July 24, 2023 • 21 mins
Looking for a few low-maintenance, drought resistant perennials to add big interest and color to your landscape – all without the worry of having to constantly water?
One of the most difficult and time consuming chores for a gardener to perform is having to continually water their plants. Especially if that water is difficult to come by, or even restricted as it is in many drought plagued parts of the country and world.
But that is exactly where planting smart from the start with drought resistant perennials can be a huge help. Drought resistant plants require far less water to survive and thrive. So much so that watering is rarely if ever needed. And can these plants ever be beautiful!
One of the most difficult and time consuming chores for a gardener to perform is having to continually water their plants. Especially if that water is difficult to come by, or even restricted as it is in many drought plagued parts of the country and world.
But that is exactly where planting smart from the start with drought resistant perennials can be a huge help. Drought resistant plants require far less water to survive and thrive. So much so that watering is rarely if ever needed. And can these plants ever be beautiful!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello andwelcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden
Life. I am your host,Jim Competit along with my wife Mary and
Mary. Today we are talking aboutdrought resistant plants, which for us is
(00:23):
actually extremely important because where we livenow on our new farm, everything we
do is from water. We collectthrough the rain, which is which is
big because we don't have a wellwell and sometimes it's minimal because you know,
we have had very little rain thisyear. And having plants that can
be drought resistant and still look beautiful, it's very important to us and it
really can happen, and that's whatwe're going to cover today. We have
(00:44):
six of probably some of the bestdrought resistant plants around and some of them
are even deer resistant, which isalso a big thing for us, but
we'll get into that in just asecond. We want to remind everybody that
you can sign up for Simple gardenLife by going to Simple garden life dot
com. You can also follow uson all the major apps for our podcast
anywhere and everywhere. We will cometo you whether you like it or not.
(01:06):
Right Mary, that's all right,all right, So let's get into
what we're talking about with drought resistantperennials. For us, we talk about
flower beds and how to keep themweed free. We've done a lot of
podcast on this, and for us, it's really packing your beds full of
plants. But you don't want topack that full of plants that you're going
to have to need a lot ofwatering and constant maintenance. And that is
(01:26):
where drought resistant plants really come toplay. Right. You know, one
of the biggest complaints about gardening,especially with flower beds, that I have
to water them all the time,and during the midsummertime months, you know,
sometimes you have to water them twicea day for them to look good.
But the drought resistant plants are totallydifferent than that. Yeah, And
just because drought resistant plants require lessmoisture to survive, it doesn't mean that
they can't still add a lot ofbeauty and collar your landscape. I mean
(01:49):
not only that they can have vibrantcollars and they can be magnets for pollinators.
I mean some of our drought resistantplants we talk about today are huge
for bringing in butterflies and bees andhummingbirds, all the things that can really
add a lot more to your landscape. Yeah. And I don't know about
you, but I can sit thereand watch bees and hunting birds for hours
in the morning or the afternoon andwatching them pollinate everything. They're just magnificent
to watch. It really is amazing. All right, Mary, So let's
(02:13):
get right into it right now.Let's talk about these plants that we're going
to cover today. And I thinknumber one on the list might be my
favorite. Yeah, I was gonnasay it's my favorite too. Maybe that's
why it's number one on the probably, but blanket flower as a perennial,
blanket flower is probably one of themost biggest perennial plants. I guess it's
(02:35):
a better way to say it.That is going to bloom, not continually,
but a lot of time throughout thecourse of the year, especially if
you practice that simple word of takingoff the old blooms and allowing it to
regenerate, right dead hanging, takingoff the blooms, whatever you want to
call it. But this blanket flowerhas great color, it's got rich red
orange yellow blooms that last almost allseason long. Yeah, and they are
(02:57):
incredible. We talked about pollinators.They will bring them in bees, you
know, butterflies, hummingbirds, more, they will really bring it. It's
I guess the bloom for me islike I always call it, like a
red or an orange day. Yeah, absolutely it is, and boy prolific.
We have several here. They're agreat plant to also be able to
divide each year or every couple ofyears, so you can get more and
(03:21):
more and more. But they comein they're mound like as they grow,
the blooms. I'm not talking oneor two or three. I mean I
think ours right now probably has thirtyor forty on it, and that was
just two weeks ago. When theywere dying off. You cut them back
and they're right back again. Ithink that's the key. You know,
Even though that they're drought resistant,you still have to what we call deadhead
or remove the blossoms, remove theblooms, the dead dying blooms, so
(03:44):
that way the plant can produce enoughenergy to produce more blooms. Absolutely absolutely,
we don't even have to. Youknow, blanket flowers a low maintenance
plant. Not only does it notrequire water unless it was an absolute extreme
drought situation or just plant it's justor when you're first establishing them. But
not only that, they're they're deerresistant, and once established, they can
(04:04):
go tremendous amounts of times without water. You know, you can plant them
from transplants, you can plant themfrom divisions. They're they're a little difficult
to grow from seed, but wow, once you get them started. We've
had them forever and one of ourabsolute favorite plants now and this is one
of those plants that can actually dovery well in full sun even with very
(04:25):
little water. That's actually a greatpoint all almost all of these plants today
except for maybe one that I canthink of right now as we cover them,
our full sun plants. And that'sjust something that's extra when you're talking
about trying to conserve water. Imean to have a plant that can handle
that sunshine and not have to worry. And I think that's something as before
we get to this next plant,I really want to kind of talk to
(04:46):
our listeners about is we know thisand we watch it sometimes, but people
tend sometimes to overwater just to saythey're watering plants. I shouldn't say just
to say they're watching watering plants,but just because they want to think that
the plants are going to need that, you know, and they don't.
