Extremely Drought Tolerant Perennials
A Starter List of Plants for the Gardener Who Doesn’t Like to Water (or water conscience gardeners).
Source 👇
http://www.perennialresource.com/photo_essay.php?ID=311
The Best Water-Wise Plants for Drought-Tolerant Gardens
Pictures and Ideas for Your Drought-Tolerant Landscape
https://www.thespruce.com/water-wise-plants-drought-tolerant-gardens-2736715
Reasons to Consider Drought-Tolerant Landscaping
Drought-tolerant landscaping has become more popular and even mandatory in regions that experience little or sporadic rainfall. Some regions and cities impose fines or offer rebates and incentives to homeowners who replace their thirsty lawns and gardens with water-wise plants and hardscape. If you drive by a home with a dying lawn, the residents probably have stopped watering it and are planning to add gravel, river stones, permeable paving, and low- or no-maintenance ground covers, shrubs, trees, and perennials that don’t need daily irrigation.
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https://www.thespruce.com/drought-tolerant-landscaping-what-to-know-2736660
Drought-Tolerant Perennials
If you wish to grow flowers in an area pounded by full sun all day, consider a landscape plan that focuses on drought-tolerant perennials. The use of such plants will reduce time and money spent on irrigation. Descriptions of the flowers to be planted in one such landscape plan are presented below.
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https://www.thespruce.com/drought-tolerant-perennials-2130962
Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) Plant Care Guide
Fallugia is a monotypic genus of shrub containing the single species Fallugia paradoxa, which is known by the common names Apache plume and ponil. This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is found in arid habitats such as desert woodlands and scrub.
Fallugia paradoxa, the Apache plume, is an erect shrub not exceeding two meters in height. It has light gray or whitish peeling bark on its many thin branches. The leaves are each about a centimeter long and deeply lobed with the edges rolled under. The upper surface of the leaf is green and hairy and the underside is duller in color and scaly.
The flower of the shrub is roselike when new, with rounded white petals and a center filled with many thready stamens and pistils. The ovary of the flower remains after the white petals fall away, leaving many plumelike lavender styles, each 3 to 5 centimeters long. The plant may be covered with these dark pinkish clusters of curling, feathery styles after flowering. Each style is attached to a developing fruit, which is a small achene. The fruit is dispersed when the wind catches the styles and blows them away.
The Fallugia paradoxa plant is considered valuable for erosion control in desert areas where it grows.
External links
- Jepson Manual Treatment – Fallugia paradoxa
- USDA Plants Profile; Fallugia paradoxa
- Ecology
- Fallugia paradoxa – Photo gallery
How to Grow Apache Plume
The Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) is most identifiable by its purplish-pink featherlike seed heads that appear on the heels of tiny white spring blooms. This extremely drought-tolerant shrub belongs to the Rosaceae, or rose, family. Its mature height is 6 feet with an equal spread. It is hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 10. Landscape uses for the Apache plume include mass plantings, xeriscapes, hedges and borders.
1 Plant the Apache plume in a south or west portion of your landscape that receives the warmest temperatures. Choose a spot that receives full, direct sunlight and contains extremely well-draining, sandy soil. Space the plant 6 feet away from other vegetation.
2 Water young, newly planted Apache plumes once a week. Flood the soil surrounding the shrub with a garden hose. Reduce supplemental watering once the shrub becomes established and starts to produce new foliage and stems. Water mature, established shrubs once a month during hot summer months and periods of no rainfall
3 Fertilize the Apache plume in the early spring when the plant is no longer dormant and new leaves begin to emerge. Apply a 10-10-10 (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) slow-release fertilizer at a rate of 1 tablespoon per square foot of soil. Spread the fertilizer evenly in a ring around the shrub, just outside the perimeter of the plant’s branches. Mix the fertilizer granules into the top 1 to 3 inches of soil using a rake. Water the area thoroughly to activate the fertilizer.
