Indian Rice Grass

This is a picture of Indian Rice grass with a small Monroe Globe Mallow in the front. This is an attractive bunch grass that looks great all summer and into the winter. It takes many years to get a specimen that looks like the photo. It will seed the first year and each year after will add additional stems. It is used in some place as food. It will make dough without gluten.

Monroe Globe Mallow

This is a great plant. It is seen in a lot of different areas of the Mountain west, particularly after wet spring. If dead headed and water monthly during the summer, there will be a lot of flowers. It will reseed itself. One of the first plants that bloomed well for me was cut out during the fall clean-up. I was quite disappointed over that, but the next spring it came back, plus some seedlings.

Scarlet Gillead

Evening Primrose

This plant has large yellow flowers that bloom in the evening when it is cooler. The flowers remain open all night and then close when it gets hot the following day. It grows with only the rain that falls from the sky after it is established. After several years there are a lot of blooms, and blooms most of the summer.

Sand Verbena

A very beautiful perennial that blooms all summer if there is adequate water. I the water is not sufficient, it will bloom only in the spring. A garden of these produces a very pleasant odor. These grow in sandy soil in many different areas in Utah. Those in Utah are white, but in the southern Nevada they are blue.

This is a cute wild flower that grows in the low foothills north of Holden, UT. It is an interesting annual that grows in sandy soil. I have some seed of it that I home to get to grow in my yard and may become naturalized

Beaver Tail Cactus

This Beaver Tail Cactus is growing in our garden. The start for this came from an area near Bunker ville, NV. It has grown here for several years. It had its best bloom this year. It has no needles.

Evening Primrose

This is an evening primrose located a little west and north of Baker Nevada. It was early in June when I was at the American Penstemon Society Meeting in Ely, Nevada. Part of the group went to Baker and the surrounding areas. We found this and a bunch of other wild flowers.

Flower

Penstemon tidestromi

A very pretty blue penstemon. It almost looks metallic. There are five different kinds of penstemons growing in this area. This is a new one to me, and I will be planting it this winter.

Penstemon barbatus

penstemon comarrhenus

Penstemon comarrhenus is 18 to 24 inches tall. An older plant has many stems filled with light lavender flowers. When many plants are in the same group, a great display is presented. The pictured penstemon was growing in an area that recieves about sixteen inches of annual rainfall.

Fringe Sage

This shrub grows to two feet. Gray-green in color. They grow in a number of different places in Utah, but this picture is of a plant in the San Rafael Swell. An excellent foundation plant that will do well on the south side of a home of solid fence. Does not need any irrigation after established. A monthly watering during the summer will keep it looking fresh.

Solidago canadensis, Golden Rod

This yellow flower blooms in the fall. Has the beautiful yellow flowers that hold their color for several weeks and then the seed heads remain until winter. It spreads rizomously which helps prevent erosion on steeper slopes. Can get quite thick if watered to frequently. A monthly watering in the summer is adequate. This is doing really well in my yard. Its been growing for nearly ten years. The on pictures is a single plant that might be a couple of years old.

Blazing Star

BLAZING STAR
Here is another native flower that survives on very little water. It truly looks blazing. There is a single stem with numerous flowers that bloom at different times.

Penstemon angustifolius, var. dulcis, IPP Sandhills

Penstemon angustifolius, var. dulcis, IPP Sandhills

This penstemon is located near Delta, Utah. It grows in very dry conditions. Good for areas where the annual rain fall is sparse.