OK here are my two picks for xeriscape extrordinare 1. Atriplex chenopodiaceae(salt bush) all varieties are usefull especially in the desert and in alkaline soil. It grows faaast for a bush,wide and tall, pretty, evergreen, silvery it takes heat, cold and drought and mine even survived 2 months of a rare flood which brings me to 2. Baccaris all varieties again, pilularis A. TWIN PEAKS DARKER MODERATE GROWTH B. PIGION POINT LIME COLORED, FAST SPREADING CAN BE CLIPPED INTO A HEDGE. Santhroides has bright green, nearly leafless branches, it can grow 7 ft. tall or clipped into 3 ft. hedge. All are evergreen groundcovers or shrubs, they take all the poor conditions including resistant to molds from wet feet and drought as well. they are beautiful and useful especially in fire prone areas and areas where you need a quick errosion control. No one ever talks about these well kept secrets. But I`m talking baby.
If I knew how to download pix to this site I would show pictures of my 2 year old plants.
Perennials for Xeriscaping, Zone 7 (and zones 2-11)
Great list but I'm surprised no one has suggested Gailardia yet. We have several gailardias that mostly get ignored but do quite well. I have to keep deadheading though because I let one go last year and had to dig 2 dozen volunteers out of the yucky clay soil between our flagstones. I was surprised anything was growing in that soil, we don't even get many weeds that attempt such an unfriendly spot. When we moved this spring I dug up those volunteers plus some volunteers I had transplanted during the winter plus a few mature plants and stuck them all in pots. Even though the watering has been sporadic, and several other plants suffered major set backs, the gailardias are growing like champs and I haven't lost one yet.
Even though I live in Portland Oregon, I am leaning into xeriscaping. There just isn't enough water to go around on this planet already, I feel like I don't need to help contribute to the shortage!!!!
Besides, there isn't a garden chore I hate more than watering! I could deadhead and weed all day long, but for some reason when it is time to water I drag my feet. Probably because of the guilt I feel about it, and the upcoming water bill!
Some of my favorites are lavender, coneflowers, penstemmon, gaillardia, rudbeckia, helianthus, coreopsis, orange cosmos, and any ornamental grass I can get my hands on. One of the things I need to work on is getting some "bones" into my landscaping. I definetely need to find some evergreen dwarf trees and some other substantial pieces. Maybe even some rock features.
Unfortunately I am just renting a house right now, but hope to buy in 1-2 years. At that point I will do a complete xeriscape when I know that the investment of time and money will be worth it. For now I get to "practice" in somebody else's yard!!!!!
Even my xeriscape plants are having a hard time in this heat. My lavender is about dead, my salvia and artimesia looked sad and wilted until I watered a couple of days ago, and the coneflowers aren't doing so well either. I've pretty much neglected them thinking they were supposed to be xeriscape plants, but it's just so hot and so dry, they are not doing very well. So it's back to deep watering once every week or two to keep them going until it rains. I may do more than that to get them back to feeling better.
I am having the same problem with my artimesia wilting along with a few others I`ve been experimenting too but so far the only way I got some to perk up is to cover them w/ green shade cloth just to save them from shock.
Are these usda or sunset zones?
Most people use USDA zones. Sunset zones are more familiar to Western gardeners.
Even in zone 5a the coneflowers, sedum, liatris, wormwood, and a few others wilt if we haven't had rain for a while. The dianthus seem to take the heat the best.
Hi recently discovered 'Purslane'- portulaca oleracea. I purchased about 2 weeks ago from Lowe's. The label said Drought tolerant, blooms summer to fall, and I noticed butterflys landing on the blooms.
I will see if I can get a better pic this week. There are about 8-10 blooms on it this evening. This was when it was first transplanted.
This message was edited Sep 15, 2007 11:09 PM
they do good here in the desert and I like the little roses they get.
I don't know if this is the same as the ''weed'' I pull all summer or not. Those I pull can lie on the dirt for a week and if a root touches the ground and it rains, I swear they green right up! I've never tried eating them, but they sound like an ideal food.
There's a weedy portulaca which is probably what you are always pulling, and then there are more ornamental ones that have larger flowers and don't spread out of control quite as much, those are typically the ones you'll find at garden centers.
I never knew there were ornamentals. Thanks!
All of the ones I plant - spread....I regularly cut them back during the summer to give room to the sedum and semps.
I guess they behave different here--the weedy one still spreads everywhere, but the ornamental ones stay where I put them. Maybe it's our lack of summer rain--I never gave them much water, maybe once a week at most and they stayed very well behaved.
Maybe your's can give mine a talking to...LOL. I love their color throughout the summer - just wish they'd stay in "their" area. :)
Maybe you could try watering them less? You get more rain than we do and obviously there's nothing you can do about that, but if you could avoid watering them in between rain they might not get so out of control.
lol I've been a gardening fool today. I put the rest of the ammonium nitrate on my lasagna garden to break up the last of the cardboard and paper and straw with the winter (I pray we get them) rains so I can finally plant in March.
:))
I hand-spread horse manure and turned it yesterday. Also hoping for rain. Today it rained some.
Everyone pray we get rain soon before we completely burn up California.
Believe it or not, I haven't had time to watch our local weather much less the national weather.
How did you do with the fires?
The first ones were about a half hour from us but no where close to our home. Thank God. Funny it sounds like all of California was on fire. It is wierd how the west is though. There is hours of driving out here where you never see anything but desert w/no houses anywhere near. The idiot arsonists can't start a fire there though.