The more you water plants sometimes themore those roots come to the surface and
(05:08):
they become shallow. Sometimes it's okayto allow your plants to go a long
time, especially with these plants whereyou never really need to water them.
Right, Your plants, if youreally look at them, will actually tell
you when they need water. Greatpoint. Those will start to wild a
little bit, they'll start to feeldroopy or look droopy. So if you
see that, definitely water them.But if you water them every day,
(05:29):
you're not letting the plants grow theroots that they need to develop. Absolutely,
that's a great point. All right. So we've talked about blanket flower.
Now let's get to number two onthe list, which is another one
of my favorites. Maybe not asmuch as blanket flower, just because of
that amazing bloom time, but coneflower, which you know they're named for
that distinct shape. That center offlowers kind of comes up surrounded by those
(05:51):
purple petals. They kind of growin that downward angle but that seed head
in the middle and the flower it'sjust really pretty. And it's a mid
summer bloomer, which you know,you have all this spring color and then
here comes coneflower that can really providethe bees, the butterflies and all those
pollinators more ability to have nectar andall the things they need, and it
(06:12):
really beautifies your landscape. It reallydoes. And the best thing I think
about cuneflower is that it can growon about just any about any location,
whether the soil is acidic or sandyor great Kuneflower is one of those flowers
that just keeps coming back and thrivesin almost every location. It really does.
And you know, their bloom timeis a little bit longer than a
typical perennial. It doesn't come back. You may not be able to get
(06:34):
multiple bloom sets from them, butyou know, we've had our coune flowers
that can last a month. Andthen you have that seed head, which
we allow to stay because it's greatyou know, feed for the birds everything
else. But is a really reallygreat plant, easy to propagate, easy
to make divisions from. Again,they're a self seeder, so you can
grow them from seed. But Ireally like using the transplants, getting a
(06:57):
larger plant and then being able tohave it from year to year and taking
divisions from it, whether it's thespring or the fall. Well, Nick
can the last I was all seasonlong. You have a cone flower and
it can come in late spring,it could last through the even the early
cold months. Yeah, it's it'samazing how how much it adds to your
landscape. We are big believers inusing all of these. In fact,
(07:17):
every six that we have today featuredwe have on our farm and flower beds
and for good reason, we don'thave to water them. We don't have
to worry about them. Not onlyare most of them and cone flowers another
Greek example, a highly deer resistantplant. You know, people, we
have deer, I think way toomany deer. Now we become their friends.
We wake up in the mornings nowand look out our bedroom window and
(07:39):
there's seven laying out there. Butthey but they leave these plants alone.
And it makes a very very bigdifference when you can plant these and not
have to worry about them. They'regoing to come back year after year.
You're going to be able to dividethem and create more so blanket flower,
cone flower two of our top onesright off the bat, and I know
we're gonna get to our third,but I think, Mary, if I'm
not mistaken, this is where wehave our question of the week, and
(08:01):
maybe we can get the question.Maybe we'll take a very quick break,
and then we'll come back and answerthe question. Absolutely. So our question
of the week comes from Missy inWellsboro, Pennsylvania. It has been extremely
dry here this year, with temperaturesin the mid nineties for many days.
I think that's true for a lotof places. I was going to say,
it's very hot right now everywhere Iwant to plant in my new flower
(08:22):
bed that gets full sun. ButI'm not sure what could tolerate the heat
and dry conditions. What do yousuggest? Oh, I've got a lot
of suggestions. I bet you dotoo. But let's take a quick break
and then we'll come back and answerthat question, and then we'll also get
to our other four plants that aredrought resistant perennials that are perfect for your
landscape. All right, and weare back, and Mary, that question
(08:45):
of the week was a good one. I mean, we're talking about flower
beds and being dry and what canwe plan. I mean, that's a
great question. Yeah, this questioncomes from Missy and Wellsboro, Pennsylvania,
which actually she's just east of us. She asked, it has been extremely
dry here this year with temperatures inthe mid nineties for many days. She
wants to plant and a new flower, but it gets full sun. But
she isn't sure what could tolerate theheat and dry conditions. What plants do
(09:09):
you suggest? Well, Missy,the first two that we've talked about already,
blanket flour and cone flower perfect examplesof what you want to be putting
in. But I want to Ijust want to take a quick second.
You made a really good point Marybefore the break about once they're established.
