Desert Gardening Expert Speaks II
Judith Phillips names favorite desert plants
Judith Phillips books include:
New Mexico Gardener’s Guide, Thomas Nelson, publisher, Cool Springs Press, Franklin, TN (First edition 1998), revised 2005.
Southwestern Landscaping with Native Plants, Revised Edition. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM (First edition, 1987), revised 2002
Natural by Design and Plants for Native Gardens. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, 1995.
Tomorrow, Today, Yesterday – The life of Mariposa. High Desert Investment Corporation, Albuquerque, NM. 2006.
DG: How did you become interested and involved in writing?
JP: When I was 8 or 9 years old I started exchanging long letters with my aunt and cousins across country. I later had pen pals in New Zealand and other places. In high school I wrote for the school paper and literary magazine. Journalism was my first, very short-lived, major in college. My first book began as research and propagation notes for native plants I was trying to grow.
DG: Do you write every day?
JP: I write in my head constantly, but don’t get it on the page daily. Design and writing seem to come from the same place in me, so I’m either doing one or the other.
DG: Are there any xeriscape experts (other than
yourself) who you would recommend people read or attend their lectures?
JP: In New Mexico: George Radnovich, David Salman, David Cristiani. In Arizona: Judy Mielke, Mary Irish, Christy Ten Eyck , Dan Goodspeed and Chris Martin. In Colorado: Ken Ball, Dan Johnson, Jim Knopf and Gwen and Panayoti Kelaidis. In Nevada: Dennis Swartzell. In Texas: Wynn Anderson. I’m sure I’m forgetting people.
DG: What are some of your favorite xeric plants?
JP: Okay, it’s Wednesday so today’s favorites are Chilopsis linearis, Vauquelinia, most Salvias especially the cold hardy shrubby ones, and many Penstemon, Wyethia scabra, Pinus pinea, Lavandula x intermedia especially ‘Grosso’, ‘Arp’ rosemary, Ericameria laricifolia, most Rhus species, Quercus emoryi and fusiformis and others—kind of hard not to love oak trees--, Mirabilis multiflora, Physalis lobata, Zinnia grandiflora, Sophora secundiflora, Palo verdes—I go visit them in Arizona whenever possible. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few hundred.
DG: Is there anyone doing hybridizing or developing new species of plants not normally associated with xeric gardening, which have new xeric characteristics? (e.g. I know David Salmon at High Country Gardens is doing some work in that area. In fact, we have named High Country Gardens the top website from which to order desert and xeric plants.) And other names come to mind?
JP: I’m more concerned about getting native and some adaptive species in cultivation—consistently available. Hybridization can be a good thing if overall vigor is the objective, but in Onward and Upward, Katherine White wrote a great piece on the absurdity of hybridization to produce strange new plants – mums that look like dahlias or vise versa was one of her examples—That was at least 50 years ago, and it continues now—our human fascination with shiny new things extends to horticulture, but substance is at least as important as style. If it isn’t healthy, it won’t look good, so why waste the time, space and water?
Related Article:
Desert Garden Expert Speaks I
