Today I’m featuring portraits of pink flowers in my Bend, Oregon yard. All of these plants are drought tolerant, once established.
The first photo is an ice plant. This groundcover has cheerful starburst flowers and succulent leaves. The leaves turn a bronze color in winter. We had an escapee take root in another part of our yard and it survived without watering.
The second plant is a Woods’ rose. This native 2-5 foot tall shrub attracts bees, butterflies, and birds. Red rose hips develop once the flowers lose their petals.
The third plant is a hollyhocks. This tall perennial needs more water at first than others on this post, but once established it’s fairly drought tolerant. They grow to a height of over three feet and make a bold statement in the garden.
The fourth picture is of a dwarf monkeyflower. They grow up to 4 inches in height and most of that height is in the flower. This native plant grows wild in the High Desert habitat on our property. The plants pictured are about two inches tall.
The fifth plant pictured is a cholla cactus. They produce a big crop of flowers in early summer, followed by yellowish fruit. As I have mentioned before, I have cultivated them by placing a single stem on the ground.
The sixth photo shows a tufted evening primrose. As its name implies, it blooms at night and closes up during the day. This is one of my favorite native flowering plants, but unfortunately the deer like it too. We have to regularly spray them with deer repellant.
When looking for photos for the Sunday Stills Photo Challenge this week that included the color pink, I discovered I had more pink flowers in my yard than I thought. A happy discovery!