So just because the plant is droughtresistant or drought tolerant, doesn't mean you
can sit in the ground, goinside and never worried about it. Again,
(09:31):
right when you pick up that plantfrom the store and you look at
it and so it's drought resistant,it doesn't mean that brand new plant that
you're putting the ground doesn't need water. Now. They need to establish their
roots and they need to get involvedin the soil before they become truly,
you know, worry free, andthat can take anywhere from three to six
weeks when they first established. Sometimesit can take a couple of months,
(09:52):
depending on how hot your summer is. But Mary said also that your plants
are going to let you know,you know, when you see them wilting
down and you just put them inthe soil. Yes, you want to
give them water, but you dowant to water deeply more than every single
day. So when you water,make sure you're watering enough water that that
water is getting down in the soil. And if you put your water on
(10:13):
your plants and it just runs rightoff, put a little on, Wait
a little bit, put a littleon, Wait a little bit, let
it soak in. The more soilor the more moisture that gets in that
soil, the better it's going toabsorb water in the future, and it's
better going to be. But onceyou've established them, then you're going to
be fine. And I'll mention somethingelse about water in real quick. It's
one of the worst ways you canwater is actually putting like a soaker hose
(10:33):
over top of the plant, whereit just drenches the leaves, the foliage
just and it never gets down tothe roots or the soil. So really
aim the water down by the baseof the plant so it can get to
the soil and soak down into theroof. Yeah, I think by soakerhose
you're talking about like just sprain,just to sprain over the top. And
yeah, you really you really dowant to get down to the ground,
like you said, and get thatwater to get to the soil lever where
(10:56):
it can go in. So allright, MESSI. We've talked about too
that you can plant. Here's anothergreat one which is black eyed Susan.
You know, they're native to NorthAmerica. They're they're almost in the prairies.
They're used to this. It's awildflower, but but it's able to
sustain itself in dry climates with ease. What a beautiful, beautiful bloom black
eyed Susans have. Yeah, thisis one of my favorite drought resistant perennials.
They get a beautiful they have anice dark core when they have and
(11:20):
yes, that dark core with thatyellow just sets them off that I don't
know, it's like almost like asun a sunburst. Really, it's just
unbelievable the blooms they can do andhow prolific their blooms can be. This
plant handles you know, dry conditionsand poor soil with ease and still produces
a large number of flowers right.And the pollinators love it, especially butterflies.
(11:41):
Oh, butterflies will flock to that. Bees will flock to that.
Black eyed Susan is just another oneof those plants. Again, easy to
divide in the fall or the spring, easy to you know, to grow
by transplants. And here's the greatthing we always tell people when you're looking
at perennials like this, even ifyou don't have somebody that can split them
for you right now, when yougo to a lot of nurseries in the
middle of summer, this is whatthey're highlighting. And they might have smaller
(12:05):
plants that are far less expensive thanthese twenty to thirty dollars pots that you
might find some small ones for gosh, seven ten dollars. Buy those,
because if you put them in rightnow, within a year, you're gonna
be able to divide those into threeor four more plants. Great, great
money value for you, and youcan really start to fill your beds.
If not, if you have afriend that has some black eyed seasons,
(12:26):
you wait till the spring or thefall. You take those divisions and you're
off and running. Yeah, I'msure they're more than happy to share them
with you. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it before. Our
old farm, we probably had alittle over two thousand plants by the end
of it, and I think almostall of them were from divisions, whether
they were from our own or somebodyelse give them to us. So it's
a great way to do it.So we've covered three. Now let's get
(12:46):
to that fourth win. And thisis not so much a flower but an
ornamental grass. But unlike most ornamentalgrass is feather reed grass, which is
number four on our list today,is a very controllable grass. I think
I think it's one of our favoritesbecause you don't have to continually dig this
grass up. We joke about itin our own world. We call it
(13:07):
a Judy grass. So we havea member of our family that my sister
in fact, that gave us astart of this grass way back when it's
just a very slow grower. Featherygrass doesn't expand rapidly, but it plumes
early. Those plumes stay all throughthe summer in the fall, and gosh,
we can go what five eight yearsnot even have to touch that plant,
(13:28):
right. It actually it grows upright. It keeps the beds nice and
tidy. It plumes earlier. Likeyou said, it grows slowly, so
you can go as many years withoutmeaning divide. Yeah, and if you
want to divide it, which we'vedone before, you can divide it early
on. You can get extra plants. This name, this goes by a
lot. Feathery grass is probably themost you know, notable. I don't
(13:48):
think too many people call it judygrass, but Carl Forrester is the person
that developed this, and you'll sometimessee it called that as well. On
our website. On this article,we have links to this grass. You
can kind of see what it isand see where you can get it.
But I'll tell you from an ornamentalgrass standpoint, it's so nice because it's
so neutral. It just goes withall of these other perennial flowers we're talking
(14:11):
about right now that the drought resistant, and it is probably, wow,
it might be the most drought resistantof any of these, and they are
all extremely drought resistant. But thisgrass can handle the heat. It can
handle, you know, anything youthrow at it, and it's going to
stay alive. Right. And thisgrass is great for layering in your flower
bed as the height in flower bedswhere you want to have some height in
(14:31):
certain areas, or it can bean anchor for certain corners of your flower
beds. Yeah, and I thinkso many times people think of grass as
they get so large and they overgrown. You're not going to have to worry
about this with feathery grass. Soall right, So let's get to the
next one, which we talked aboutalready with you know other ones. It's
the orange Shasta daisy. But thisis the Shasta daisy, which is fantastic,
(14:52):
I mean, another excellent drought resistantperennial. It features a beautiful yellow
center with small, delicate white petals. Everybody knows this the daisy, but
the Shasta davies, that mounded growthjust produces a tremendous amount of flowers that
once again your pollinators, you know, your bees, your butterflies, they're
gonna love it. And then thatseed head the birds love as well.
