Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

Not Yet Rated

Wednesday - January 28, 2009

From: Scottsdale, AZ
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Evergreen plants for shaded fence in Arizona
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I need to place a fence around my front yard (4-5 ft tall), in Arizona. What evergreen flower/plant can you recommend that would grow on this fence? (it would only get about 2-4 hours of sun daily and has very poor soil, but can be watered)

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants has been able to find quite a few candidates for evergreen plants (mostly shrubs) that will grow along your fence in part shade (2 to 6 hours sun per day):

Bouvardia ternifolia (firecrackerbush)

Ceanothus fendleri (Fendler's ceanothus) and here are photos from Southwest Colorado Wildflowers.

Chamaebatiaria millefolium (desert sweet) is semi-evergreen and here are photos from Utah State University

and CalPhotos.

Fallugia paradoxa (Apache plume) is another semi-evergreen plant.

Fouquieria splendens (ocotillo)

Fremontodendron californicum (California flannelbush) and here are photos and information from Virginia Tech.

Larrea tridentata (creosote bush)

Mahonia haematocarpa (red barberry) with information and photos from Virginia Tech.

Mahonia repens (creeping barberry)

Nolina microcarpa (sacahuista) with more information from the University of Arizona Pima County Cooperative Extension.

Simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) and more photos and information from University of Arizona Pima County Cooperative Extension.

As far as I can discover, there are no evergreen vines native to Arizona. You can see the vines that are native there by doing a COMBINATION SEARCH on our Native Plant Database and selecting 'Arizona' from the "Select State or Province" category and 'Vine' from the "Habit (general appearance)" category.