High Elevation Gardening Web Log "Blog"

Happily, God has given us imagination and the Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima), a gardener’s delight. Its leaves are so fine they sometimes tangle, but sadly not a tangle with which to dally. Yielding to a breeze with the grace of a ballet dancer it does a light fandango with castanets and in triple time in a good wind, a blessing which Flagstaff has in excess (no smog.) Its tall (2ft to 3ft), light green set amongst the lower blue green of a blue fescue (Festuca ovina ‘Glauca’) make an beguiling accompaniment to a small cluster of bearded iris (Iris germanica). As in all forms of art, gardening, especially landscaping, is compare and contrast.

All of these survive, even prevail, on budgeted water, needing water only during dry spells. They can make it on water from dishpans or washing machines. The blue fescue gets even bluer with less water. The voluptuous blooms of the bearded iris are one of the few beauties of the world who flourish on benign neglect and low maintenance. Of course, benign neglect doesn’t mean abuse. They need some water and appropriate nutrients. Some bearded irides (plural for iris amongst Hellenistic purists) also come as rebloomers, blooming again in the summer and sometimes in the fall.

The word “iris” is a Greek word meaning “rainbow” or metaphorically “halo.” The unknown John of the Apocalypse writes a lovely verse using iris, “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs pillars of fire (10:1.)” The setting reads like a thunderstorm over the peaks with flashes of lightning, a rainbow threading its way in and out of a virga, and the brilliance of the sun blazing through gaps in the clouds. All of the colors in that scene can be found in irides whose beauty can become, as the Book of Common Prayer reads, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”

Perennial grasses are available for gardeners on a water budget. Unless a lawn serves as a playing field, a golf course, or a place for children’s play, grasses suitable to the sere of the Southwest offer an intriguing texture. Creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra), a finely-textured, dark green grass, does well out of the sun, forming lazy whorls in the shade. Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina), a dark green, lies flat and in mounds in various patterns and needs mowing with a weed-whacker a couple of times a year. Both of these need only 12 inches of rain annually.

Many bulbs, rhizomes and perennials love gardens on a water budget. A lushly xeriscaped garden can have color spring, summer, and fall. Beginning with Wordsworth’s “fluttering and dancing daffodils” (Narcissus) and tulips (Tulipa) in late winter and early spring, the list continues through the bearded iris and western blue flag (Iris missouriensis) and perennials such as firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella), blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata) and various penstemon such as Red Rocks penstemon (Penstemon x mexicale 'Red Rocks'), Rocky Mountain penstemon (Penstemon strictus), and pineleaf penstemon (Penstemon pinifolius). The drought tolerant geranium-leaf larkspur (Delphinium geraniifolium) is a long-blooming perennial as is Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and that old favorite of country gardens, hollyhock (Althaea rosea). The list is extensive. A good resource is Janice Busco and Nancy R. Morin’s Native Plants for High-Elevation Western Gardens. Bon sec jardinage.

By Dana Prom Smith
The author is a Master Gardener volunteer for Coconino County Cooperative Extension. If you have a gardening question, call the Master Gardener hotline at 774-1868 ext. 19 or visit our Web site: highelevationgardening.arizona.edu.