4 Prune the Apache plume in the late winter while it is still dormant. Cut out any broken, damaged or diseased stems using a pair of pruning shears. Make each cut 1/4 inch above a growth node or dormant bud. Thin the plant by no more than one-third, removing the oldest stems first.
5 Trim the shrub in the early summer after it flowers. Clip back any excessive long or straggly stems to shape the plant and keep it looking presentable.
Things You Will Need
- Garden hose
- 10-10-10 low-release fertilizer
- Rake
- Pruning shears
Tip
- Plant Apache plume with other drought-tolerant plants to create a low-water section in your landscape.
References
- Taylor’s Guide to Shrubs: How to Select and Grow More Than 500 Ornamental and Useful Shrubs for Privacy, Ground Covers, and Specimen Plantings; Kathleen Fisher
- Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines: A Guide to Using, Growing, and Propagating North American Woody Plants; William Cullina
- Colorado State University Extension: Apache Plume
- Texas A&M University Aggie Horticulture: Apache Plume, Ponil
About the Author
Jessica Westover began writing professionally in 2010. She has worked at various greenhouse production facilities and more recently as a personal banking assistant for Zions Bank. Westover graduated from Brigham Young University Idaho in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in horticulture and a minor in accounting.
Photo Credits
- Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
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See Also ….
Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa)
Fallugia paradoxa
Fallugia paradoxa (D. Don) Endl. ex Torr. Apache plume, Ponil Rosaceae (Rose Family)
Caesalpinia gilliesii ~ Bird of paradise Plant Care Guide
Caesalpinia gilliesii ~ ( Bird of Paradise Bush )
| Caesalpinia gilliesii is a shrub in the legume family. It is commonly known as bird of paradise, but it is not related to the bird of paradise genus Strelitzia. It grows to 1–4 m tall, depending on rainfall. The leaves are bipinnate, 10–15 cm long, bearing 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 6-10 pairs of leaflets 5–6 mm long and 2–4 mm broad. The flowers are borne in racemes up to 20 cm long, each flower with five yellow petals with 10 long conspicuous red stamens. The pods are densely covered in short, red glandular hairs.It is a striking ornamental plant native to tropical America, mainly Argentina and Uruguay. It is naturalised in Texas, and fairly common in the rest of the southwestern United States, where it is known as bird of paradise bush, desert bird of paradise, yellow bird of paradise, and barba de chivo.
Although it is a tropical plant adapted to dry climate, it also thrives in the climate of Avsa and neighbouring islands in the south of Sea of Marmara in northwestern Turkey, where it is commonly known as Paşabıyığı (Pasabiyigi), Cennetkuşu ağacı (Cennetkusu agaci), which in Turkish means “bird of paradise tree,” and Bodurakasya, which means “dwarf acacia”. This species is also fairly common in the Karoo of South Africa |
| Important Info : Very attractive to hummingbirds.Medicine men of peoples indigenous to the Amazon Rainforest used this plant and the similar Caesalpinia pulcherrima, which they called ayoowiri, for curing fever, sores, and cough. |
Characteristics
| Cultivar: | n/a |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Size: | Height: 6 ft. to 10 ft. Width: 3 ft. to 8 ft. |
| Plant Category: | landscape, shrubs, |
| Plant Characteristics: | high maintenance, |
| Foliage Characteristics: | evergreen, |
| Foliage Color: | dark green, |
| Flower Characteristics: | erect, showy, |
| Flower Color: | reds, yellows, |
| Tolerances: | heat & humidity, |
Requirements
| Bloomtime Range: | not applicable |
| USDA Hardiness Zone: | 9 to 11 |
| AHS Heat Zone: | Not defined for this plant |
| Light Range: | Full Sun to Full Sun |
| pH Range: | 5.5 to 6.5 |
| Soil Range: | Sandy Loam to Clay Loam |
| Water Range: | Normal to Normal |
| Plant Care |
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See Also …
Caesalpinia gilliesii (Wall. ex Hook.) Wall. ex D. Dietr. bird-of-paradise shrub
Auntie Dogma's Garden Spot 
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