa
Cholla = CHO ya
Or, firecracker plant, rabbitbrush and cactus . . .
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