Here are my favorite plants in Phoenix, Arizona, as seen in the yard of my home. I get tons of questions about what type of plants do well in Phoenix, so I’m gathering up pictures and descriptions of all of my favorites in my yard. I’m in Planting Zone 9b. I hope it will help you to create a beautiful oasis in your own yards! All pictures are taken by me of the flowers at my home at Modern Farmhouse Glam. XO-Amy
All of these plants have done well throughout the summers and some really thrive in during the hottest summer days. Afternoon shade is usually preferred for most plants in the summertime when it’s over 95 degrees, except the yellow bells, sparkys, sunflowers, and Barados Cherry Tree, which love the heat and sun.
Gardening supply list of my favorite purchases on Amazon here.
My vegetable garden is shown and discussed at the end of this article.
White Iceberg Roses:
White Iceberg Roses are some of my favorite flowers in our garden. This photo shows the roses that I planted in pots at the entryway to our home. I also have window boxes in the courtyard full of white iceberg roses. Being able to see them from the large windows inside is the best part. I planted them on a whim two years ago and to my surprise, they have done amazingly well in Phoenix. Blooming and showing off a good part of the year, they are a perfect choice for creating a sophisticated and elegant entrance or garden.
TIPS: They like full sun, however, they do the best if they are in afternoon shade during the hottest summer days. I give them a little bit of rose fertilizer 1-2 times a year. Cut back after they bloom to encourage new growth. Dead head below the cluster of five dead roses, to the next closest petals on the stem. This will encourage new growth.
Since I have enjoyed them so much, we recently added them to the backyard, underneath both the kitchen and master bedroom windows. I may have to protect them in the summertime from the afternoon sun with a shade cloth until they get established.
Water: I have them on the automatic drip system, getting watered 5-7 days a week for about 20-30 minutes on a slow drip. Currently I’m doing 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. I also hand water them for the first week after planting.
We have iceberg rose bushes lining our back windows and in the front yard. They are fabulous!
Here’s when I picked up ten more rose bushes for the backyard. I couldn’t help myself, they are so beautiful!
White Bower Vine
This showy vine is growing on a trellis to hide our electrical/utility boxes. The funnel shaped white flowers with pink centers grow in flower clusters of 5-7. Hummingbirds love it! Bower vines are easy to grow and will find it’s way through the trellis. Sometimes I will train a few vine stems by wrapping them through and around the trellis. We have it in full sun all day and afternoon shade. It’s on our automatic drip system and gets watered about 30 minutes 5 days a week. This picture shows how big it has gotten after two years.
Sunflowers
These have got to be the most satisfying, rewarding flowers to grow in Phoenix. Especially because you can produce a dramatic result with a $2.50 bag of seeds. They produce giant flowers on tall, towering stems. Our largest one last summer was over eight feet. Bees love them which are a welcome addition to your flower and vegetable gardens.
Seedling begin to emerge in about a week and we’ve seen them pop through in just a few days! We have them on the automatic drip system, watering everyday and they love the full sun. Phoenix is a perfect place to grow them because they adore the hot and sunny summer days!
A cool thing about sunflowers is that they move direction during the day to point toward the sun. They are literally facing east in the morning and west at sunset.
We now have a dedicated sunflower patch that is three rows deep. We set it up so that we can see our beautiful sunflowers from our kitchen/dining room windows.
These are the seed packets that we like. They have produced sunflowers like this one in our garden, which is 8-10 ft tall.
BARBADOS CHERRY TREE
We were pleasantly surprised with how much the Barbados cherry tree loves our Phoenix summers! It adores the heat and sunshine. It is super hardy and produces a ton of cherries. The cherries taste a bit tart.
The pic below is about one year after we planted our Cherry Tree. Further below I have a pic of it this summer, which is after two years of growing.
Below pic is after two years of growth. The first year, the main leader branch got broken in a monsoon storm, but it recovered and is going strong!
HONG KONG ORCHID TREE
My husband I always wonder why everyone in Arizona doesn’t have this stunning tree in their yards? It is our FAVORITE tree that we’ve had, and in fact, we now have SEVEN in our yard. This tree produces the most gorgeous, showy, large 6 inch, hot pink blooms, a good part the year. And they even smell fragrant! The hummingbirds in our yard love our Hong Kong Orchid flowers. The large green oval leaves are so attractive and the branches spread out like a canopy. This tree loves the full sun and heat in Phoenix.
(Above) We just planted this Hong Kong Orchid about 6 months ago and it is growing vigorously and blooming away!
(Below) We planted three more Hong Kong Orchids in the far left corner of the yard because we love them so much. They will add so much color and vibrancy to the green turf in that area of the yard. This pic was taken right after the turf was installed. The yellow bells and white oleanders were just planted then as well. I have video of us planting those flowers on my Instagram saved highlights called Garden. They have grown so much since then!
YELLOW BELLS
These hardy, native to Arizona plants are amazing. We planted over 20 of them along our back wall, so that instead of looking at an ugly brown concrete wall, we will see beautiful yellow flowers. They will hedge and cover the entire wall. They bloom most of the year. The bees and butterflies love them.
Above is a pic of when we planted our Yellow Bells. They have since grown a ton!
SPARKYS- these are in the same family as yellow bells, but are orange. They are just as hardy and native to Phoenix. We have them along our side wall in the front yard.
WHITE OLEANDERS
Below is when we first planted our white oleanders. They are fast growers. Ours are the giant variety that get really tall and will cover this extra tall wall. There is a smaller variety, called dwarf oleanders, which we have along the border of our yard. Those ones are the hot pink/red type. White is the dominant variety of oleanders and their blooms are larger and more abundant.
RANGOON CREEEPER VINES
I planted these stunning vines along our side wall about a year ago. The blooms of the rangoon creeper vine are so unique and I love the contrasting colors.
Grape Vines
Here is a pic of some of our grape vines. I planted the first one two years ago and it’s going crazy, so then I planted two more. Just added a few more this a couple of weeks ago! Grapes love the Phoenix heat and sunshine. I can’t believe how many grape clusters are on the vines.
Below is our new Chardonnay grape vine that I just planted in the Fall. The grapes are just starting to form and it will be a bit until they’re ready to harvest. Can’t wait! You should try growing some grapes in your backyard, you’ll love them!
We also have the following varieties: Zinfandel, Merlot, Interlaken Seedless Green and a seedless red.
VEGETABLE GARDEN
We have veggies planted on our side yard in five raised garden beds and also in containers in our courtyard. I’m busy working on all of it and will update with more pics and videos soon, but check out what I have so far below. Stay tuned to my Instagram stories for all the latest.
HERE is a link to my new raised garden beds where I planted my vegetables on the side yard. The cute little picket fence that I added across the back is linked here.
In this raised garden bed, I planted two varieties of raspberry bushes and some zinnias. It’s about my sixth time trying raspberries, so stay tuned. I’m determined!
Stay tuned for what I planted in my other raised beds, which I’ll show videos soon! I planted edamame, squash, sugar snap peas, cucumbers and much more. And of course some watermelon along the wall. Watermelon always has done well for me in the summertime. Blog article HERE with more details on my vegetable garden, including companion planting.
STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES ON THIS BLOG ARTICLE WITH MY ADDITIONAL FAVE PLANTS IN OUR YARD!
Check out some of my gardening purchases on Amazon!
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