Jasmine sambac Grand duke

Passiflora Incense

Chilean Mesquite

Acacia stenophylla

Hibiscus

Creosote bush

*Vitex agnus (Chaste tree)
*Brown Turkey Fig tree
*Multi-trunk Chinese Elm
*Rose (If I could have only one, it would have to be a yellow Lady Banks.)
*Chilean Mesquite
*Navel Orange

(I reserve the right to change my mind!)

Can I assume you mean only plants that will grow here without their own 24 hr a day attendant?

IF SO ....................................IF NOT...

Chihuahuan Sage.........................Fuschia

Creosote................................Royal Poinciana

Cape Honeysuckle........................Magnolia

Gardenia...............................Dwarf Japanese Maple

Jasmine Sambac...........................Azalea

Jacaranda................................Wisteria
.....................................(no luck with it here)

Hmmmm?
Wisteria
Angels trumpet
Mile a minute Morning Glory
Petunias
Snap Dragons
Topiaries (of course)

I'm in Las Cruces, but this is very nearly the situation I'm in, since my "yard" is limited to a strip of gravel! Not room for much more than six plants... moved here recently, haven't planted much yet... so far I have:

Cylindropuntia viridiflora (a low-growing cholla)

Opuntia purpurea (one of the more commonly grown prickly pear cacti)

Mammillaria macromeria (a low, clumping cactus)

Various ferns that don't really count since they're not in the ground...

And I'm figuring I'll plant soon:

Mirabilis multiflora (a native four-o-clock)

Chilopsis linearis (desert willow)

Lesquerella fendleri (bladderpod; second only to California poppy as a plant producing carpets of flowers after a wet winter)

Patrick Alexander

1.canna
2.yellow/orange bells
3.mexican BOP
4.Cape honeysuckle
5.Jasmines
6.thevetia

Fun question (and fun answers!). I'd have to pick:

Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) for nice shade and a generally smallish size

bougainvillea

lantana (I know...I know...but I love it)

hesperaloe (Hesperaloe parviflora)

'Lisbon' lemon tree

tecoma (Tecoma stans)

If I could add a seventh, oink oink, I'd add pansies just to maximize winter color from this limited number of plants.

Thanks for posting this one..it's really great to see what performs well enough for everyone to have it be one of the Lucky Six (or Seven)

Take care,
Grant

Ah...questions like these. My answer today would be different than my answer tomorrow. ;) Are we saying only six plants? Or only 6 species of plants, but as many plants as you want of any of the 6 species?

Only 6 Plants

The rose Spectra
The rose Tamora
The Jacaranda Tree
Arabian Jasmine
Hardy Hibiscus
Lantana

If as many plants of 6 species

Roses
Jacaranda Tree
Arabian Jasmine
Hardy Hibiscus
Lantana
Citrus Trees

Easy

Blue Palo Verde
Chilean Mesquite
Century plant
Feathery Cassia
Lysiloma
Santa Rita prickly pear

This was really hard to choose just 6. These are the ones I'd buy and put in. But hopefully the land would have been desert to begin with and so there would be things like foothills paloverde, cholla, creasote, mormon tea, barrels already there :) That's how it was getting our place here in the desert. It's hard to imagine starting with a bladed piece of land, painful actually thinking of all the stuff that was killed just to make it easier to build.

What cracks me up is how we all try to cheat just a little. I started out with 5 but had to add a 6th. Grant needed 7. If Grant gets 7 then Loreen wants 8. Kathleen's yard is miraculously supplemented with plants the rest of us had to pick as our original 6! And Easy, you have to restrain yourself just a little. You can have as many rose Tamora as you want but cannot blanket your yard with as many kinds of roses as you can think of!

What I like about the question is it really forces us to choose what we love and, more importantly, what has worked well for us. (Plus its fun to see how the plants chosen reveal a little about ourselves.) sam

Only 6? That is just not right!

So hard to chose but I will go with this combination for the sake of variety.

Chinese Pistache
Texas Mountain Laurel
Cape Honeysuckle
Little Johns bottlebrush
Hardenbergia
Ocotillo

How fun reading all the choices!

Thevetia
Red Bird of Paradise
Yucca
Pygmy Palm
Asparagus Fern
Lantana

That was hard!LOL

Lagerstroemia indica..'dynamite'
Passiflora vitifolia
Mascagnia macroptera
Rosa hybrid tea 'Sheer Bliss'
Rosa floribunda 'French Lace'
Portulaca grandiflora 'sundial' strain

Today I would say:

Chaste Tree
Orange jubilee
incense passion vine
jacaranda tree
Wisteria vine
red lipstick hibiscus

tomorrow, who knows???

Susie

Very intersting results. The ones with multiple votes are as follows:

Roses win with 5! Some chose them twice.

With 4 votes: Yellow/orange bells, jasmine and mesquite

With 3 votes: Passifloras, hibiscus, citrus, cape honeysuckle, jacaranda, wisteria and lantana

With 2 votes: palo verde, creosote, chaste tree, azalea, prickly pear, Bird of Paradise and thevetia

all others have one vote only so far. sam

This really is a fun thread...I hope it "lives" for awhile longer with more replies. I don't know about everyone else, but I thought about my best performers, and then "tossed" some away becaused my 6-plant garden would be too shrubby, or too viney, etc., so I tried to get some different types of plants (tree, shrub, "vine", etc) and then pick a winner for each one. It's an interesting challenge to imagine gardening with just these six plants.

Thanks for tallying up the votes, Sam.
Take care,
Grant

Wow, I can't believe I'm the only one who would put in agaves, salvia, agaves, salvia, agaves.

Okay, if I take this seriously....

-Agave (don't ask me which one yet!)
-Aloe (one of many....)
-Salvia cleavlandi
-Palo brea
-Passion flower vine
-Artemesia "Powis Castle"

Wow, that didn't hurt quite as much as I thought it would!

OK, if Pagan can be that vague on the aloes:

1) Agave Franzosinii
2) Aloe (Too many that I like to pick just one)
3) Hibiscus (can't choose between Lipstick and Butterfly)
4) Pink guava
5) Tangelo
6) Epiphyllum/dragon fruit

Wow, only 6? I could keep going!

Kevin

Pagancat wrote:

"Wow, I can't believe I'm the only one who would put in agaves, salvia, agaves, salvia, agaves."

Hey, I listed Agave (and now have Agave parryi on the way). Salvia'd also be fairly high on my list, though not in a top 6.

What I'm baffled by is that no one else listed any Mirabilis or Chilopsis...

Patrick Alexander

You did not say agave, you! You listed opuntias and a mamm, not an agave. But the one you got is a great choice.

As to why not Chilopsis and Mirablis .... Only 'cause I already have Mirablis multiflora - it's a great plant, but the night blooming habit can be a little annoying - despite my name, I still see better in the light. And as lovely as the Chilopsis can be, it can look really nasty in the winter time if it's pruned but the seed pods stay on. In some landscapes it's cool, but not in others.

How to heck can you limit yourselves to six? I just couldn't do it.

Mexican lime
Meyer improved lemon
Basil
thyme
ficus edulis
dragonfruit

and I'd have to keep on going and going....