Apache sunset hyssop - (10) Arizona, New Mexico 2019
Autumn amber sumac – (1) New Mexico 2025
Autumn joy sedum – (2) Asia/Europe 2025
Autumn sapphire sage - (4) Texas 2024
Blonde ambition blue grama grass - (15) New Mexico 2019
Butterfly weed - (3) North America 2019, 2025, 2026
Carolyn's hope pink penstemon - (1) Colorado Mexicali penstemon 2024
Canby's mountain lover - (3) Appalachia 2024
Cherry skullcap - (3)Texas, New Mexico 2025
Cheyenne mock orange – (1) Canada/Cheyenne 2025
Chieftain manzanita - (2) Colorado 2020
Chocolate flower - (3) native wildflower 2025
Colorado gold gazania - (8) Africa 2024, 2025
Colorado pinyon - (1) Colorado 2019
Coral baby penstemon – (1) native hybrid 2025
Coral canyon twinspur - (3) South Africa 2025
Corsican violet - (3) Mediterranean 2025
Denver gold columbine - (1) Southern Rocky Mountain states 2020
Engelmann’s daisy - (3) Colorado 2020, 2025
”First Love" dianthus – (6) hybrid Dianthus genus native to Europe and Asia 2025
Gaillardia “Arizona Red Shades” – (2) hybrid of native 2025
Gaillardia “Spin Top Orange Halo” - (4) Southwest 2025
Gold on blue prairie zinnia - (2 habitat locations) Great Plains 2020
Golden Storksbill – (3) native to Greece 2025
Half Pint pineleaf penstemon - (3) New Mexico, Arizona 2025
Kannah creek buckwheat - (4 habitat locations) native from seeds found near Grand Junction 2019
Cashmere sage - (1) Kashmir 2025
Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle - (1) Colorado 2025
Lavender haze hyssop - (1) Netherlands, hybrid of anise hyssop 2019
Leprechaun Southernwood – (3) Mediterranean 2025
Littleleaf Mountain Mahogany - (4) Colorado 2019
Little Miss Sunshine Stonecrop – (3) native hybrid 2025
Magnus Echinacea - (6) wildflower native to North America 2019
Mongolian bells clematis - (2) Mongolia 2020
Mongolian snowflakes clematis - (1) Mongolia 2020
Moonglow juniper - (1) cultivar of Rocky Mountain juniper 2019
Munstead lavender - (1) Mediterranean 2024
Orange carpet hummingbird trumpet - (2 habitat locations) Idaho 2019
Pawnee Butte sand cherry - (7) Colorado 2019
Pink on repeat lilac - (1) Cheyenne 2025
Pink cotton lamb's ear - (3) Iraq, Iran 2025
Prairie Dock – (1) mid west native 2019
Purple winter savory – (4) Mediterranean 2025
Rambler mountain fleabane - (2) Rocky Mountains 2025
Red birds in a tree - (3) New Mexico 2019, 2025
Regal Torch Lily – (1) Africa 2019
Rocky Mountain goldenrod - (6) native to North America 2025
Rocky Mountain sumac - (1) Rocky Mountains 2019
Rudbeckia goldsturm - (1) Czechoslovakia 2026
Scots hillside creeper - (1) cultivar of Scot’s pine from Pennsylvania 2019
Shadow mountain penstemon – (1) native Mexicali penstemon 2025
Spanish Peaks foxglove - (3) Spain 2019
Standing ovation little bluestem - (23) North American prairies 2019
Steppe Sun sunset glow penstemon - (2) bred at Denver Botanics garden 2019
Tanger gazania - (3) Africa 2025
Thermopsis golden candles - (2) Asia, Russia 2021
Tidy littleleaf peashrub - (2) Siberia 2019
Tennessee purple coneflower - (3) Tennessee 2021
Vermillion bluffs Mexican sage - (1) Mexico 2025
”Walk in Beauty Fire Sun” Prickley Pear - (1) Colorado hybrid by Kelly Grummons 2025
Walker's low catmint - (9) Netherlands 2019
Washington hawthorne - (1) Washington, D.C. 2019
Wee One Lavender – (2) hybrid 2025
Western Sugar Maple - (1) western United States 2019
Westerplatte Clematis - (1) Poland 2019
Windwalker big bluestem - (8) North America 2021
Windwalker garnet pentstemon – (1) native hybrid 2025
Winter fire sedum - (2) Italy 2019
BOLD type indicates a Native to the 4 Corners region and midwest. Some of the plants are cultivars of native species and we include them in this group as well. Not all native plants in the habitat are designated as Plant Select, and not all Plant Select are natives.
The habitat is a designated Plant Select Demonstration Garden, a Pollinator Habitat, and a Certified Wildlife Habitat. There are about 70 Plant Select Demonstration Gardens in the nation but currently only two are HOA sponsored: Shadow Grass and Cherry Creek. The Shadow Grass habitat is teeming with pollinators and wildlife of all kinds: lady bugs, beetles, praying mantis, bumblebees, honeybees, leaf cutter bees, yellow jackets, wasps, sphinx moths, Monarch butterflies, painted ladies, tiger swallowtails, cabbage butterflies, crickets, mosquitos and more. There are birds: finches, rufous hummingbirds, white crowned sparrows, dark eyed juncos, robins, goldfinches, lesser goldfinches, Say's phoebes, mourning doves, blue jays, grackles, Cooper's hawk, northern flickers, spotted towhees and more. There are toads, garter snakes, and rabbits.
Most of the plants in the habitat have been observed to be “resistant” to Japanese beetles, which have been known to feed on some habitat plants like coneflowers, goldenrod, fleabane, clematis and chocolate flowers. Many of the plants are considered to have low- flammability because of their ability to hold in moisture. Gravel is considered to have low-flammability, and does a good job of insulating the roots from extreme temperature fluctuations. Because the habitat is east facing, receives full sun almost the entire day, and is mulched with gravel, it can run up to 10 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. The habitat is watered twice a week from overhead sprinklers from mid May to mid October. It is subject to damage from high winds, hail, torrential rain, sub zero temperatures, heavy snow, freezing rain, flash freezes, drought conditions, and heavy smoke from wildfires. Other challenges include rabbits, grasshoppers, aphids and Japanese beetles. It is maintained and weeded by volunteers, and spring and fall cleanup is done by Beltran Landscaping.
Non-Natives :
Asia/Russia – Thermopsis Golden Candles, Autumn joy sedum
Canada – Cheyenne mock orange
Czechoslovakia – Rudbekia/Black-eyed Susan
Greece – Golden Storksbill
Iraq, Iran – Pink Cotton Lamb’s Ear
Italy – Winter Fire Sedum
Kashmir – Cashmere sage
Mediterranean – Munstead Lavender, Corsican violets, Leprechaun southernwood
Mexico –Vermillion Bluffs Mexican sage
Mongolia – Mongolian Bells, Mongolian snowflakes
Netherlands – Walker’s low catmint, Lavender haze hyssop
Pennsylvania – Scot’s hillside creeper
Poland – Westerplatte clematis
Siberia – Tidy littleleaf peashrub
Spain – Spanish Peaks foxglove
South Africa – Coral Canyon Twinspur, Torch lily, gazania
Tennessee – Tennessee coneflower
Washington, D.C. – Washington hawthorne