Digger magazine

Serving the Northwest Nursery Industry for Over 50 Years

  • Farwest-50th-banner-DM.com-728x90-1.jpg
  • NGW-728x90-v2.png
  • Digger-Employment_banner-2020-728x90px.jpg
  • NG-Survey-banner-728x90-1.jpg
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Nursery News
    • Features
    • Plants
    • Growing Knowledge
    • Operations
    • Nursery Country
  • Issues
  • Events
  • Farwest
  • Columns
    • Director’s Desk
    • Mike Darcy
    • Pivot Points
    • President’s Message
  • Employment Classifieds
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe to Digger
You are here: Home / Plant Features / High times for low-water plants

High times for low-water plants

By Tracy Ilene Miller — Posted February 24, 2023

Retail garden centers increasingly turn to drought-tolerant varieties that beat the heat

Agastache ‘Electric Punch’ (upper right) flowers continually from May through October and attracts pollinators. 
photo courtesy of 
Xera Plants
Agastache ‘Electric Punch’ flowers continually from May through October and attracts pollinators. Photo courtesy of Xera Plants

The summer of 2015 was a turning point in the Northwest, which suffered the longest heat wave in 75 years. Portland had more days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit than any other year in recorded history up to that time. That year marked a noticeable shift in nursery customers seeking low-water plants to include in their yards.

But 2015 had nothing on 2021, the year of the heat dome, with some of the most extreme weather events globally and record-breaking high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and into northern California, western Nevada and British Columbia, which broke a temperature record hotter than Texas’s.

That year marked a sharp upturn of customers specifically looking to not only include plants with modest water needs, but to actually transition or replace lawns and plants with water-conserving landscapes, said Greg Shepherd of Xera Plants, a Portland, Oregon-based nursery that specializes in climate-adapted plants.

The shift is not only regional; it is being felt across the industry and across the country. Nothing marks that more than online mainstream reporting. From Southern Living to the Los Angeles Times to Real Simple magazine, the attention of the mass market is sturdily fixed on low-water plants, sometimes referred to as drought-tolerant or climate-adapted.

“As customers are increasingly aware of water usage and water limitations, we are definitely seeing a sharp increase in demand for drought-tolerant plants,” said Darren Morgan at Shonnard’s Nursery, Florist and Landscape (Corvallis, Oregon).

As well, the plant breeding industry has its full attention on producing more plants that have better drought tolerance and are more heat tolerant and resistant, said Judy Alleruzzo, house plant and perennial buyer at Al’s Garden & Home (Portland, Oregon) and co-host of the Garden Time podcast.

In part one of this two-part story, we’ll discuss some of the most popular low-water perennials and ornamental grasses making their mark in the market today. In part two, coming in the June issue, we’ll talk about low-water shrubs.

Perennials

Like many of the plants in the low-water plant category, Achillea (yarrow) species and hybrids fit into the trend of home gardeners investing in landscapes that support pollinators and wildlife. These plants, as a group, sell well for their versatility.

“They bloom for very long periods of time through the summer and are attractive to many different pollinators,” Morgan said. “Our local native Achillea millefolium is a sterling example, with white flowers — though yellow and pinkish plants crop up in the wild — borne for many weeks in the middle of summer in anything except the darkest or the wettest environments.”

Achillea adapts well to most levels of sun or shade and moisture, something that not all the plants in the drought-tolerant category will do, he explained. They’re easy to care for and deer resistant, and breeders have introduced a selection of short to tall varieties that bloom more often, Alleruzzo said.

“Once people discover Achillea, they become true believers,” she said. The long-standing, larger variety ‘Moonshine’ (zones 3–9, 1–2 feet tall × 2 feet wide) has “beautiful, sulfur yellow blooms, stunning.”

For smaller gardens, the newer dwarf ‘Little Moonshine’, at only 12–14 inches, is turning into a popular addition in container gardens, as is the similarly sized New Vintage™ series, which comes in several eye-catching colors.

Agastache (hyssop) makes up some of Xera Plants’ best-selling perennials, Shepherd said, and the nursery’s introduction Agastache ‘Electric Punch’ is a standout with 3-foot stems producing vibrant orange flowers that fade to pink as they age. Flowers continually bloom from May through October and are attractive to pollinators. It’s quick to establish, easy to grow and attracts hummingbirds, which is always a selling point, Shepherd said.

Calamintha needs a little more watering than other low-water plants, Shepherd said, but it’s a reliable seller that is a good filler, which is what often captures customers selecting this plant. It does not spread by underground runners, produces white clouds of flowers for a long bloom season and mixes well in borders. Calamintha nepeta ‘Montrose White’ (zone 4, 2 feet × 2 feet) is a tough, tidy, low perennial that attracts many pollinators.

