Apache Plume

Growing Apache Plume

Holds flowers and the smoky pink seed heads at the same time for months. Practically indestructible in hot, dry, rocky ground.

Where it belongs

Apache plume is native to the Southwest, Mountain West, and Great Basin, growing on dry rocky slopes, in arroyos, on gravel benches, and in pinyon and juniper country from the desert up into the foothills.

It is in the rose family, and the flower shows it: a simple white five-petaled rose about an inch and a half across. What follows is the unusual part. Each seed develops a long feathery pink tail, and a cluster of them forms a puff, so the shrub carries a smoky pink haze at the same time it carries fresh white flowers, from April into September.

Growing it

Full sun, dry soil, in rocky or sandy ground, zones 5 to 9. Three to six feet tall and equally wide.

Drainage and sun. It is essentially indestructible in hot dry rocky ground and declines in heavy wet soil or in shade.

It grows at a moderate pace and is long-lived. It suckers modestly from the roots, which makes it useful for holding a slope and worth knowing if you want a tight single specimen.

The habit is open and twiggy with pale peeling bark and small dark leaves, and it keeps most of its foliage through mild winters. It takes shearing but looks better lightly thinned than clipped, since the flowers and plumes are held at the branch tips.

Prune in late winter, removing old wood at the base rather than shortening the tips.

What it feeds

The open white flowers offer accessible nectar and pollen, and native bees work them steadily through the long bloom season. Small butterflies visit.

The shrub's larger contribution is structure. In open dry country, dense twiggy shrubs are where small birds nest, shelter from predators, and escape midday heat, and there are usually few of them. Verdins, thrashers, and sparrows use this one.

Its root system is deep and spreading, and it is planted deliberately for erosion control on disturbed slopes and roadcuts.

Living with it

Deer generally leave it alone.

Site it where afternoon or evening light will come through the seed plumes from behind. Backlit, the pink haze is the whole reason to grow the plant.

It combines well with desert marigold, chocolate flower, and blue grama, which share its conditions and stay low enough not to compete with it visually.

Water it through its first summer to establish, then stop.

Sources: USDA PLANTS Database (native range); Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin (species profile); USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (plant guide, erosion control and wildlife cover).

It’s deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, evergreen, and showy.

Where it grows

Apache Plume is native to the desert Southwest. In the wild you’ll find it across Arizona · California · Colorado · Idaho · Montana · Nevada · New Mexico · Oregon · Texas · Utah and 2 more states. Always confirm it suits your specific county with your state native plant society before planting.

Regional Garden has written state guides covering Apache Plume in 12 of them so far.

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