Plant list for drought tolerant gardening

I'm doing a workshop on drought tolerant gardening for the WS Rose Society in May. We will discuss rain barrels, etc and I have lots of examples of drought tolerant plants in my garden. I would love to hear what you find successful in your garden. Please share at least 5 favorites.

Thanks. Ellen

Gaillardia do great - they do NOT like to have wet feet!

Canna lily
Stokesia (Stoke's asters)
Blackeyed Susans
Vinca (major & minor)
Mexican sage
Rosemary
Hydrangea (once well established and generally referring to mopheads)
Society garlic (pink blooms)
Gaura

Ellen, these are well established plants that I can vouch for being drought tolerant in our zone 8A.

Great l

ist; I grow them all and agree...excepts Stokes Asters, which I love..I will try them.

I'm planning to plant a section of my garden with only drought tolerant plants just to educate. I will make sure these are in it. Gives me an excuse to get some new ones!

I have a list on my blog kirbyplant.blogspot.com if you want to take a look. Will add these.

Sedums, I have Autumn Joy and Baby Tears. My Dianthus is drought tolerant.

well, I planted 100 TB irises in the height of the drought, and they did so well I dug them last summer and sold them. they only take watering for the first 3 to 4 weeks after planting.

unfortunately, they don't like being wet! so they have to be planted on a slope to handle NC's wet weather like we're having.

That year I also planted spring bulbs,
daffs and
hyacinths
they did extremely well during the drought. they didn't increase much, but now with rain last year they did.
liriopes
small mums
pennyroyal
hardy rosemary
mophead hydrangeas
cannas
colocasias
all planted that same year in the drought, only got water when they were first planted, then only additional water twice during the summer.

roses planted during the drought all died.

established plants that did ok during the drought:
shade
camellia - just bloomed less, grew less
astilbe - bloom aborted
hosta - wilted in the heat but came back (new plants did not do well)
liriope
spiderwort - foliage died back very early

sun
holly - not much berries, growth was fine, even needed pruning
azaleas - less bloom (actually partial sun)
crepe myrtles - lousy bloom, not much growth
bearded irises - less increase, shorter bloomstalks
cannas - less growth and bloom
gardenia - little bloom
forsythia - less bloom
budleia (in partial sun)
daylilies - little to no bloom

things that didn't do well or did not survive the drought:
annual veggie starts - some were eaten by hungry animals
water based irises (JIs and Sibs)
roses 30% deathrate
dahlias
lawn grass
new azaleas and rhodys
bleeding heart
newly planted hostas
newly planted astilbes
heurchs
hellabores

[note - no ornamental grasses here - allergy]

Thanks for all your great suggestions from experience!

Question....did any of your ornamental grasses do better/worse as drought tolerant? I assume most are good but wanted to be sure from your experience. My muhly grass was great..

Most salvia & agastache. Not only are they drought tolerant, they really don't want it to be wet. Ever.

but that's kinda the problem here in the muggy south, isn't it? we have always been kinda too wet. then we get drought. one set of plants survive one, another set survives the other.

with all the rain we had last spring caused a rot problem in my TB irises. had to redo the beds to improve drainage. This year, even more rain, and more cold, they are thriving but should be rotting even worse. guess the bed rework helped.

I love agastache- I like them by a path so I can get that strong root beer smell as I brush past. I can't tell you how many I have drowned. So, last year I took a spare piece of hardware cloth, made a ring maybe 2' in diameter and 2' tall. Lined it with moss, put wood chips in the bottom and then filled it with soil. Not only did they agastache thrive, I could water them like I watered everything else. They have filed in nicely and survived the winter with no problem.

Another genus I like is cuphea. No special treatment needed, and the bushes like cuphea ignea and cuphea melvillea come back year after year.

This message was edited Apr 20, 2009 5:37 AM

oh, I like that idea for the agastaches. They are a fabulous plant, hardy, and the bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies LOVE them!! The Mexican Blue Fortune was the most attractive to bees that I had last year, but the Purple haze (Blue Haze) I think was the prettiest. Had them in containers in the hottest part and made sure that they were well-drained.

I just got Tutti Fruiti and have White and 2 others coming up in seeds.

I have cuttings of Blue Haze, Golden Jubilee, and Mexican Blue Fortune rooting now and should be ready in about 3 weeks if anyone wants to trade, they root even easier than sages do.

Lorie in Columbia

Great comments about agastache. I have some that did really well growing on a little slope so they got good drainage. I did not know the points you made about it's being drought tolerant.

Re: question about ornamental grasses? Any particular suggestions?

There is a tiny one grass, Carex 'evergold', that has lived happily in a pot for me for the past 8 years. It does not seem to mind if I forget to water it for a while. I also have a bamboo muhly in a large container and it too seems to be oblivious to drought.

I also find bulbs, like amaryllis, could care less about water.

There's drought-tolerant, and then there's talcum-powder sandy soil. Very few of my plants are worth babying with water, but I especially love ornamental grasses. 'Shenandoah' switch grass, oriental fountain grass, 'Karley Rose' fountain grass and regular fountain grass (which I like better so far), and 'Morning Light' Miscanthus are thriving. Only newly divided grasses like careful watering until they're established. After seeing your muhly grass photo, I'll have to make room!

I also grow lots of salvias and a few agastaches, both of which seem to love the sand. And I want many more!

No matter how much compost I dig in or amend with, my cannas are very thirsty. I have a small clump of stokesias at a streetside planting where they get fried by street and sidewalk and unremitting sun. That bed needs supplemental water, but the stokesias in a slightly kinder place in the back yard are very drought tolerant. Great plant for winter foliage, too.

I can't imagine not gardening with 'Miss Huff' lantana, although I don't have to read my electric meter where she grows very often.

Chinese abelia seems very drought tolerant, and because the calyxes remain long after the flowers, it kinda of looks like a small-flowered hydrangea. Crepe myrtles don't seem to need much extra water, odd when you consider how long they bloom.

Your talk will certainly be timely, even with the enviable rains you've had.