Ceanothus (California lilac) is the largest genus of native shrubs. It is the hardiest of the evergreen and blue-flowered species, Morgan said, with excellent varieties such as the fast grower ‘Victoria’ (zone 8, 10 feet × 10 feet) and the denser, compacter ‘Skylark’ (zone 7, 1–2 feet × 2–3 feet), with yellow variegated leaves.

“All of these California lilacs are evergreen, and they bloom heavily in the spring and often again more lightly in the fall,” he said. “The blue flowers are lightly scented, and very attractive to bees of all sorts.” Shonnard’s also sells a lot of C. impressus, which Morgan said is not as hardy in Oregon.

Clarkia is a long-blooming annual that reseeds year after year, Shepherd said, to yield a flowering patch. “They germinate with the fall rains, overwinter and then bloom. If you are okay with self-seeding, that and meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba) perpetuate year after year, and are supportive of native insects as well.”

Clarkia amoena ssp. lindleyi ‘Farewell to Spring’ (zone 6, 2 feet tall), like other West Coast native annuals, thrives without irrigation, and reseeds and germinates on its own.

Echinacea (coneflower) is the most popular low-water flowering plant Shonnard’s sells, even as Morgan said there are other perennials with better drought tolerance. There is great variation in types, and they make up a huge volume of sales in low-water plants.

Epilobium (Zauschneria) septentrionalis ‘Select Mattole’ (California fuchsia, zone 7, 6 inches tall × 2 feet wide), sometimes called hummingbird fuchsia, is a West Coast native perennial that Xera Plants can barely keep on the shelf because of its name recognition. A low grower, it has a long bloom season of vibrant orange trumpet-like flowers on silver foliage needing minimal water.

Gaillardia (blanketflower) is “more consistent in overall performance than the similar looking Echinacea,” Morgan said, but equals it in display and pollinator suitability, and will outperform it. Gaillardia flowers in vibrant yellow, orange and red, and will bloom spring to summer or all summer long. The native Gaillardia aristate (zone 3, 2–3 feet tall) is one of the larger blanketflowers, with boldly bicolored yellow and orange petals.

Morgan counts Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca, zone 5) as an up-and-coming plant in the low-water plant category, that he highly recommends. The durable evergreen with yucca-like lower foliage bears 5–6-foot spikes of orange flowers in the summer. “Except for water-logged soil, it is a solid performer” and attracts hummingbirds.

Lavandula is an “iconic” plant, Alleruzzo said, known by many gardeners who rush to any sale of the plant even more so than they do to general perennial sales. Once established, it is drought tolerant, a great pollinator, deer resistant and useful dry or fresh. It’s low maintenance, takes full sun and is forgiving. For customers with limited space and looking for continual blooms, Alleruzzo recommends Lavandula stoechas (Spanish or French lavender) over Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender).

Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage, zones 4–9) has the common trait with yarrow and lavender of being deer resistant, attractive to bees and low care, and showing beautiful gray-green foliage. Like lavender, it is also sometimes listed as a subshrub for its size (usually 3–4 feet tall and wide) and woodiness. Alleruzzo said newer breeding is bringing on compact growers that will appeal to customers, like P. atriplicifolia ‘Little Spire’ and P. atriplicifolia ‘Bluesette’, which has the same long blooming period and other attributes, but half the size of the species.

An older classic, Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ (black-eyed Susan, zone 9, 2 feet at maturity) “is still a top perennial, with masses of black-centered yellow flowers produced over a very long summer bloom season, whether irrigated or not,” Morgan said. It grows at a moderate pace to fill as much space as you allow it to take, he said. “ ‘Goldsturm’ makes up a lot of our sales.” It’s reliable, with a bold presence in tough conditions.

Stonecrop had a recent nomenclature shift from Sedum to Hylotelephium, but everyone is still calling it Sedum, Alleruzzo said. Stonecrop comes in many forms, from creepers to uprights; they are easy for beginners, attract pollinators and take almost no care.

Old-fashioned ‘Autumn Joy’ (Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’, zones 3–9, 1–2 feet tall and wide) still outsells newer varieties, Alleruzzo said, because of its great performance in low-fertility and low-water situations, bursting with flattened heads of rosy-colored star-like flowers that turn coppery in fall.

A lower-growing option is Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’ (4–6 inches tall × 24 inches wide), which starts burgundy in summertime, greens up as it matures, turns a darker burgundy in the fall and keeps its foliage during the winter.

Cistus (rockroses) as a group are excellent sellers, Morgan said. “The old classic Cistus × ‘Purpureus’ (purple rockrose, zones 8–11, 4 feet tall × 4–6 feet wide) is one of the showier and larger types,” and as an evergreen, satisfies the request by gardeners, especially those who move from warmer clients, for year-round interest.

