Paul Thomas is a horticulturist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He, with the help of several Georgia landscape and greenhouse experts, has put together a list of heat and drought tolerant annuals and perennials that have done well despite Georgia’s long-lasting drought. This is a list we can all use to plan a respectable heat lenient garden.

Thomas suggests that if you don’t want to bother with amending your soil or building flower beds, put in native plants. Natives don’t get any coddling in their natural habitat. If you use native plants, you save your back and you save water.

One caveat: You save water after plants are established. To get them growing, be sure to keep them watered their first year. They should be able to fend for themselves their second year, once their roots are established.

Here are just a few plants he recommends as water savers:

Perennials for sun:

• Lantana 'Miss Huff' and ‘New Gold’
• Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolia)
• Prairie Sunflower (Helianthus maximilianii)
• Salvia guaranitica
• Salvia leucantha
• Wild Petunia (Ruellia brittoniana)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)
• Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina)
• Artemesia 'Silver King'
• Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria)

Perennials for shade:

• Lenten Rose, Hellebore (Helleborus) hybrids
• Japanese autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora)
• Cast-iron Plant (Aspidistra eliator)
• Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
• Iris reticulata
• Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
• Siberian Iris (Iris siberica)

Tough annuals:

• Lantana camara hybrids
• Vinca, Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus)
• Love-Lies-Bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)
• Cockscomb (Celosia cristata)
• Moss Rose (Portulaca hybrids)
• Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
• Yellow Cosmos (Cosmos sulfureus)
• Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia)
• Verbena tenuisecta
• Salvia (Salvia farinaceae hybrids)
• Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)

Perennial natives:

• Native Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
• Achillea millifolium
• Clematis paniculata
• Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa)
• Coneflowers (Echinaceae purpurea)
• Tradescantia virginiana
• Mist Flower (Eupatorium coelestinum)
• Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium fistulosum)
• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• Cross Vine (Bignonia capreolata)

The staples for summer color are not the best choices for drought tolerance. One way to grow your old favorites is to group all of the water lovers together. Then just that section can be hand watered or irrigated. These annual bedding plants take a good deal of irrigation:

• Impatiens
• Marigolds
• Fan Flower (Scaevola)
• African Daisies (Osteospermums)
• Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana)

These perennials don’t like to get thirsty. Group them together to cut down on irrigation:

• Veronica hybrids
• Jupiters Beard (Centranthus roseus)
• Coreopsis grandiflora
• Standard petunias

To learn more about native plants find your Native Plant Society and check their Web site for recommendations for your area.

---Posted by Anne K Moore September 8, 2008---