NATIVE PLANTS FOR

NORTHERN ARIZONA LANDSCAPES

Compiled by Janice Busco, Horticulturist & Cheryl Casey, Assistant Horticulturist

The Arboretum at Flagstaff
4001 South Woody Mountain Road
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(520) 774-1442
www.thearb.org

HOW TO PRACTICE ENVIRONMENTAL HORTICULTURE

Environmental horticulture utilizes an understanding and awareness of your site and the native plants available to you and the landscape features and gardening techniques which will collect and preserve water resources. This approach allows for both natural reproduction of plants and their establishment in the landscape.

1. Know your site, its seasonal fluctuations, natural weather cycles and microclimates.
2. Know the plants and features already present on your site.
3. Use water harvesting techniques—cistern, channeling and contours, planting rings, low spots, etc.
4. Use rocks and mulches to conserve and collect water.
5. Use some higher-water using plants to create shade and create protected zones of higher humidity.
6. Visit natural areas with like microclimates to your site and see how, where and in what combinations native plants occur.   Look at native plant gardens and see what you like and what works. Once you know your site and its microclimates, you can use native plants from many different habitats in your landscape.
7. Create a healthy, open soil. Use organic soil amendments such as compost and composted manure tilled into the soil to create an open soil, which will allow water to enter. Organic matter will also help cindery and excessively drained soils hold water.
8. Plant with the seasons. Usually, this means waiting for the monsoon season. Seed wildflowers and grasses just as the monsoons arrive. Begin planting any time thereafter, and continue into early autumn.   Direct seed plants that need winter chill to germinate in late summer-early autumn.
9. When planting make sure water will reach the plant roots. Fill the planting hold with water twice before planting. Double-water plants in containers before planting. Water in well.   For extra water conservation, gently remove artificial soil from plant roots before planting.   Once soil is moist, apply mulch to conserve water.
10.   Be sure to monitor plants for water needs until they are established. Thereafter, give infrequent, deep water. When using plants from similar habitats, water infrequently in dry years or to improve appearance.
11. Avoid planting weeds and invasive species. Practice a regular and vigilant weed management program on your land.

Please come and visit the gardens at the Arboretum at Flagstaff for ideas and inspiration. While the majority of plants in the Arboretum gardens are native to the Colorado Plateau, the following gardens specifically showcase native plants: Entrance Garden, Courtyard Garden, Mixed Conifer Habitat, Water-Conservation Garden (with habitat zones), Constructed Wetland, Charles O. Minor Nature Trail, Shade Garden.

HIGH-ELEVATION COLORADO PLATEAU LANDSCAPING LISTS BY HABITAT

In this list, plants are listed by names in common use in the nursery trade.

Habitat descriptions refer to the natural areas where the listed native landscaping plants occur, but you can find microclimates in your yard by looking for or creating the specified environmental conditions.

Water designations are as follows:

Low – Once established, plants will thrive with no supplemental water within the designated habitat.

Low to moderate –– Once established, plants will live with no supplemental water within the designated habitat, but will perform and look better with infrequent, deep watering during periods of low precipitation.

Moderate – Once established, plants will do best with regular watering.

Moderate to High – Once established, plants will look their best with frequent water. Many of these plants will go dormant with low or infrequent watering.

High - These plants will require constant moisture.

To help in the plant selection process, visit natural areas with microclimates similar to your site and see how, where and in what combinations native plants occur. Look at native plant gardens and see what you like and what works. Once you know your site and its microclimates, you can use native plants from many different habitats in your landscape.

If you do not find your community listed in one of the eight section pages below, call or e-mail the Arboretum at Flagstaff and we will help you determine which lists are best for your landscape.

SECTION 1: Dry Ponderosa Pine Forest Habitat (Open Woodland)

SECTION 2: High-elevation Cold Moist Habitat

SECTION 3: Warm Ponderosa Pine Forest/Pinyon-Juniper Woodland

SECTION 4: Streamside and Moist Canyon Habita

SECTION 5: Mid-elevation Sunny Meadow Habitat

SECTION 6: Chaparral Habitat

SECTION 7: High Desert Grassland Habitat:

SECTION 8: Ephemeral Streams and Seasonal Runoff

(From Sego Lily, the Newsletter of the Utah Native Plant Society, November/December 1989):

NATIVE PLANTS FOR

NORTHERN ARIZONA LANDSCAPES

The Arboretum at Flagstaff
4001 South Woody Mountain Road
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(520) 774-1442
www.thearb.org

HIGH-ELEVATION COLORADO PLATEAU LANDSCAPING LISTS BY HABITAT

In this list, plants are listed by names in common use in the nursery trade.

ANIMAL RESISTANT PLANTS:

TUSAYAN: (From Grand Canyon Flora)

Trees:

Shrubs:

CACTI AND SUCCULENTS
Partial list

VINES:

PERENNIALS

Grasses:

INVASIVE AND WEEDY PLANTS

Copyright © 2007 The Arboretum at Flagstaff
Last modified: Monday June 15, 2009

NATIVE PLANTS FOR

NORTHERN ARIZONA LANDSCAPES

The Arboretum at Flagstaff 4001 South Woody Mountain Road Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (520) 774-1442 www.thearb.org

HIGH-ELEVATION COLORADO PLATEAU LANDSCAPING LISTS BY HABITAT

In this list, plants are listed by names in common use in the nursery trade.

ANIMAL RESISTANT PLANTS:

TUSAYAN: (From Grand Canyon Flora) Trees:

Shrubs:

CACTI AND SUCCULENTS Partial list

VINES:

PERENNIALS

Grasses:

INVASIVE AND WEEDY PLANTS

Copyright © 2007 The Arboretum at Flagstaff Last modified: Monday June 15, 2009

The Arboretum at Flagstaff
4001 South Woody Mountain Road
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(520) 774-1442
www.thearb.org

TUSAYAN: (From Grand Canyon Flora)

Trees:

CACTI AND SUCCULENTS
Partial list

Copyright © 2007 The Arboretum at Flagstaff
Last modified: Monday June 15, 2009