We are currently closed while we propagate and grow plants for fall.
We’ll reopen on October 1 for the next planting season
Why Plant Origins Matter
If you've visited the nursery, you've probably noticed that I ask a lot of questions before recommending a plant. Where do you live? Do you get frost? What is your soil like? Where will the plant be growing? What are you hoping to accomplish?
There isn't one perfect plant for every situation.
Instead, we start by understanding both the site and the plant. One of the most useful clues is knowing where a plant comes from. A plant that evolved in the Chihuahuan Desert will often have different water needs than one from the Colorado Desert. A Mojave Desert plant may tolerate hard freezes that would damage a plant from a warmer climate.
When customers ask me how much water a plant needs, they're often surprised that I don't give a simple answer. Instead, I try to explain how to figure it out. Understanding a plant's native habitat tells us when it naturally receives rainfall, what temperatures it experiences, and how it survives drought. Those clues help us predict what the plant will need in our own gardens.
My goal isn't simply to answer today's question. It's to help you understand how to answer future questions on your own. Whether you're shopping here, at another nursery, or researching a plant online, knowing where a plant comes from gives you the tools to make better decisions and choose plants that are better suited to your landscape.
What are Ecoregions?
An ecoregion is a geographic area with similar climate, soils, rainfall patterns, and plant and animal communities.
Plants and wildlife respond to these environmental conditions, not geographical or political boundaries.
That's why understanding a plant's ecoregion often tells us more about its needs than simply knowing what state it comes from.
The Coachella Valley is part of the Warm Deserts Ecoregion. While we often think of the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan Deserts as separate places, they are part of a larger ecological region with many shared environmental characteristics.
What Can a Plant's Origins Tell Us?
A plant's native habitat tells us much more than where it grows on a map. It gives us clues about how the plant evolved and what conditions it expects.
Two important factors are often:
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When the plant receives rainfall
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How much rainfall it receives
Deserts may look similar, but their weather patterns can be very different.
Plants are adapted to these natural cycles. A Chihuahuan Desert plant may need more supplemental irrigation during our dry summers because it evolved expecting summer rain. A Mojave Desert plant may tolerate hard freezes that would damage plants from warmer desert regions.
Understanding a plant's origins helps us predict:
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Irrigation needs
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Cold tolerance
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Growth cycles
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Dormancy periods
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Long-term garden performance
This is why we include a plant's origin on our signs and labels. It gives you valuable information about how that plant is likely to perform in your landscape.
Desert
Rainfall Pattern
Colorado Desert (Coachella Valley)
3–5" annually, mostly winter rainfall
Sonoran Desert
3–15"+ annually, winter rainfall and summer monsoons
Mojave Desert
4–10" annually, mostly winter rainfall with some summer monsoons
Chihuahuan Desert
8–20" annually, mostly summer rainfall
Want to learn more?
This is a simplified overview of ecoregions, rainfall patterns, and desert plant communities. If you'd like to dive deeper into the science behind these concepts, read our article in the September 2025 newsletter:
What I Read on My Summer Vacation (and Why It Matters for Your Garden)
What is a Native Plant?
A native plant is a species that occurs naturally in a particular region and evolved there over thousands of years alongside local wildlife, soils, climate, and rainfall patterns.
Native plants are not simply plants that can survive here. They are part of the local ecosystem and have co-evolved with native bees, butterflies, birds, reptiles, other wildlife, and even the soil, forming relationships that other plants just do not have.
When you ask at your local nursery if a plant is “native” you might get confusing information. That’s part of why we take great care to define where a plant is native so that you can build the best backyard habitat for our local wildlife and for your pleasure.
We break it down into three categories:
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Local natives
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Regional Natives
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Desert Adapted -
Local native plants (Coachella Valley)
These plants are native to the Colorado Desert, where we live here in the Coachella Valley. The Colorado Desert is part of the larger Sonoran Desert and is the portion that lies west of the Colorado River. A lot of Californians and Arizonans alike do not understand this point, and this is a big source of confusion about selecting regionally appropriate plants when you live in the Coachella Valley.
