Spring comes very early in the desert and these precocious bloomers will jump-start your garden at the very dawn of the season.
Parry's penstemon (Penstemon parryi) casts a haze of hot pink hummingbird-attracting blooms beginning in February. Zones 8-10
Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) is sought after for its January to February Sonoran desert blooms of yellow daisylike flowers. Zones 7-9
Mt. Lemmon marigold (Tagetes lemmonii) makes its home in many arid herb gardens, with its fragrant ferny green foliage graced by gold flowers from January to April. Zones 8-11
Chuperosa (Justicia californica) sports edible tubular red flowers on nearly leafless straw-shape stems February through May. Zones 8-10
Sweet acacia (Acacia farnesiana), a small tree, erupts in sweet-smelling, golden ball-shape blooms in February. Zones 8-10
Bush dalea (Dalea pulchra), a native shrub, begins in February its show of tiny pea-shape, purple-blue flowers. Zones 9-11
Valentine emu bush (Eremophila 'Valentine'), an Australian native, puts on a cloak of dark red, trumpet-shape flowers around Cupid's holiday. Zones 10-11
Shrubby bulbine (Bulbine frutescens 'Yellow') blooms from January through May like a little green onion with yellow flowers. Zone 10
Blue elf aloe (Aloe 'Blue Elf') lights up the garden as its little candelabras of orange-red flowers open in January and last into early March. Zones 9-11
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