You may have noticed patches of purple wildflowers popping up throughout the Coachella Valley recently. Along roadsides, in vacant lots, and around sandy washes and hills, miles of native sand verbena are turning the desert bright purple. These flowers normally make an appearance every spring, but right now they have already been in bloom for months. After Tropical Storm Hillary dropped an unprecedented amount of rain in August 2023, soil conditions were right for a very rare fall wildflower bloom, and the flowers have been sustained by above-average rainfall since then.
Sand verbena is a sprawling ground cover with sticky silver-gray foliage native to the Coachella Valley, and in an average year, it blooms for a handful of weeks from late winter to early spring. Its aromatic purple flowers attract butterflies and bees. Enjoy the flowers while they last, as they typically fade away when the weather gets hot and dry again, although this past year has proven flowers can bloom any time of year if the conditions are right.
To add this plant to your garden, find a small new growth of verbena that hasn’t developed deep roots yet, and simply dig it out of the ground and transplant it to a dry, sunny spot in your landscape. Water occasionally until it becomes established, and then leave it alone for annual bursts of color. Sand verbena is extremely drought and heat tolerant, and it thrives in loose, dry sand. Once established, it does not require irrigation, fertilizer, or soil amendments to regrow and produce flowers every year. You may even forget it’s there and be pleasantly surprised when it suddenly pops up and blooms.
