Drought Resistant Plants

The dense spikes of pea-like blossoms are purple in bud, open to mauve, fade through light lavender and finally to near white creating a wonderful bicolor effect from the top to the bottom of the flower clusters. The flowers attract mainly bees. Plum Rosy Baptisia or False Indigo, a hybrid cultivar of US native species (a.k.a. nativar), is a vigorous and heavy flowering selection of this clump forming perennial growing to about 42-48"H x 48"W. Baptisias are easy and low-maintenance, deer resistant, long-lived, taprooted perennials that produce more and more flowering spikes with each passing year with some plants producing over a 100 spikes on mature plants. Considered a must for the cutflower garden as the spikes have an excellent vase life. Provide them with a full to mostly sunny site in a soil with average or better drainage and moderate fertility. Images courtesy of Walter's Gardens, Inc., all rights reserved. Item# 12899

Large dense spikes of bright sunny yellow tubular flowers are held above the deep green foliage beginning in late spring and continuing into fall attracting a variety of pollinators. Lemon Popsicle Kniphofia is part of the dwarf, repeat flowering POPSICLE® series and are small and compact enough to enjoy as container plants or as easy, colorful, and low maintenance additions to the sunny garden and landscape. The Red Hot Pokers, Tritoma, or Kniphofias are clump forming, naturally evergreen, heat and sun loving perennials that are drought, deer, and rabbit resistant. Provide a full to mostly sunny site in an average moist well-drained soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Images courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc., www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 13325

The dense spikes of red orange tubular buds mature to creamy white creating a eyecatching two-tone effect. Flowering begins in late spring and continues into fall. Orange Vanilla Kniphofia or Torch Lily is part of the dwarf, repeat flowering POPSICLE® series that are small and compact enough to enjoy as container plants or as easy, colorful, and low maintenance additions to the sunny garden and landscape. The Red Hot Pokers, Tritoma, or Kniphofias are clump forming, naturally evergreen, heat and sun loving perennials that are drought, deer, and rabbit resistant. Provide a full to mostly sunny site in an average moist well-drained soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Images courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc., www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 13326

Tops at 2019 UGA Trials among Agastache winning the Classic City Award! Buttery yellow 1" long tubular flowers adorn dense 10-12" high spikes atop the medium green fragrant foliage from spring and continuing well into fall. Poquita™ Butter Yellow Dwarf Hummingbird Mint is a hummingbird magnet and the dense compact habit of this Agastache, even more compact than Kudos™ Yellow, lends it to use as a specimen, including in hanging baskets, as well as in mixed containers where you can draw these aerial acrobats in for up close viewing as well as in the garden and landscape. Provide a full to mostly sunny location in a well-drained soil for optimum health and flowering. Periodic removal of spent flower spikes will help to keep the plants looking clean and fresh as well as to make way for new flower spikes. Image courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 12120

The 1" long deep blue to deep blue-violet tubular flowers emerge from contrasting near black, dense flower spikes to 10-14" high spikes creating a two-tone effect atop a mass of deep green fragrant foliage. Poquita™ Dark Blue Dwarf Hummingbird Mint is a hummingbird and bee magnet and the dense compact habit of this Agastache, even more compact than the Kudos™ series, lends it to use as a specimen or in mixed containers where you can draw these aerial acrobats in for up close viewing as well as in the garden and landscape. Provide a full to mostly sunny location in a well-drained soil for optimum health and flowering. Periodic removal of spent flower spikes will help to keep the plants looking clean and fresh as well as to make way for new flower spikes. Image courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 12777

Orange 1" long tubular flowers adorn dense 10-12" high spikes atop the medium green fragrant foliage from spring and continuing well into fall. Poquita™ Orange Dwarf Hummingbird Mint is excellent for hummingbirds and the dense compact habit of this Agastache, even more compact than Kudos™ Mango, lends it to use as a specimen or in mixed containers where you can draw these aerial acrobats in for up close viewing as well as in the garden and landscape. Provide a full to mostly sunny location in a well-drained soil for optimum health and flowering. Periodic removal of spent flower spikes will help to keep the plants looking clean and fresh as well as to make way for new flower spikes. Image courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 12121

Deep rose pink, 3-4" wide, coneflowers are born in profusion on this well-branched and free flowering selection of Purple Coneflower. This 2010 AAS Award winner is sure to bring in the butterflies and will certainly make a statement for the garden! Item# 9844.