(15:13):
Right, And a lot of peopleask us what's the difference between a daisy
and a Shasta daisy, And really, a Shasta daisy is a hyberd between
them all. It is, andmost people don't realize that you have a
lot of daisies that grow in thewild. This was one that was created
solely to produce more blooms for youknow, a period of time. I
would say ours usually blooms. I'dsay it's solid three to four weeks,
right along with the cone flower.And again, all these ones were featuring
(15:37):
today are great summer flowering perennials.Everybody concentrates so heavily on that early spring
and then we get to the latefall where you have asters and mums and
all this late fall color. It'sthat middle of the summer sometimes when beds
struggle, and they struggle for tworeasons. The spring plants are fading off.
It's also very dry. Well that'swhere these plants come in. They
don't need a lot of water,but they provide a lot of collar.
(15:58):
That's absolutely right, you know,Shasta daisies don't need a lot of water
to survive, and they look beautifulin your flower beds. Yep, So
we got one more to cover andit's probably my favorite plant for borders and
edges and just filling in spaces whereyou never want to have to worry and
you don't want deer to have toworry, and it goes by a lot
of names. We call larrope Imean that is what it is. Lily
(16:21):
turf is another name that's commonly givento it. But it's a small grass.
But unlike most grasses, it actuallyflowers with a berry. I mean,
it has a very nice, beautifullittle berry. Some can be white,
but most of them are usually purplelavenders for style in the fall,
right, you can violet, pinkor white. But it starts off and
it's a grass most of the year. And it's a nice small mounting grass.
(16:42):
Like you said, it doesn't getvery tall. It's perfect for bordering
sidewalks, driveways. It's just oneof those ones that doesn't need a lot
of water. It's easy to takecare of. Yeah, we actually have
an article on this, and I'lllink that article on the podcast, article
on Simple Garden Life. But itcan grow, as Mary said, six
to eighteen inches. There's different variety, but a great, great border plant,
(17:02):
a great plant to fill an area, even a hillside. The thing
about ropea is it can kind ofgrow in any situation. It can do
okay in shade, it can dookay. And son we grow it just
almost everywhere around the farm with alot of success. And you don't really
have to worry about anything to dowith that. I mean, we have
split the rope in the middle ofa summer drought and had it come back
(17:25):
through the you know, its surfaceand be fine. So it's going to
be an extremely durable plant. Butyou know, we really do it.
Check check these six plants out.I mean, you're talking about six plants
that you can put in your bedthat can really provide not just the ability
to have a lot of color,but you're not going to have to work
for it. I mean, you'renot going to be wasting a lot of
watering at all on these plants,right, and most of these plants are
(17:48):
some of these plants also do verywell. Pollinators, the bees, the
butterflies, the birds, they're greatto add to your landscape, especially and
when you say that, it's soimportant for people to understand pollinators when they
eat it most. You know,bees and butterflies, all these things that
come out in early spring. Theyhave damnelions, they have clover that comes
on, they have all this stuffearly on this big but in that middle
(18:08):
of the summer before the fall comesout. With a new burst of flame.
When it's dry, a lot ofthose flowers shrivel up and they're not
around for them, and that iswhere you're also helping, you know,
keep that pollin eater aspect alive andgiving them something to eat. I mean,
it does that for them, andit also puts a tremendous amount of
(18:29):
beating your landscape. I mean,I don't know where we would be without
these plants in our landscape because wefill our beds with these and in that
way we can go right from springcolor to summer color and then here comes
our fall color again, so youcan't go wrong. No, let's go
ahead and review those once again.The six drop resistant perennials that are great
for your flower beds. Absolutely,let's take a look at them right now
(18:49):
and in a quick review. Sothe first one that we cover today was
a blanket flower. Oh yeah,beautiful reddish orange blooms. Great plant.
The second one was cone flower,which is going to give you a beautiful
you know, I call it upsidedown cone, but it's that purple and
again mounted shape which just really canhandle the heat. Right. Next one's
black eyed Susans, one of ourfavorite you know, they have the dark
(19:12):
core with the yellow absolutely yeah,petals that look absolutely gorgeous. And then
feathery grass. And feathery grass isgreat to put in with all of these.
It kind of provides a little centerpieceand then you can put the colors
around them and it's gonna you know, plume early in the summer. And
of course one of our favorites also, it's Chasta daisies. Yeah, Chestadaisies.
(19:32):
I don't know, there's just somethingabout in that mounting white color you
see, it's just so pretty.And then we end with another border and
grass plant the rope. You know, all six of these can be wonderful
place together or by themselves, andall of them are going to reduce your
watering to near zero because they canall handle it, and they can handle
deer as well. They're just they'rethey're great plants. And as I said,
(19:56):
that's the reason we've chose these sixplants because they really are to us
some of the best droute resistent perennialsaround, right, and anytime that we
go over any type of guarding subject, you know, you can follow us
on simple gardenlife dot com. That'sright, Simple garden Life podcasts. Yeah,
and we put all the links atthe end of each article, and
you know, we come to youand just try to give the information.
(20:17):
Has really helped us create a lowmaintenance landscape that can still be beautiful.
