First foray into flora?

If you’re dipping your toe into the soil for the first time in Southern Nevada, here are some bird-friendly plants that do well in our dry desert climate.

Hummingbird bush: This glorious shrub is covered in red trumpetshaped flowers all summer and is very attractive to hummingbirds. This plant is a top attraction at the Springs Preserve. Plant in a large container. A Texas native, this plant grows 3 to 5 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide in partial shade to full sun. Requires regular irrigation in summer, three times per week.

Lantana: These low-growing shrubs are a staple of Las Vegas landscaping. The bulletproof plants bloom throughout the summer and attract butterflies and other pollinators. They grow to be 6 to 18 feet tall and 4 feet wide (smaller in a container) in partial shade to full sun. There are many colors to choose from.

False yucca: These Texas natives are fantastic in containers but also work well as landscaping. The flowers range from pink to yellow and are beloved by hummingbirds. There are a

The Merlin app for smartphones can help identify even the briefly spotted birds, as it has an array of photos captured by other users. few different sizes to accommodate a variety of containers. For smaller pots try Hesperaloe “brake lights.” They grow best in partial shade to full sun.

Rush milkweed: This native milkweed sports yellow and cream colored flowers atop leafless greengray stems, lending an architectural quality to plantings and containers. It grows 2 to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide in full sun to partial shade, requires watering only a couple of times a week for best performance and can be kept mostly dry in winter. Very attractive to native pollinators and butterflies, including monarch butterflies.

Tufted evening primrose: These white-flowered native perennials open their large, fragrant blooms in the evening. They are known to attract hawk moths and other pollinators and are favorites of native bees. They grow up to 10 feet tall and 18 feet wide and bloom from spring into early summer and sometimes in the fall in full sun to partial shade.

For a list of other plants that are well-suited to Southern Nevada, check out www.snwa.com/landscapes/ plants/index.cfml.

Springs Preserve

Source: Creating a garden sanctuary

Milkweed is the perfect first plant for your garden.

“You can get a milkweed and have that in a pot and that hosts monarch caterpillars,” Crinigan said. “It will attract other insects that are going to be eaten by other birds. Hummingbirds will feed at milkweed flowers. And then when we have orioles that come through typically during migration season … (they) use those milkweed fibers for their nests.”

New gardeners can reach out to one of the many clubs under the Nevada Garden Club umbrella.

“Gardeners are so willing to help you and share what they know,” longtime Nevada Garden Club member Kristie Livreri said.

Growing any kind of plant life in the desert can be challenging, but some seasons are better than others, Livreri said.

“Planting in the fall is really beneficial to the Southern Nevada gardener,” she said. “You can have a very successful vegetable garden planted in the fall. Last year, I picked my last tomatoes in December.”

Gardening can be accessible to all budgets and space limitations.

Livreri said another garden club member, Nancy Bovill, grows vegetables and flowers on the small patio of her upstairs apartment.

“She’s an older lady that really can’t get out and do a lot of gardening, but it’s right there at her fingertips on her patio,” Livreri said.

A low-cost way of getting seeds or starter plants is by going to one of the Nevada Garden Club plant sales.

Crinigan said other local groups such as the Facebook group Las Vegas Backyard Gardeners also can help a novice get started.

“Regularly, those people will have seedlings and sprouts from their plants … and sometimes there’s so many that they just offer those plants and seed pods to other gardeners,” she said.

The Audubon Society has an online native plant database at audubon.org/native-plants/ that uses ZIP codes to identify the best native plants for an area and lists the kind of birds they will attract.

Surprise visitors

In addition to the many birds that can be seen year-round, your garden may attract rare species.

This year, Crinigan had a wood thrush visit her garden. This migratory bird is rarely seen in Nevada.

“Those migratory birds are going to stop in your yard and you might get something really exciting … and it’s just going to change your life. I had no idea of what bird this was in my backyard, and then to find out that this bird chose my yard of all the yards to stop in, it was really amazing,” Crinigan said.