The Colorado is a subtropical desert and it rarely reaches freezing temperatures. It is a hot, dry desert with summer temperatures of 120 degrees not being uncommon. Our mountain ranges, particularly the San Jacinto mountains, create a rain shadow and block moisture from the west from making it into the valley. On average we only receive 3-5 inches of rain a year. Most of our rainfall comes in the winter but we do occasionally see monsoonal rains spill over from Arizona and Mexico, primarily in eastern Coachella Valley and foothills.
Regional native plants
Regional native plants are species native to neighboring desert regions such as the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan Deserts. These plants evolved under environmental conditions similar to ours and often provide many of the same ecological benefits as local natives.
Many popular pollinator plants, including Gregg's Mistflower, Parry's Penstemon, Fairy Duster, and Blackfoot Daisy, fall into this category. While they may not occur naturally in the Coachella Valley, they can still be valuable additions to wildlife-friendly gardens.
These plants represent a balance between ecological value and horticultural diversity. While they may require additional resources compared to local natives, they still support many pollinators and wildlife species found throughout the desert.
Desert Adapted plants
A desert-adapted plant is not native to our region, but it is often well-suited to desert conditions.
These plants may come from deserts in other parts of the world or from dry climates that share characteristics with our own. While they do not provide the same ecological benefits as native plants, they can still be useful in the landscape and often help gardeners transition toward a more water-efficient and wildlife-friendly garden.
Desert-adapted plants are often low water users and are the plants you see the most in our local desert landscapes, especially at HOAs and shopping centers. They are commonly available at most nurseries and big box stores.
Bougainvillea is an excellent example of a beloved desert-adapted plant. It is not a desert plant, but it performs remarkably well in our hot, dry climate. Many of the cacti and agaves in our landscapes come from other parts of the world.
While these plants often perform well in our climate, they generally do not support local wildlife to the same extent as native plants because they have not co-evolved with our insects, birds, and other animals.
Why We Carry Plants From Other Desert Regions
Our nursery focuses on Colorado Desert native plants first.
However, we also grow plants from neighboring desert regions that share similar environmental conditions and ecological relationships.
Wildlife does not recognize state lines or political boundaries. Birds migrate, pollinators travel, and plant communities often overlap across the deserts of the Southwest.
By understanding where a plant comes from and how it evolved, we can select plants that are appropriate for our climate while providing a broader palette for beautiful, wildlife-friendly gardens.
How Desert Plants Survive
The desert is a harsh environment. Our high summer temperatures, intense solar radiation, and drastic temperature changes would be lethal to non-adaptive plants.
Here are some common adaptations:
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Small leaves. This adaptation reduces water loss by reducing the number of stomata on each leaf (the botanical part where transpiration occurs).
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Thick or waxy leaves. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) is an excellent example of how a waxy coating reduces water loss, too.
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Leaves that reflect sunlight. Whether they’re fine and hairy or lighter in color (especially grayish like Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa), these adaptations help keep plants cooler by reflecting sunlight instead of absorbing it.
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Water conservation and storage. Large, tuberous roots are great for storing water safely underground (eg. Jimson Weed, Datura wrightii); root systems that take advantage of infrequent but intense rainfall; fleshy stems on succulents; shapes that channel rainwater to the plant’s base (e.g. Agaves); and cacti protect their water storage with spines.
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Green bark. Palo Verde trees are able to drop their leaves entirely and still photosynthesize.
Bringing It All Together
Choosing the right plant starts with understanding where it comes from.
A plant's origin tells us how it evolved, when it expects rain, what temperatures it tolerates, and how it interacts with wildlife.
Whether you're selecting a local native plant, a regional native, or a carefully chosen desert-adapted species, understanding plant origins helps you make better decisions and build a more resilient landscape.
That's why we include plant origins throughout our nursery and why we spend so much time talking about them with customers.