Best Books and Websites for Plant Selection in Las Vegas

Q. I am relatively new to this desert environment and I know hardly anything about desert plants.  Would you recommend the best book(s) you have read that describe these desert plants? Which are best as decorative lawn plants? When to plant them and how to care for them?

A. I would focus on something written for the Las Vegas climate or secondly Tucson, Arizona and lastly the desert Southwest.

            Tucson has a very similar climate to Las Vegas; a bit warmer in the winter and a bit more humid and wetter during the summer months. Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert which gets 250% more water (about ten inches of rain each year) than our Mojave Desert (four inches of rain each year) and generally has better soils.

            Adjust books not specifically for the Las Vegas area to our climate and soils by recognizing that our winter low temperatures can and frequently get into the low twenties and even the upper teens on occasion. Trees you select for the “backbone” of your desert landscape should withstand these temperatures or you are asking for trouble. Play around with lesser landscape plants that don’t tolerate these temperatures but don’t expect them to survive forever.

            Linn Mills from Las Vegas and Dick Post from Reno teamed up and wrote a book called the Nevada Gardeners Guide that has information split between both northern Nevada and southern Nevada. Its focus was to understand both Mojave Desert (Las Vegas) and Great Basin (Reno) conditions, soils and how to manage a landscape growing in them. Their book is available on Amazon and Abes Books if you search using the author names. It would be a good book for Pahrump, St. George and Kingman, Arizona besides Las Vegas and Reno area.

            Another book I used in the past is Plants for Dry Climates written out of the Tucson area by Mary Rose Duffield and Warren Jones. As well as plants, it includes desert landscape design ideas. It is also available on Amazon and Abes Books. The newest edition includes and expanded section plant selection and care. The original version presents a concept on desert landscaping called the minioasis landscape design concept which I really like as well as landscape plants that are successful here. It applies to any of our desert climates including the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the Southwest but less to the Great Basin area.

            A solid reference book you should have in your library is the Sunset Western Garden Book. It is not specific for the Las Vegas area but does a good job discussing desert soils, desert environments as well as an exhaustive list of plants and their descriptions suitable for many different kinds of Western environments.

            As far as free websites on plants online, I reference Chris Martin’s Virtual Library of Phoenix Landscape Plants housed at Arizona State University quite a bit. Just realize its focus is Phoenix climate and soils, is 5 to 10 degrees warmer in the winter and not quite as hot in the summer. It is perfect for Laughlin, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu, Arizona as is. It is excellent for Las Vegas selections but just keep in mind the temperature limitations between Phoenix and Las Vegas. This website doesn’t pull any punches on landscape plant shortcomings and how well they perform in desert climates and soils. Once you have made a plant selection, it is a good bench check on how it will perform here.

            Several knowledgeable local experts like the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) searchable database of landscape plants for Las Vegas, called “Find Plants”. It is accurate with information presented on plants but I find it somewhat cumberson to use at times. It is a good site when you are first looking for possible plants to use.