Common name:Mexican Palo Verde, Jerusalem Thorn
Botanical name:Parkinsonia aculeata

Prickly stems. Very fast growing with sparse foliage & very long narrow leaves. Yellow flowers with orange red throats spring for month+. Very messy, thorny, weedy & shortlived. Usually found on limestone soils in areas with moisture but is strongly drought tolerant. Withstands saline conditions. Can be cold or drought deciduous. Half hardy to Dallas. Light airy tree. Green bark.

Common name:Hybrid White Rockrose
Botanical name:Cistus hybridus

This is a small evergreen shrub with 2 in. long gray-green crinkly leaves. It has pure white flowers with prominant yellow stamens . It is produced throughout the spring to early summer. Avoid heavy mulches. Also sold as Cistus corbariensis.

Common name:Double Sunburst Coreopsis
Botanical name:Coreopsis grandiflora 'Double Sunburst'

The 'Early Sunrise' is a wonderful cultivar and showy, southern U.S. native. Golden yellow double flowers on 2' bushy plants bloom from June to September in full sun and average to dry soils. It makes for good cut flowers, and pruning keeps the plants abundant with blooms. -Holland WIldflower Farm

Common name:Our Lord's Candle
Botanical name:Yucca whipplei

Stemless, it produces dense clusters of rigid, gray-green lvs 12-18" long. Its drooping, bell-shaped flowers appear on large, branched spikes 3-6'. Plants die after blooming, much like agaves, but only individual rosettes will die off, others in in clump will continue to live & eventually bloom. Overall plant grows 3' x 6'. Native Calif. into Baja usually in chaparral 1-4000'. Prefers well drained soil. Drought tolerant but will lose lower leaves with extended drought. Great accent. Sharp

Dealing With Drought

More than half of the water used at your home is for outside purposes. Studies show that on average, half of the water used outdoors is wasted. The leading cause of waste is incorrectly set and poorly managed irrigation controllers. The second biggest cause of wastage is broken irrigation equipment that goes undetected. There are a few basic things you can do to make a big difference in your water use.

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