I think so many people think tohave this incredibly beautiful landscape that you have
to spend hours upon hours and resourcesupon resources and water and fertilize. Another
great thing about all these plants thatthey are very low feeders, so you're
not going to be spending a lotof time out there fertilizing or watering or
(20:37):
doing anything with them. So wehope you enjoyed today's podcast, and especially
on the six perennials, Mary,I think it's time if you're ready for
it, absolutely remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grow
something beautiful. Happy garden everyone,So long. We hope you've enjoyed this
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Gardenpodcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(21:00):
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to
simplegardenlife dot com where you can listenand read all of the show notes to
every episode and if you have anyquestions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share yourfavorite garden tip, email us at the
Farm at owgarden dot com. Untilnext time, Thanks everyone,
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello andwelcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden
Life. I am your host,Jim Competit along with my wife Mary and
Mary. Today we are talking aboutdrought resistant plants, which for us is
(00:23):
actually extremely important because where we livenow on our new farm, everything we
do is from water. We collectthrough the rain, which is which is
big because we don't have a wellwell and sometimes it's minimal because you know,
we have had very little rain thisyear. And having plants that can
be drought resistant and still look beautiful, it's very important to us and it
really can happen, and that's whatwe're going to cover today. We have
(00:44):
six of probably some of the bestdrought resistant plants around and some of them
are even deer resistant, which isalso a big thing for us, but
we'll get into that in just asecond. We want to remind everybody that
you can sign up for Simple gardenLife by going to Simple garden life dot
com. You can also follow uson all the major apps for our podcast
anywhere and everywhere. We will cometo you whether you like it or not.
(01:06):
Right Mary, that's all right,all right, So let's get into
what we're talking about with drought resistantperennials. For us, we talk about
flower beds and how to keep themweed free. We've done a lot of
podcast on this, and for us, it's really packing your beds full of
plants. But you don't want topack that full of plants that you're going
to have to need a lot ofwatering and constant maintenance. And that is
(01:26):
where drought resistant plants really come toplay. Right. You know, one
of the biggest complaints about gardening,especially with flower beds, that I have
to water them all the time,and during the midsummertime months, you know,
sometimes you have to water them twicea day for them to look good.
But the drought resistant plants are totallydifferent than that. Yeah, And
just because drought resistant plants require lessmoisture to survive, it doesn't mean that
they can't still add a lot ofbeauty and collar your landscape. I mean
(01:49):
not only that they can have vibrantcollars and they can be magnets for pollinators.
I mean some of our drought resistantplants we talk about today are huge
for bringing in butterflies and bees andhummingbirds, all the things that can really
add a lot more to your landscape. Yeah. And I don't know about
you, but I can sit thereand watch bees and hunting birds for hours
in the morning or the afternoon andwatching them pollinate everything. They're just magnificent
to watch. It really is amazing. All right, Mary, So let's
(02:13):
get right into it right now.Let's talk about these plants that we're going
to cover today. And I thinknumber one on the list might be my
favorite. Yeah, I was gonnasay it's my favorite too. Maybe that's
why it's number one on the probably, but blanket flower as a perennial,
blanket flower is probably one of themost biggest perennial plants. I guess it's
(02:35):
a better way to say it.That is going to bloom, not continually,
but a lot of time throughout thecourse of the year, especially if
you practice that simple word of takingoff the old blooms and allowing it to
regenerate, right dead hanging, takingoff the blooms, whatever you want to
call it. But this blanket flowerhas great color, it's got rich red
orange yellow blooms that last almost allseason long. Yeah, and they are
(02:57):
incredible. We talked about pollinators.They will bring them in bees, you
know, butterflies, hummingbirds, more, they will really bring it. It's
I guess the bloom for me islike I always call it, like a
red or an orange day. Yeah, absolutely it is, and boy prolific.
We have several here. They're agreat plant to also be able to
divide each year or every couple ofyears, so you can get more and
(03:21):
more and more. But they comein they're mound like as they grow,
the blooms. I'm not talking oneor two or three. I mean I
think ours right now probably has thirtyor forty on it, and that was
just two weeks ago. When theywere dying off. You cut them back
and they're right back again. Ithink that's the key. You know,
Even though that they're drought resistant,you still have to what we call deadhead
or remove the blossoms, remove theblooms, the dead dying blooms, so
(03:44):
that way the plant can produce enoughenergy to produce more blooms. Absolutely absolutely,
we don't even have to. Youknow, blanket flowers a low maintenance
plant. Not only does it notrequire water unless it was an absolute extreme
drought situation or just plant it's justor when you're first establishing them. But
not only that, they're they're deerresistant, and once established, they can
(04:04):
go tremendous amounts of times without water. You know, you can plant them
from transplants, you can plant themfrom divisions. They're they're a little difficult
to grow from seed, but wow, once you get them started. We've
had them forever and one of ourabsolute favorite plants now and this is one
of those plants that can actually dovery well in full sun even with very
(04:25):
little water. That's actually a greatpoint all almost all of these plants today
except for maybe one that I canthink of right now as we cover them,
our full sun plants. And that'sjust something that's extra when you're talking
about trying to conserve water. Imean to have a plant that can handle
that sunshine and not have to worry. And I think that's something as before
we get to this next plant,I really want to kind of talk to
(04:46):
our listeners about is we know thisand we watch it sometimes, but people
tend sometimes to overwater just to saythey're watering plants. I shouldn't say just
to say they're watching watering plants,but just because they want to think that
the plants are going to need that, you know, and they don't.
The more you water plants sometimes themore those roots come to the surface and
(05:08):
they become shallow. Sometimes it's okayto allow your plants to go a long
time, especially with these plants whereyou never really need to water them.
Right, Your plants, if youreally look at them, will actually tell
you when they need water. Greatpoint. Those will start to wild a
little bit, they'll start to feeldroopy or look droopy. So if you
see that, definitely water them.But if you water them every day,
(05:29):
you're not letting the plants grow theroots that they need to develop. Absolutely,
that's a great point. All right. So we've talked about blanket flower.
Now let's get to number two onthe list, which is another one
of my favorites. Maybe not asmuch as blanket flower, just because of
that amazing bloom time, but coneflower, which you know they're named for
that distinct shape. That center offlowers kind of comes up surrounded by those
(05:51):
purple petals. They kind of growin that downward angle but that seed head
in the middle and the flower it'sjust really pretty. And it's a mid
summer bloomer, which you know,you have all this spring color and then
here comes coneflower that can really providethe bees, the butterflies and all those
pollinators more ability to have nectar andall the things they need, and it
(06:12):
really beautifies your landscape. It reallydoes. And the best thing I think
about cuneflower is that it can growon about just any about any location,
whether the soil is acidic or sandyor great Kuneflower is one of those flowers
that just keeps coming back and thrivesin almost every location. It really does.
And you know, their bloom timeis a little bit longer than a
typical perennial. It doesn't come back. You may not be able to get
(06:34):
multiple bloom sets from them, butyou know, we've had our coune flowers
that can last a month. Andthen you have that seed head, which
we allow to stay because it's greatyou know, feed for the birds everything
else. But is a really reallygreat plant, easy to propagate, easy
to make divisions from. Again,they're a self seeder, so you can
grow them from seed. But Ireally like using the transplants, getting a
(06:57):
larger plant and then being able tohave it from year to year and taking
divisions from it, whether it's thespring or the fall. Well, Nick
can the last I was all seasonlong. You have a cone flower and
it can come in late spring,it could last through the even the early
cold months. Yeah, it's it'samazing how how much it adds to your
landscape. We are big believers inusing all of these. In fact,
(07:17):
every six that we have today featuredwe have on our farm and flower beds
and for good reason, we don'thave to water them. We don't have
to worry about them. Not onlyare most of them and cone flowers another
Greek example, a highly deer resistantplant. You know, people, we
have deer, I think way toomany deer. Now we become their friends.
We wake up in the mornings nowand look out our bedroom window and
(07:39):
there's seven laying out there. Butthey but they leave these plants alone.
And it makes a very very bigdifference when you can plant these and not
have to worry about them. They'regoing to come back year after year.
You're going to be able to dividethem and create more so blanket flower,
cone flower two of our top onesright off the bat, and I know
we're gonna get to our third,but I think, Mary, if I'm
not mistaken, this is where wehave our question of the week, and
(08:01):
maybe we can get the question.Maybe we'll take a very quick break,
and then we'll come back and answerthe question. Absolutely. So our question
of the week comes from Missy inWellsboro, Pennsylvania. It has been extremely
dry here this year, with temperaturesin the mid nineties for many days.
I think that's true for a lotof places. I was going to say,
it's very hot right now everywhere Iwant to plant in my new flower
(08:22):
bed that gets full sun. ButI'm not sure what could tolerate the heat
and dry conditions. What do yousuggest? Oh, I've got a lot
of suggestions. I bet you dotoo. But let's take a quick break
and then we'll come back and answerthat question, and then we'll also get
to our other four plants that aredrought resistant perennials that are perfect for your
landscape. All right, and weare back, and Mary, that question
(08:45):
of the week was a good one. I mean, we're talking about flower
beds and being dry and what canwe plan. I mean, that's a
great question. Yeah, this questioncomes from Missy and Wellsboro, Pennsylvania,
which actually she's just east of us. She asked, it has been extremely
dry here this year with temperatures inthe mid nineties for many days. She
wants to plant and a new flower, but it gets full sun. But
she isn't sure what could tolerate theheat and dry conditions. What plants do
(09:09):
you suggest? Well, Missy,the first two that we've talked about already,
blanket flour and cone flower perfect examplesof what you want to be putting
in. But I want to Ijust want to take a quick second.
You made a really good point Marybefore the break about once they're established.
So just because the plant is droughtresistant or drought tolerant, doesn't mean you
can sit in the ground, goinside and never worried about it. Again,
(09:31):
right when you pick up that plantfrom the store and you look at
it and so it's drought resistant,it doesn't mean that brand new plant that
you're putting the ground doesn't need water. Now. They need to establish their
roots and they need to get involvedin the soil before they become truly,
you know, worry free, andthat can take anywhere from three to six
weeks when they first established. Sometimesit can take a couple of months,
(09:52):
depending on how hot your summer is. But Mary said also that your plants
are going to let you know,you know, when you see them wilting
down and you just put them inthe soil. Yes, you want to
give them water, but you dowant to water deeply more than every single
day. So when you water,make sure you're watering enough water that that
water is getting down in the soil. And if you put your water on
(10:13):
your plants and it just runs rightoff, put a little on, Wait
a little bit, put a littleon, Wait a little bit, let
it soak in. The more soilor the more moisture that gets in that
soil, the better it's going toabsorb water in the future, and it's
better going to be. But onceyou've established them, then you're going to
be fine. And I'll mention somethingelse about water in real quick. It's
one of the worst ways you canwater is actually putting like a soaker hose
(10:33):
over top of the plant, whereit just drenches the leaves, the foliage
just and it never gets down tothe roots or the soil. So really
aim the water down by the baseof the plant so it can get to
the soil and soak down into theroof. Yeah, I think by soakerhose
you're talking about like just sprain,just to sprain over the top. And
yeah, you really you really dowant to get down to the ground,
like you said, and get thatwater to get to the soil lever where
(10:56):
it can go in. So allright, MESSI. We've talked about too
that you can plant. Here's anothergreat one which is black eyed Susan.
You know, they're native to NorthAmerica. They're they're almost in the prairies.
They're used to this. It's awildflower, but but it's able to
sustain itself in dry climates with ease. What a beautiful, beautiful bloom black
eyed Susans have. Yeah, thisis one of my favorite drought resistant perennials.
They get a beautiful they have anice dark core when they have and
(11:20):
yes, that dark core with thatyellow just sets them off that I don't
know, it's like almost like asun a sunburst. Really, it's just
unbelievable the blooms they can do andhow prolific their blooms can be. This
plant handles you know, dry conditionsand poor soil with ease and still produces
a large number of flowers right.And the pollinators love it, especially butterflies.
(11:41):
Oh, butterflies will flock to that. Bees will flock to that.
Black eyed Susan is just another oneof those plants. Again, easy to
divide in the fall or the spring, easy to you know, to grow
by transplants. And here's the greatthing we always tell people when you're looking
at perennials like this, even ifyou don't have somebody that can split them
for you right now, when yougo to a lot of nurseries in the
middle of summer, this is whatthey're highlighting. And they might have smaller
(12:05):
plants that are far less expensive thanthese twenty to thirty dollars pots that you
might find some small ones for gosh, seven ten dollars. Buy those,
because if you put them in rightnow, within a year, you're gonna
be able to divide those into threeor four more plants. Great, great
money value for you, and youcan really start to fill your beds.
If not, if you have afriend that has some black eyed seasons,
(12:26):
you wait till the spring or thefall. You take those divisions and you're
off and running. Yeah, I'msure they're more than happy to share them
with you. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it before. Our
old farm, we probably had alittle over two thousand plants by the end
of it, and I think almostall of them were from divisions, whether
they were from our own or somebodyelse give them to us. So it's
a great way to do it.So we've covered three. Now let's get
(12:46):
to that fourth win. And thisis not so much a flower but an
ornamental grass. But unlike most ornamentalgrass is feather reed grass, which is
number four on our list today,is a very controllable grass. I think
I think it's one of our favoritesbecause you don't have to continually dig this
grass up. We joke about itin our own world. We call it
(13:07):
a Judy grass. So we havea member of our family that my sister
in fact, that gave us astart of this grass way back when it's
just a very slow grower. Featherygrass doesn't expand rapidly, but it plumes
early. Those plumes stay all throughthe summer in the fall, and gosh,
we can go what five eight yearsnot even have to touch that plant,
(13:28):
right. It actually it grows upright. It keeps the beds nice and
tidy. It plumes earlier. Likeyou said, it grows slowly, so
you can go as many years withoutmeaning divide. Yeah, and if you
want to divide it, which we'vedone before, you can divide it early
on. You can get extra plants. This name, this goes by a
lot. Feathery grass is probably themost you know, notable. I don't
(13:48):
think too many people call it judygrass, but Carl Forrester is the person
that developed this, and you'll sometimessee it called that as well. On
our website. On this article,we have links to this grass. You
can kind of see what it isand see where you can get it.
But I'll tell you from an ornamentalgrass standpoint, it's so nice because it's
so neutral. It just goes withall of these other perennial flowers we're talking
(14:11):
about right now that the drought resistant, and it is probably, wow,
it might be the most drought resistantof any of these, and they are
all extremely drought resistant. But thisgrass can handle the heat. It can
handle, you know, anything youthrow at it, and it's going to
stay alive. Right. And thisgrass is great for layering in your flower
bed as the height in flower bedswhere you want to have some height in
(14:31):
certain areas, or it can bean anchor for certain corners of your flower
beds. Yeah, and I thinkso many times people think of grass as
they get so large and they overgrown. You're not going to have to worry
about this with feathery grass. Soall right, So let's get to the
next one, which we talked aboutalready with you know other ones. It's
the orange Shasta daisy. But thisis the Shasta daisy, which is fantastic,
(14:52):
I mean, another excellent drought resistantperennial. It features a beautiful yellow
center with small, delicate white petals. Everybody knows this the daisy, but
the Shasta davies, that mounded growthjust produces a tremendous amount of flowers that
once again your pollinators, you know, your bees, your butterflies, they're
gonna love it. And then thatseed head the birds love as well.
(15:13):
Right, And a lot of peopleask us what's the difference between a daisy
and a Shasta daisy, And really, a Shasta daisy is a hyberd between
them all. It is, andmost people don't realize that you have a
lot of daisies that grow in thewild. This was one that was created
solely to produce more blooms for youknow, a period of time. I
would say ours usually blooms. I'dsay it's solid three to four weeks,
right along with the cone flower.And again, all these ones were featuring
(15:37):
today are great summer flowering perennials.Everybody concentrates so heavily on that early spring
and then we get to the latefall where you have asters and mums and
all this late fall color. It'sthat middle of the summer sometimes when beds
struggle, and they struggle for tworeasons. The spring plants are fading off.