The tall sturdy dense spikes of rich purple flowers of this beautiful native wildflower attract loads of butterflies and pollinators in summer. An easily grown native perennial that also makes an excellent cut flower, fresh or dried. The large bulb-like corm will produce several flower spikes once mature. Best in average to moist soils. Item# 9559.

Over a long period beginning In late summer and fall these plants are covered with dark-eyed, bicolor red, orange, and golden yellow, 2-3" wide daisies that sit atop sturdy stems with the flowers providing pollen and nectar for smaller pollinators and other garden beneficials. Prairie Glow Brown-Eyed Susan offers more flowers over a longer period on sturdy disease resistant plants with improved vigor and branching on longer-lived plants. This is a heat and sun-loving, deer and rabbit resistant native well-suited to both the garden and landscape as well as in naturalistic settings. The Brown-Eyed Susan, Rudbeckia triloba, readily reseeds on exposed soils but is not aggressive or difficult to control. It prefers a full to mostly sunny position in well-drained, average moist to semi-dry soils. Ripened seedheads offer food for songbirds and small mammals. Images courtesy of North Creek Nurseries, Inc., all rights reserved. Item# 12774

Tops in Mt. Cuba Center's first Echinacea trials in 2009 and was still one of the top ten in the 2020 trials! It also garnered the most pollinator visits in their 2018-19 trial years likely due to its strongly fragrant flowers. Pure white rays surround the dark orange tipped rounded cones of disk flowers on the 3-5" wide flowers atop sturdy 24-30" high stems beginning in late spring and continuing into early fall. PRAIRIE PILLARS™ Fragrant Angel Coneflower is a hybrid Coneflower selected for its exceptionally long flowering season that lasts from late spring or early summer often into fall, briliant color, extra large flowers, and improved branching habit over the original Mac-N-Cheese as well as its perennial reliability as a garden plant. Coneflowers are clump forming perennials whose often fragrant flowers are adored by butterflies, bees, and other pollinators that can be enjoyed as part of the sunny garden garden and landscape as well as container specimens. Leave seedheads for fall and winter songbirds to enjoy. Provide a full to mostly sunny site in an average moist, well-drained, fertile soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Photos courtesy of TERRA NOVA® Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 12787

 8-14" high pyramidal clusters of up to 40 pinkish-red ball-like buds open to yellow butterfly-like blooms, then fade to a deep orange and gold, and finally turning to a deep reddish-orange to red. The Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, is a large growing tropical to subtropical shrub to tender shrub-like perennial that makes a fantastic show throughout summer. Give it plenty of room and a well-drained, moderately fertile soil, preferably in full to mostly sunny site. Plant with caution as butterflies and hummingbirds will repeatedly attack the flowers. Sometimes they drop all leaves during shipping, but will grow more with good sun. Caterpillar host: Miami Blue and Mexican Yellow Item# 571

The deep berry colored, dark-eyed flowers cover up the plants from late spring or early summer into fall atop sturdy branching stems on compact plants attracting a variety of pollinators but especially bees and butterflies. PRIMA™ Berry Coneflower was selected for its tight compact habit and excellent flower power. Its compact enough to create excellent container specimens as well as for summerlong color in the garden and landscape. Echinaceas typically do best in fertile, well-drained, average moist soils in a full to mostly sunny sites. Leave seedheads for fall and winter songbirds to enjoy. Photos courtesy of TERRA NOVA® Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 13320

In warm orange and yellow shades, the large, fragrant, upward facing flowers are centered by a large dark, nectar rich cones tipped in dark orange and red tones and the ray petals tend to be lightest at their tips deepening into orange tones nearest their base. PRIMA™ Tiger Echinacea or Coneflower was selected for its compact mound of clean deep green foliage that is topped by by sturdy 12-18" high stems that flower for months beginning in late spring or early summer and continuing into fall. This is a hardy clump forming perennial that will do best in fertile, well-drained, average moist soils in a full to mostly sunny site. The compact habit of PRIMA™ Tiger Echinacea lends it to use as a container plant as well as in the garden and landscape. Leave seedheads for fall and winter songbirds to enjoy. Photos courtesy of TERRA NOVA® Nurseries, Inc. www.terranovanurseries.com, all rights reserved. Item# 13079

