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Harlequins Gardens

Harlequins Gardens

Boulder's specialist in well-adapted plants

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Home | Blog | WATER-WISE SHRUBS & VINES – 2025 Newsletter

WATER-WISE SHRUBS & VINES – 2025 Newsletter

March 21, 2025

Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’

We have a large selection of drought-tolerant and water-wise Shrubs AND Vines.

These Native shrubs will need no watering after their first year (except in drought):

Yucca: glauca-local, stiff evergreen, sharp blades; Y. baccata-arching evergreen, dramatic blades, striking in winter

Rabbitbrush: tall blue & tall green 4’-6’; dwarf-2’-3’; yellow flowers late summer for pollinators, shear after flowering

Apache Plume: single, white flowers with pinkish seed plumes, 4’-6’ arching habit; spreading slowly, easy

Sumacs: Rocky Mt. 3’-6’’ more upright; Three Leaf 4’-5’spreading; both have red berries, red fall color

Sage: Artemisia Big Sage 6’-9’; Sand Sage 3’-5’; Artemisia cana 2’-4’; all with silver aromatic leaves

Mt. Mahogany: Curlleaf 12’-18’ evergreen; True Leaf 6’-9’ deciduous; Little Leaf 5’ evergreen;  all for sun

Fernbush: 5’x5’ clusters of white flowers for pollinators and beneficial insects, can bloom twice

Lead Plant: 3’-4’ open form, spikes of purple flowers for pollinators, nitrogen fixing

Snowberry: 4’-5’ dense, spreading; tiny early flowers, showy white berries in fall; OK in very dry shade, part shade

Rock Spirea-Holodiscus: 3’-6’ white flowers in panicles dry to pink; reddish fall color

New Mexican Privet (Forestiera): 9’-12’ multistem tree, good screen, females have blue berries for the birds

Buffaloberry: 8’-12’ tree, silver leaves, tiny flowers for pollinators, females can have red edible berries

Chilopsis linearis-Desert Willow: 10-15’ tall, multi-trunked, orchid-like pink-purple flowers, xeric, beautiful

Quercus gambelii-Gambel Oak: 15-25’ often multi-trunked small tree, tolerates alkaline and dry soils

Quercus undulata-Wavy-leaf Oak: 15-25’ small tree, natural hybrid with variable leaf size and color, xeric

 

 

These Native shrubs are also water-wise. Water once a week to establish, and later once a week to once a month, depending on exposure, soil and community:

Serviceberry- Amelanchier alnifolia: 6’-12’, white flowers for pollinators, edible fruit for birds and people, red fall color

Boulder Raspberry: 4’-5’ arching shrub, white rose-like flowers, likes growing next to a big rock, fruit for birds

Western Sandcherry: 4’-6’, white fragrant flowers for pollinators, berries for birds, soft red fall color

Pawnee Buttes selection has the same flowers and fruit, but is only 1’-2’ high and 6’ wide and Boulder Creeping is more prostrate

Cheyenne Mockorange: 6’, white, very sweetly fragrant flowers; very hardy and tough; sun/ part shade

Native Currants-Gwen’s Buffalo & Crandall Clove: very fragrant yellow flowers for pollinators; dependable delicious larger berries for people and birds, attractive red/orange fall color 4’x4’; for your edible landscape; sun/pt. shade

Native Elderberry: clusters of white flowers, clusters of red berries for the birds 5’-10’; part shade

Creeping Mahonia: 6”-16”, evergreen, yellow flowers for pollinators, blue berries for birds; part shade

Mountain Ninebark-Physocarpus monogynus: 3’-4’ compact shrub, clusters of small flowers, orange-red fall color

Jamesii americana-Waxflower: 4’-6’ shrub; fragrant, waxy flowers white to blush pink, part-shade, some watering

Non-native but Colorado adapted and drought-tolerant shrubs. Water once a week the first year, and once a week or once a month from then on depending on location, soil and drought conditions:

Lilac, Cotoneaster (most), Nanking Cherry, Prunus tenella, Sumac, Smokebush, Blue Mist Spirea, Genista lydia, Philadelphus-Mikl’s Pick, Silver Butterfly Bush, Harison’s Yellow Rose, Siberian Pea Shrub

Vines:

Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, Wisteria, Clematis, Euonymus, Ivy, Ampelopsis and MORE

No one can stop us from voting with our dollars.                   Green America

Categories: Blog, OLD-Blog

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We do not ship plants!

Our plants are for sale ONLY at our Boulder location. We DO NOT ship plants or any other products.  Come visit us!

Hours by Season

SUMMER HOURS
Tuesday-Sunday, 9AM-5PM

 

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Contact Us

303-939-9403 (Retail)
staff@harlequinsgardens.com

4795 North 26th St
Boulder, CO 80301

Sign-up for E-Newsletters!

Sign-up for our weekly e-newsletters to receive empowering gardening tips, ecological insights, and to keep up on happenings at Harlequin’s Gardens — such as flash sales and “just in” plants. We never share customer’s addresses!

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Our Hours

Seasonally, MARCH to OCTOBER.
MARCH HOURS:
Thursday-Sunday, 9AM-5PM

APRIL-OCTOBER HOURS:
Tuesday-Sunday, 9AM-5PM

JANUARY - FEBRUARY HOURS
Thursday-Saturday, 10AM-4PM

Mondays, CLOSED

The plants we grow are organically grown. All the plants we sell are free of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides.