Having moved to the central highlands of Arizona from a Mediterranean climate 25 years ago, I quickly found new landscaping choices. No more orange blossoms blooming in the spring or year-round bougainvillea flowering in my garden.
One thing I didn’t have the patience for were plants that appeared stick-like through the winter and beyond. Waiting until May for them to come back to life was not an option.
Along with the need for year-round color we brought with us something else that had become a fixture in our yards, a pool.
I remember the real estate agent laughing at us when we told her that our plans included building a pool. The joke being that we had bought a lot on top of
solid granite. We had to forego that plan but have since built two, the latest on the side of a mountain.
I gladly share my list of favorite year-round evergreens with my clients and will here, as well:
• Boxwood
• Hicks Yew
• Nandina
• Vinca myrtle
• Hall’s honeysuckle
• Coral Beauty cotoneaster
• Hawthorne
• Pyracantha
And my favorite natural beauty — manzanita, with its pale pink blossoms and unique branches!