I'm glad you were ok. How was the smoke? Hopefully the wind was in the other direction and you had clean air.
We were fine and the wind was in the opposite direction from the usual when we have Santa Anna conditions like when the fires happened.
happy TG everyone.
Last night we had our first freeze and lost one seedling and my wooly Pletancthrus wilted over a bit so I will go cover the monster up tonight and see if it helps.
Giggling, I'm picturing a dinosaur :))
Verbascum seems to do well with the roots of a maple. I only water when I transplant.
Verbascum, Phonecian Hybrids
We go through extremes here. It rains volumes ~ then is totally dry for extended periods. As a result of the dry, I am interested in more drought tolerant plants. At the same time, our heat is intense.
My question is this ~ I need to improve beds for xeric plants. We have too much clay which won't drain well. I want to raise beds that will shed rain during the flooding. I know it needs to be a leaner soil for most of these plants. What will be the best things to amend with? I am contemplating Penstemons, Scutellarias and Agastaches for starters.
Enjoying this thread ~ thank you...
I got this from High Country Gardens.
Soil drainage is a very important factor to consider when planting Salvia, Agastache, Lavender, Penstemon and other perennials that like well-drained soil. The essential element in a well drained soil is oxygen, which is just as important as water in growing healthy plants. Soil that is water-logged does not drain well and is anaerobic (oxygen deficient) resulting in drowned and rotted roots.
If you have clay soil and wish to preserve your tools and sanity, amendments or raised beds are a must. Mix the native clay half and half with coarse sand or crusher fines. (DON’T use fine sand; this will create concrete.)
Thanks Billyporter ~ I appreciate the info. That should help steer me in the right direction. I am intending to try Agastache, Penstemon and more Salvia.
I have clay too and found that out the hard way that everything that grows in this area that is a native and drought tollerant likes very ammended soil or raised beds. Lost a lot of money finding that out.
LOL ~ I remember some of your early posts. Here, I have kept much in pots and if I plant in ground, I watch the plant like a hawk. If it shows signs of suffering, I uproot it and repot.
Our clay also suffers from cotton root rot (the common name as I can't immediately call the technical disease). I have lost plants that should easily grow in the clay here.
I think my clay here has fungus too the kind that you need to sterilize the soil to kill. It isn't everywhere but I know in a certain area it has it. The lasagna garden is my great hope for this year.
Pots are good as long as they are on timers and a watering system.
I think I feel pretty fortunate to not have clay. Do you try adding bags of better dirt and compost to it or does the clay seem to just eat it up?
Clay takes time to rebuild, but composting will take care of the problem. I have or had VA red clay here and with time and plenty of compost, most of my 3/4 acre lot is black loam. Lasagna gardening is a great way to go, if you don't have a tiller or access to one.
Clay also has a lot of natural nutrients too doesn't it? I saw the red clays long a go on Victory Garden and was very glad I didn't have to shovel thru it!
Red clay has a lot of "trace" elements so it actually adds to the process. Over time compost will turn it to black loam, but it takes time and patience. Every time you add compost your are enriching your soil, drawing the worms in, which help aerate the soil and their castings are like gold. Good stuff! Worms love wet shredded newspaper and coffee grounds, it will bring em in a NY minute. I guess they like to read the paper and drink coffee too.......LOL
If you're really interested try the soil and composting discussion. Lots of good information in there and many different methods of doing composting. Very interesting.
I compost on a small scale and use it up every year. I save all my vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells etc. in a coffee can and dump it when it's full, but I'm careful about the weeds I put in it now. Chickweed doesn't seem to die.
I tried layering newspaper around my tomato plants this year, but the paper didn't soak up very well. I guess they have changed it over the years. They do use soybean ink.
Re-reading thru the plant lists here, I've decided I would like a few lavenders too. I have salvias and really like them. I'd like to support the bees that I seem to still have.
Billy, wet your newspaper, it makes a world of difference. I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid for all veggie scraps, egg shells, home use coffee grounds etc. If I'm composting weeds, they go in the middle of the pile where it's hottest. We have a friend of a friend who delivers newspapers and she keeps me well supplied. I just provide the big trash bags and pick up. I also get 5 gal buckets of coffee grounds from Starbucks at least twice a week. I provide 5 gal buckets with lids and lots of thank you's! And occasional homemade treat, fresh flowers or veggies when their in season. Nice folks and I have generated some interest in gardening among the non-gardeners. I'm trying to work this up into a project for Master Gardener hours. I just got my cert in November. It's fascinating watching people start to "think" well I could do that too! LOL
That's great!
I used to go to the hairdressers and get hair, but I think most of it was colored, so I quit. I did wet the paper, but it doesn't wet well. It sort of repelled most of the summer. It was hard to turn under too. The shovel didn't cut thru it well.
I use an old square tub filled with water and lay the newspaper down in that. Allow it to soak at bit. You must have been using quite a few layers if you were having trouble getting a shovel thru it. That's ok, it will break down over time. Am not sure what you're "repelling" with newspapers? Hair for deer, newspaper for weeds..........LOL
I was turning the hair under in the garden in the fall and digging it in around the rose bushes. This was many many years ago. Our newspaper isn't like it used to be. I did have a few layers for weed control around the tomatoes. It just didn't want to soak the water up. I might try it again. My Dad has some tubs. I think I'll ask for one.