Aren't these wonderful? Mexican Primrose (oenothera berlandieri) tolerates my total sand, unbelievable hot sun all day environment with hardly any watering, and it spreads! Flowers appear all summer long. The oddball is a California Poppy (eschscholzia californica), which stops flowering for the summer when it gets too hot. They don't reseed as well as they do in CA.

And this is an Bird of Paradise bush (caesalpina gilliesii), which does this amazing display for most of May and into June. They won't survive the winter in the colder zones of Northern New Mexico, but love Albuquerque. The bush is a pretty rapid grower, to about 10-12 feet, and the seeds sprout really well. Watch out for exploding seed pods when it gets hot in July...

These are Red Coneflowers, a really tough native. These guys flower until it snows, all summer long.

Crimson Sage, a shrub that gets to about 4 feet and flowers all summer.

This is truly a native, some kind of nightshade... Very prickly, but these incredible sky blue flowers and little tomato-like orange fruits in the fall...

The tall pink ones are Penstemon Palmerii, wild pink snapdragon. They didn't even die back this winter, and last years' 4 inch pot is about 3 1/2 feet in diameter with 70 or so spikes this year... (Wait for the film to be devloped.) The shorter ones are another primrose, white evening primrose, incredibly fragrant evening bloomers. It succumbed to rust last year, sadly.

Gardening in New Mexico presents certain challenges... Snow on the Nectarines and Forsythia. sigh...

More to come... Including the latin names.