Another bestseller is Cistus × skanbergii (dwarf pink rockrose, zones 8–10, 2–3 feet high × 4–5 feet wide), a low-spreading variety needing little care. Morgan’s favorite, the variegated Cistus × hybridus ‘Mickie’ (zones 7–10, 18 inches high × 36 inches wide) “is a very low-spreading rockrose with white flowers [from May to July“ with stunningly bright yellow variegated leaves. It sells out as soon as I have it.”

Grasses and sedges

Pennisetum spatheolatum (veldt grass, to zone 7, 20 inches tall × 3–4 feet wide) is a semi-evergreen to evergreen grass native to South Africa that does well without water and blooms all summer on 3–4-foot stems. The mound is graceful, with movement from the flowering heads, Shepherd said, and it’s an easy-maintenance grass that only needs to be cut back once in spring.

As a solidly drought-tolerant grass, Morgan recommends the consistency of the compact P. alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ (fountain grass, zones 5–9, 2–3 feet tall and wide). Dense clumps shoot out arches of bottlebrush blooms that change colors in fall, when the leaves turn from yellow to bronze.

Sesleria autumnalis ‘Campo de Azul’ (to zone 5, 1 feet tall × 2 feet wide) is also one of Xera’s best-selling grasses, a durable, moderate-sized grass that fits with other low-water perennials and shrubs, Shepherd said. An evergreen, it forms expanding clumps of stiff, upright foliage and gray/black flowers frosted with light yellow pollen.

The new, low-water normal

With the varied and expanding selection of low-water plants, the expectation is that incorporating them into the garden will become the new normal, Alleruzzo said. “I just think it is a great opportunity for all of us in the garden industry to have a new palette, have new plants, and educate our customers.”

“More customers are transitioning away from lawns, to diverse gardens that don’t need a lot of resources,” Shepherd said. “They will want those resilient landscapes going forward that make it through summer drought but also through ice storms.”

Tracy Ilene Miller is a freelance writer and editor who covers several topics, including gardening. She can be reached at TMillerWriter@Gmail.com.

From the March 2023 issue of Digger magazine | Download PDF

Filed Under: Plant Features Tagged With: Business, Digger, Digger magazine, OAN, OAN Members, Plants, Retail Nurseries, Water, Wholesale Nurseries

About Tracy Ilene Miller

Tracy Ilene Miller is a freelance writer and editor who covers several topics, including gardening. She can be reached at tmillerwriter@gmail.com.

NURSERY NEWS

Hall of Famers give gift towards horticultural industry advocacy

Verl Holden retires from Oregon Garden Foundation Board

Fall Creek promotes Dave Daniel to general manager for U.S. and Canada

NWFCS, Farm Credit West create new association

Bailey Nurseries announces leadership transition

More Nursery News

FARWEST SHOW UPDATES

Secure your 2023 Farwest hotel room and save

Farwest Show to celebrate 50th anniversary in 2023

Nursery professionals connect at Farwest

These 12 products had buyers buzzing at Farwest

Nightfall Snowbell sweeps top honors in Farwest New Varieties Showcase

More Updates from Farwest

From the pages of Digger

March 2023: Water Outlook 2023

February 2023: Greenhouse Issue ’23

January 2023: The Retail Issue

December 2022: Oregon is Nursery Country

November 2022: Transportation and Logistics

More issues of Digger

The Value of Membership

OAN Member Profile: Oregon Flowers Inc. 

These 12 products had buyers buzzing at Farwest

Creating the future generation of nursery leaders

More member stories

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Virtual is the new reality – for now

Trade shows in the time of COVID

A demand ‘renaissance’ for nurseries

Western Nursery & Landscape Association falls victim to pandemic

MANTS 2021 to move online due to COVID-19

More articles

Nursery Guide LIVE

Nursery Guide LIVE clicks into place

Booth spaces still available for Nursery Guide LIVE March 17–18

Nursery Guide LIVE virtual marketplace postponed due to winter storm damage

Keynote presentations at Nursery Guide LIVE virtual marketplace provide insight on green industry trends in 2021 and beyond

More Posts from this Category

​

Updates to exisiting subscriptions can be sent to info@oan.org

News

  • Nursery News
  • Growing Knowledge
  • Nursery Operations

Features

  • Plant Features
  • OAN Members
  • Oregon Nursery Country

Columns

  • Director’s Desk
  • Mike Darcy
  • Pivot Points
  • President’s Message

Resources

  • OAN Home Page
  • Job Listings
  • Subscribe to Digger
  • Advertise in Digger
  • Online Plant Search

© Copyright 2022 Oregon Association of Nurseries · Admin