Spikes of soft golden-orange upward facing funnel-shaped flowers are produced non-stop from mid to late spring to fall atop the medium green foliage attracting hummingbirds, occasional butterflies, and long-tongued bees. Pumpkin Pie Hummingbird Bush, a selection of Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii and potentially the same as the cultivar 'Bennie's Gold', is a small decidous native shrub from South Texas with excellent flower power. This easy and reliable heirloom has an upright to spreading busny habit rarely exceeding 3-4' in height (3'x3' is fairly typical in our zone 8B gardens) and it revels in the heat and sun of summer and is undaunted by the high humidity and high rainfall of the southeastern US. In the northernmost portion of its hardiness range, zones 7A-8A, the Hummingbird Bush may freeze back to near groundlevel in the hardest winters but readily returns to flowering by mid to late spring. Provide a full sun to mostly sunny site in a well-drained, fertile, average moist soil for optimum vigor and flowering. Small enough for containers but makes a no-maintenance addition the garden and landscape. Catepillar host for Crimson Patch. Item# 9671

Solid purple clusters of fragrant flowers open late in the day attracting larger butterflies, bees, and especially the mystical hummingbird moths. The Purple Four O'Clock grows to form a large tuber from which it will return to grace your garden year after year and they flower continuously throughout the summer months. Easy and reliable and may reseed under good conditions. Item# 11174

Clusters of white to lilac, up to 1" wide, star-shaped, lightly fragrant flowers are produced nearly continuously throughout the warmer months of the year. The large velvety, white to gray green, large rounded tropical foliage of the Giant Milkweed make excellent fodder for Monarch caterpillars and one leaf can provide a substantial amount of food. A large growing shrub in tropical climates where it can be trained into a tree form, grown as a shrub, or hedge. The Giant Milkweed can easily be maintained as a large container plant. Item# 11436

The nearly 1" wide creamy white starry spring flowers are streaked with pink and are soon followed by glossy deep purple new growth that matures to deep green. The Purple Glaze® Japanese Anise Shrub, Illicium anisatum 'Murasaki-no-sato', is a shade tolerant medium-sized to large growing evergreen shrub with a slow to medium rate of growth and naturally has an upright to rounded habit. It is somewhat resistant to short periods of drought once well-established and should be grown in a site with good drainage and average moist to moist soils in an area that receives shade during the hottest part of the day, especially in hot summer climates. Anise flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Not a spice plant. Item# 12003

Huge drooping panicles of long lasting, lavender, star-shaped calyxes that are centered by royal purple 1/2'' rounded verbena-like flowers that may be produced anytime between January and August. The medium-green leaves are textured like sandpaper. A vigorous, naturally evergreen tropical twining vine that lends itself to use on arbors, large trellises, fences, or on nearly any sturdy structure. Queen's Wreath can also be trained into a tree form if given a supporting post. The flowers of Queen's Wreath attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Item# 12153

These beauties are about 18 inches tall above the pot, and healthy.  As of 4-17-2022

TThe large 2" deep bluish-purple trumpets are born freely from late spring or early summer until fall on upright to arching burgundy stems with deep bronzy green glossy foliage. Purple Showers Mexican Petunia is sterile and so it can spend more energy on an endless supply of beautiful purple trumpets instead of adding unwanted seedlings to the garden. It does spread via rhizomes creating a tall ground covering mass of foliage and stems. This wonderful and vigorous selection produces larger flowers and foliage than most other Mexican Petunias. Item# 9610

Small clusters of lightly fragrant purple and lavender flowers are born from summer to frost on this easy and adaptable perennial. With a low, naturally spreading to weeping habit Purple Trailing Lantana makes an excellent choice for the garden or as a spiller in mixed containers. Excellent for butterflies, bees and other pollinators. Hardy and considered to be non-invasive. Item# 10506.

The large to very large, deep coral pink flowers are centered by a boss of contrasting yellow stamens and the flowers are randomly flecked and splashed with white and are produced in early to midseason or December to March. R. L. Wheeler Variegated Camellia is a large and vigorous growing evergreen shrub with a naturally upright to rounded habit at maturity. Provide an average moist, humus rich, fertile, well-drained, acidic soil along with a proper organic mulch for optimum vigor and flowering. Item# 9202

Radio Red Salvia is a hybrid selection with crisp apple green foliage and non-fading deep brilliant red 1" long two-lipped tubular flowers on a compact plant with exceptional flower power. The spikes of flowers are produced from spring to fall, unlike on the typical Autumn Sages (Salvia greggii) which shut down during summer, this Salvia keeps on trucking! The clean tidy habit lend it to use as a container plant where you can draw the hummingbirds and other pollinators in close or use it near the front of the garden or landscape for full season long color. This has quickly become one of our favorite small growing red Salvias! Give Radio Red Salvia a full to mostly sunny location in a well-drained soil for optimum health and flowering. Item# 10755