Add several fall-flowering perennials to your garden that will add late season color and pizzazz . These are reliable tough perennials, and beneficial pollinators love them. Visit garden centers in August to make your purchases. However, for these great plants to return next year and subsequent years, plants need to get their root systems established. […]
Archive for the ‘Drought tolerant’ Category
Pineapple Lilies For Summer Garden
Pineapple lilies (Eucomis spp.) are native of South Africa and are easy to grow (USDA hardiness zones 7-10). Several hybrid cultivars are winter hardy in zone 6 if provide a protective layer of mulch or loose leafy compost. Plants have basal rosette of strap-like, wavy-edged, purple-spotted, dark green leaves which spread upward and outward to […]
Distyliums Substitute For Cherry Laurels and Hollies
Distyliums (Distylium x), aka Isu tree, are being billed as “the best new plants you’ve never heard of”. Get accustomed to seeing these boxwood-like shrubs in local garden centers, e.g., if you live within USDA hardiness zones 6b-9. Distyliums are the result of selective breeding efforts to improve an evergreen shrub native to China at […]
Four Top Rated Coreopsis You Should Know About
Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.) are flowering perennials (and annuals) native to the eastern U.S. In 2016, MT Cuba Center* in Greenville, Delaware reported on the overall garden performance of 13 species and related cultivars and hybrids in the Mid-Atlantic region. Over a period of 3 years, the MT Cuba staff evaluated habit, floral display, disease resistance, […]
Thistle-like Bear’s Breeches
Spiny bear’s breeches (Acanthus spinosa) is a clump-forming perennial treasured for its attractive thistle-like foliage and architecturally bold flower spikes (USDA hardiness zones 5b-9). Plant requires little maintenance and is long-lived. Deeply-cut, arching, glossy green, spiny, thistle-like leaves attain 2-3 feet in length on older plants and remain attractive through the growing season. Leaves bear mostly hidden spines on […]
Ground Cover Types Of Flowering Abelias
Flowering abelias (Abelia x grandiflora) come in all shapes and sizes (USDA hardiness zones 6-9). Over the past decade the ground cover types have become very popular. They’re also utilized as accent plants in large containers. In zones 7 -8, they are evergreen. The term “ground cover” is used here to emphasize cultivars that grow low, mostly […]
Agaves Like It Hot, Dry and Sunny
Agaves (Agave spp.) are long-leaved succulent landscape plants. These native perennial succulents grow in desert-like environments (USDA hardiness zones 8 and warmer). Plants grow in a rosette form with long their fleshy leaves frequently tipped with one or more sharp spines and a prominent bloom spike with cup shaped flowers. Most are native to the Southwest U.S. […]
Firebush Is One Tough Texas Flowering Plant
Firebush. aka scarlet bush (Hamelia patens), is indigenous from Mexico to Central America (USDA hardiness 10-11). Treat it as a tempermental perennial in zone 9, and an annual everywhere else it is not hardy. This fast growing plant blooms through most of summer into fall with showy clusters of tubular red buds and flowers. Firebush thrives in Texas heat […]
Check Out These Four Plant Select® Picks
If you’re search for top performing plants, especially very drought tolerant, take a look at the picks from Plant Select®. This is a nonprofit collaboration of Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens and professional horticulturists. Their mission is to seek out and distribute the very best plants for landscapes and gardens from the intermountain region to […]
Ice Plants (Delosperma)
Ice plants (Delosperma spp.) are perennial evergreen succulents from South Africa. Two species are most popular in U.S. gardens starting with hardy ice plant (D. cooperi) (zones 6b – 9) and yellow ice plant (D. nubigenum) (zone 4 – 10). There are also many hybrid cultivars sold at garden centers and on-line. North of zone […]