Choosing the Best Drought-Resistant Perennials for Las Vegas Ya…

When choosing the best types of plants for a desert landscape, you’ll want ones of all shapes and sizes that are flowering and non-flowering for a variety of uses from ground cover and climbing or hanging vines to striking accents to shrubs and trees. Learn which plants will fit your landscaping needs on this list of the best drought-resistant perennials.

The Best Drought-Resistant Perennials for Las Vegas Yards

We’ve organized this list roughly by the perennial’s height and use. Some of the plants on the list, however, can be grown as shrubs or vines while others can be grown as shrubs or as garden plants. We’ll make note of these crossover plants as we come to them. You can decide how they fit best into your landscaping plans.

Drought-Tolerant Trees

One eye-catching tree is the Joshua tree, which belongs to the same family as the yucca plant.

If Joshua trees are too sparse for your tastes, palms offer a softer look and come in tall and medium heights. The trees’ heights should be proportionate to the height of your home. Mid-level palms, such as pindo palms and Mexican blue palms, complement single-story homes. In addition, pindo palms withstand both heat and sometimes frosty desert nights.

Mexican fan palms and date palms are taller palms that pair well with two-story homes.

If what you want is an ornamental weeping or flowering tree, the weeping bottlebrush from Australia is an evergreen tree that grows to mid-level height. From spring through summer, it produces bright red flowers that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds.

Drought-Resistant Shrubs, Grasses, and Vines

You can grow versatile honeysuckle as a vine-draped over a fence or as a shrub. Either way, it attracts butterflies to your yard from spring through late fall with the fragrance of its blooms. You can choose varieties with either yellow or white flowers.

Rosemary can be grown as a shrub or added to your herb garden. It’s a fragrant plant with delicate flowers. It requires some extra attention during its first year, but once it’s established, it’s very low maintenance.

If you’re looking for plants that can serve as backdrops or define borders in the same way that shrubs do, but you want a different look, consider ornamental grasses. Plant them in tufts as you would space shrubs. The large variety of ornamental grasses that are available offer many looks and colors.

Either shrubs or ornamental grasses provide attractive borders around a patio, and if they are allowed to grow tall enough, they can provide privacy as well.

Drought-Resistant Perennial Flowering and Non-Flowering Plants

Cacti and succulents, like Myoporum, or hens and chicks, are hardy anchors for your yard. Some of them produce delicate flowers in contrast to the plants themselves.

You can make succulents and cacti a focal point by tucking one or more in the middle of some herbs or ornamental grasses. Drought-resistant herbs include oregano; rosemary; horehound; and salvia or sage. Striking flowering plants include yucca plants, coneflowers, and beardtongue.

Drought-Tolerant Ground Cover

Ground cover looks attractive and helps retain soil moisture when planted in your landscaping or around paving stone pathways in place of sidewalks and grass. Drought-resistant ground cover plants include creeping sedum and prostrate acacia.

Tips for Maintaining Drought-Tolerant Perennials

Install a drip irrigation system in your landscaping. Drip irrigation systems deliver just the amount of water your plants need directly to their roots, so the water has less of a chance to evaporate.

As a less expensive, but more labor-intensive alternative, use a watering pail rather than a hose, so you can measure the exact amount of water that you are delivering to each plant.

Once you’ve added these time- and water-saving plants to your landscape, you’ll have more time to relax and enjoy the view from your patio.

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