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Salvia guaranitica |
Will any perennials actually grow and flower if you can’t water
them in summer’s ghastly heat?
Yes.
But they must be planted in fall, not spring.
Spring-planted perennials will need watering. They don’t have
enough roots to collect enough water to withstand droughts. The
fall-planted perennials on my top-10 list can handle the
drought.
Top 10 Drought-busters
To keep this short and sweet, here are the top 10 plants you can
buy with complete confidence. You may plant them this spring if
and only if you promise to water them the entire summer. Next
year they will fend for themselves without much care.
1. Salvia guaranitica. Tough and durable, it blooms
from May to November and attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.
It grows a thick storage root and persists even with tilling. It
prefers full sun. Trimming in midsummer, after the first flowers
are spent, yields a glorious fall display. It will wilt in summer
heat when dry but returns with a vengeance when it rains.
2. Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy.’ When most sedums
go dormant, this one grows into well-behaved mounds of blue-green
foliage and large clusters of pink flowers with zero watering all
summer. Few pests and almost no diseases affect it. Plants can be
divided every four years or so in early spring.
3. Clematis paniculata. Deer hate it. Drought can’t
kill it. This aggressive vine spreads 10-12 feet in a season,
blooms in late August and is incredibly easy to establish. A
pleasant green vine, its late-summer flowers hide the vine. Cut
to a foot high, it will spring back each year as if nothing
happened.
4. Belamcanda chinensis. The blackberry lily does
well at the edges of Georgia woods without watering. It prefers
highly organic soils and full sun. It’s drought-tolerant, tough
and reseeds well. Planted in dense groups, it’s beautiful by
midsummer. With care, it has few pests. Deer ignore it, but
butterflies love the flowers.
5. Kniphofia uvaria (Tritoma). Drought can’t kill
this late spring-blooming plant once it’s established. Deer leave
it alone, too. Properly named Red Hot Poker, it’s showy and tough
as nails, but has to be established in the fall. Buy grown plants
in bloom, known divisions or tissue-cultured plants (seedling
color and flower shape can vary dramatically).
6. Delosperma cooperii. The hardy ice plant is an
asset on poor soils, dry sites and slopes, requiring only a few
inches of soil. It blooms early in spring and then sporadically
all summer. Fertilize in June and August, and don’t worry when
frost kills it back. The tiny, gray, stem-end leaves will burst
forth in spring.
7. Helianthus angustifolius. The swamp sunflower is
huge, with flower stalks 8 feet tall. But it will stay small (4
to 5 feet) when neglected, surviving the worst drought and
hottest summer you can imagine in Georgia. The flowers are
spectacular in August and September, and the plant has few pests
or diseases.
8. Ruellia brittoniana. The Mexican petunia is a
tall, late-blooming, long-lived and spreading perennial. Divide
it every five years and enjoy the purple or pink flowers in
August and September. Almost pest-free, it has few diseases. It
will wilt in the worst drought, but comes back every time it
rains.
9. Narcissus hybrids. Gardeners seem to resist including
bulbs in discussions of perennials, but indeed they are
fantastically adapted perennials. They disappear when things get
hot and then return to bloom in spring. Choose from hundreds of
cultivars. No matter how bad the drought, daffodils survive.
10. Lantana camara ‘Miss Huff.’ This is the only
truly hardy perennial lantana. It tolerates heat, drought and
cold, wet soils. Miss Huff grows into a 6- to 8-foot mound in
good soil, with thousands of swallowtail-attracting flower
clusters all summer. Planting on 36-to 48-inch centers is
essential.
