New Mexico Gardening: Drought Resistant Annuals

There is nothing I like more than flowers and beautiful green plants growing in my yard. After all the hard work spent planting and fertilizing and watering, it's nice to see the finalized product. If you live in New Mexico and want to see the same thing but are wary due to the lack of rain, there is an alternative. Here are my suggestions for drought resistant annuals that will bring beautiful blooming flowers to your yard.

Blue flax is a good flower to try if you want something that creates new blooms everyday. The blue flowers of this plant only last a day or two but are constantly replaced by new ones. This flax will need plenty of sunlight to grow to its full potential which can be up to three feet in height. The flowers will bloom from about March until September.

Another good annual to try is the poppy mallow. This annual thrives in drought conditions and does best planted in the sand but can adapt to just about any type of soil. The flowers start blooming about June and continue through August. The flowers are red to pink in color. It won't grow taller then two feet tall.

My third suggestion is an interesting annual called the Arizona lupine. I love the way this one looks as it grows straight up and the flowers branch off of either side of the thin stem growing upwards. This one will bloom from about March until May. The flowers are a beautiful pinkish-purple color. These are easy to grow from seed or look for them at your local garden center and transplant them into your yard.

Another neat one to try is the paperflower. This one will also need plenty of sunlight and can grow to two feet tall. The flowers start a rich yellow color then when mature turn white and resemble paper. If a breeze blows through these mature flowers it actually sounds like paper rustling, hence the name of the plant. These will bloom from May until September.

The last one I suggest is the tulip gentian. This one is one of my favorites and the flowers are very beautiful. This one needs full sun or very light shade for optimum growing. The best way to grow this tulip is from seeds but it can be transplanted. The flowers grow off of a long stem, are shaped like a tulip and are an amazing purplish-blue color.