Texas Gardening: Looking for a perennial to replace verbena in San Antonio., 1 by ksathelo

ksathelo wrote:
I have a 2-3 ft deep border around the front of my house. I have been using verbena (pink and purple) in the beds for the past few years. It looks great in the Spring, but by July it becomes very stressed. I've tried trimming it back by 1/3 after the initial bloom and then dressing with compost and fertilizing as suggested by Texas Gardener magazine. I have the beds on drip and have tried various schedules. All to no avail-by midsummer, the beds look like sticks with few blooms. Most of the pink (pink parfait) comes back in the Spring, but the purple ( Homestead) largely dies out.

I'm thinking of replacing it all with trailing lantana-will this work better? The beds get full sun almost the entire day. Any other suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

One final note-I want whatever I use to be able to survive on the drip. We travel a lot.