Mexico

A very slow-growing tree-form yucca from an Ian Barclay collection near Rodeo, NM. Doesn't need great age and trunk development to produce tall stalks of creamy white flowers which is good because if you are like us, you're buying ripe bananas. Ian is a font of knowledge on cold-hardy, drought tolerant plants.

A Mexican self-clinging evergreen climber or if left unsupported, it develops arboreal stems which will support it as a large shrub. Grown this way it will send out questing branches looking to climb but they are easy to nip off. Great for a north wall or Doug Fir. White lace caps in July.

Thanks to Adam Black of Peckerwood for sharing cuttings of this shrubby winter-blooming Senecio. This is a collection from Mexico and has proved to be a good plant in Texas as well as hardy in North Carolina. Pretty new to us so we can't vouch for it yet in our maritime steppe climate but late season yellow flowers would be sweet.

One of those perennial Lobelia that shouldn't be as hardy as it is but mountainous areas of southern Arizona and northern Mexico have plants with surprising hardiness. A graceful clump of thin willowy leaves on stems 15"-24" tall with a profusion of midsummer tubular red flowers with a bright yellow throat. Deciduous in winter, ours handles our brief drops to 10F with mulch. Good drainage aids in winter survival.