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Drought-Tolerant Beauties in Pots—Designing With Sun-Loving Summer Bloomers

Plants & Gardens News Volume 21, Number 2 | Summer 2006

by Joan McDonald

After last summer's long, hot, dry spell, it might be wise to try some drought-tolerant plants in your containers this year. Drought tolerant doesn't have to be dull—as illustrated by the container-garden design above, which features nine sun-loving, summer-blooming knockouts.

A great container starts with great soil. Plant these pots with fast-draining, sandy-loam soil, and place them in a full-sun location with good air circulation. Coarse compost can be added at the time of planting along with water-holding crystals. Water the soil deeply and thoroughly but infrequently so deep roots can be established.

Container A:

Echinops bannaticus 'Blue Glow' (globe thistle)
This perennial grows up to four feet tall and produces deep green, spiny foliage and blue, globe-shaped summer flowers.
USDA Zones 5—10.
Gaura lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies' (appleblossom grass)
This native perennial cultivar offers bright white blossoms on three-foot arching red stems from May to September.
Zones 5—10.
Dianthus petraeus ssp. noeanus (garden pink)
A ten-inch-tall perennial with needlelike leaves, it bears fragrant, white, snowflake-shaped flowers in midsummer.
Zones 5—8.

Container B:

Agastache rupestris (licorice mint hyssop)
This three-foot-tall perennial produces finely textured, licorice-scented gray foliage and rosy-orange summer flowers.
Zones 4—9.
Santolina chamaecyparissus (gray santolina)
A 1½-foot evergreen perennial with aromatic silver-gray foliage, gray santolina bears bright yellow buttonlike flowers in summer.
Zones 5—10.
Portulaca grandiflora 'Sunnyside Flame' (moss rose)
This trailing, semisucculent annual grows eight inches tall and blooms all summer long with double orange blossoms.

Container C:

Centranthus ruber var. coccineus (Jupiter's beard)
This three-foot-tall woody perennial bears clusters of rose-red star-shaped flowers atop relaxed, fleshy gray-green stems from spring to frost.
Zones 4—9.
Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote Superior' (lavender)
This semiwoody perennial grows up to 15 feet tall and offers fragrant deep violet-blue flowers from June to August.
Zones 5—10.
Origanum libanoticum (oregano)
A 1¼-foot ornamental perennial herb with wiry stems and aromatic foliage, it bears hoplike bracts and tiny, drooping rose-pink flowers from summer to fall.
Zones 5—10.

Joan McDonald is the owner of Gardens by Design, a private garden design, installation, and maintenance business based in Brooklyn, New York. She can be contacted by e-mail at gardensbyjoan@aol.com.