Gear up for fall with plant sale

An autumn plant sale will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., offering unusual and hard-to-find beautiful drought-tolerant plants, along with many familiar ones adapted to our environment. Many landscape contractors use these plants in their designs and are coming up landscape award winners.

Admission is free, although regular admission prices apply to enter the galleries at the preserve. Visit www.springspreserve.org for details and other activities at the preserve.

At the sale, you'll find more than 2,500 plants to select from in one- and five-gallon containers, as well as some larger specimen plants. Please bring your own wagons to transport your purchases to your vehicle.

Among the varieties offered, there will be a large selection of penstemons, agave, cactuses and fall-blooming species. Springs Preserve garden experts will share their knowledge on planting and caring for your plants.

Here are some of my favorites that will be featured:

■ Desert holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) is not widely grown but when you see it, you'll want it in your yard. It's a silvery evergreen shrub with hollylike leaves, which become purplish as they mature. It's a slow grower, so it's low maintenance, loves our alkaline soils and survives with natural rainfall once established.

■ Texas ebony (Ebenobsis ebano) can be an evergreen shrub or small tree. It has glossy leaves, inviting a closer glimpse to catch the zigzag branching patterns. Creamy yellow flower clusters show up sporadically from early summer into fall that perfume the entire yard. Woody deep-brown pods follow to become very striking. Flower arrangers clamor for these pods to use in dried flower arrangements. It's a very clean, low-maintenance plant.

■ Black sage (Salvia mellifera) is a waist-high evergreen shrub with bluish flowers growing along shish-kebab sticks, making it popular with butterflies and hummingbirds. It does well in sunny or shaded situations.

■ Skunk bush or three-leafed sumac (Rhus trilobata) is a beautiful shrub -- and it doesn't stink. It's very durable, covering itself with lush green foliage, which makes it a terrific background shrub. In the fall, the leaves grace your yard with typical autumn colors followed by orange-red berries, which become a birds' delight for both food and protection.

■ Gregg's ash or little leafed ash (Fraxinus greggii) can be a large shrub or small tree depending on your desires. Bright green, fine-textured foliage contrasts well with its smooth gray bark. Leaves shed in the spring as new foliage emerges, so consider it an evergreen. You determine its growth rate by the amount of water you give it.

■ Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) gets its name for its feathery seed heads. Its wheat-colored branches are lined with small olive-green leaves. It blooms in late spring followed by whitish-pink feathery fruit clusters that provide a dramatic effect when backlit by the sun. It does best in full sun and is ideal for reflective heat locations in the yard.

Desert-adapted plants offer numerous advantages: They conserve water, saving you money, and lower maintenance means spending less time caring for them, compared to high water-using plants. They also provide feeding grounds and shelter for birds.

Because native species have evolved over time, they're well-adapted to our poor soils, sparse rains and extreme heat and cold, are more resistant to pests and need less nourishment.

The timing of the autumn plant sale tells us cooler temperatures are close at hand. Still, even with the heat, we need to remember we're still in a drought. To that end, the sale provides an invaluable opportunity to add more water-efficient plants to your landscapes.

If you have not converted to a water-efficient landscape, you'll be able to glean ideas by browsing through the gardens. The Southern Nevada Water Authority provides information on how to convert to a water-efficient landscape at www.snwa.com. If you do, apply for the Water Smart Landscape Rebate program, which pays $1.50 per square foot of grass removed and replaced with water-efficient plants.

FALL VEGETABLE TRANSPLANTS AVAILABLE

Now is your chance to get strong, healthy vegetable and herb transplants recommended by Nevada Cooperative Extension. Prime Growers, a locally owned nursery, has these proven winners available to take off in your garden. The plants will be available from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday at Cooperative Extension's orchard at 4600 Horse Drive. Call 257-5555 for more information on what plants will be available. Be an early visitor to get those prime plants at reasonable prices.

Linn Mills writes a garden column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.