It's also very dry. Well that'swhere these plants come in. They
don't need a lot of water,but they provide a lot of collar.
(15:58):
That's absolutely right, you know,Shasta daisies don't need a lot of water
to survive, and they look beautifulin your flower beds. Yep, So
we got one more to cover andit's probably my favorite plant for borders and
edges and just filling in spaces whereyou never want to have to worry and
you don't want deer to have toworry, and it goes by a lot
of names. We call larrope Imean that is what it is. Lily
(16:21):
turf is another name that's commonly givento it. But it's a small grass.
But unlike most grasses, it actuallyflowers with a berry. I mean,
it has a very nice, beautifullittle berry. Some can be white,
but most of them are usually purplelavenders for style in the fall,
right, you can violet, pinkor white. But it starts off and
it's a grass most of the year. And it's a nice small mounting grass.
(16:42):
Like you said, it doesn't getvery tall. It's perfect for bordering
sidewalks, driveways. It's just oneof those ones that doesn't need a lot
of water. It's easy to takecare of. Yeah, we actually have
an article on this, and I'lllink that article on the podcast, article
on Simple Garden Life. But itcan grow, as Mary said, six
to eighteen inches. There's different variety, but a great, great border plant,
(17:02):
a great plant to fill an area, even a hillside. The thing
about ropea is it can kind ofgrow in any situation. It can do
okay in shade, it can dookay. And son we grow it just
almost everywhere around the farm with alot of success. And you don't really
have to worry about anything to dowith that. I mean, we have
split the rope in the middle ofa summer drought and had it come back
(17:25):
through the you know, its surfaceand be fine. So it's going to
be an extremely durable plant. Butyou know, we really do it.
Check check these six plants out.I mean, you're talking about six plants
that you can put in your bedthat can really provide not just the ability
to have a lot of color,but you're not going to have to work
for it. I mean, you'renot going to be wasting a lot of
watering at all on these plants,right, and most of these plants are
(17:48):
some of these plants also do verywell. Pollinators, the bees, the
butterflies, the birds, they're greatto add to your landscape, especially and
when you say that, it's soimportant for people to understand pollinators when they
eat it most. You know,bees and butterflies, all these things that
come out in early spring. Theyhave damnelions, they have clover that comes
on, they have all this stuffearly on this big but in that middle
(18:08):
of the summer before the fall comesout. With a new burst of flame.
When it's dry, a lot ofthose flowers shrivel up and they're not
around for them, and that iswhere you're also helping, you know,
keep that pollin eater aspect alive andgiving them something to eat. I mean,
it does that for them, andit also puts a tremendous amount of
(18:29):
beating your landscape. I mean,I don't know where we would be without
these plants in our landscape because wefill our beds with these and in that
way we can go right from springcolor to summer color and then here comes
our fall color again, so youcan't go wrong. No, let's go
ahead and review those once again.The six drop resistant perennials that are great
for your flower beds. Absolutely,let's take a look at them right now
(18:49):
and in a quick review. Sothe first one that we cover today was
a blanket flower. Oh yeah,beautiful reddish orange blooms. Great plant.
The second one was cone flower,which is going to give you a beautiful
you know, I call it upsidedown cone, but it's that purple and
again mounted shape which just really canhandle the heat. Right. Next one's
black eyed Susans, one of ourfavorite you know, they have the dark
(19:12):
core with the yellow absolutely yeah,petals that look absolutely gorgeous. And then
feathery grass. And feathery grass isgreat to put in with all of these.
It kind of provides a little centerpieceand then you can put the colors
around them and it's gonna you know, plume early in the summer. And
of course one of our favorites also, it's Chasta daisies. Yeah, Chestadaisies.
(19:32):
I don't know, there's just somethingabout in that mounting white color you
see, it's just so pretty.And then we end with another border and
grass plant the rope. You know, all six of these can be wonderful
place together or by themselves, andall of them are going to reduce your
watering to near zero because they canall handle it, and they can handle
deer as well. They're just they'rethey're great plants. And as I said,
(19:56):
that's the reason we've chose these sixplants because they really are to us
some of the best droute resistent perennialsaround, right, and anytime that we
go over any type of guarding subject, you know, you can follow us
on simple gardenlife dot com. That'sright, Simple garden Life podcasts. Yeah,
and we put all the links atthe end of each article, and
you know, we come to youand just try to give the information.
(20:17):
Has really helped us create a lowmaintenance landscape that can still be beautiful.
I think so many people think tohave this incredibly beautiful landscape that you have
to spend hours upon hours and resourcesupon resources and water and fertilize. Another
great thing about all these plants thatthey are very low feeders, so you're
not going to be spending a lotof time out there fertilizing or watering or
(20:37):
doing anything with them. So wehope you enjoyed today's podcast, and especially
on the six perennials, Mary,I think it's time if you're ready for
it, absolutely remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grow
something beautiful. Happy garden everyone,So long. We hope you've enjoyed this
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Gardenpodcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(21:00):
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to
simplegardenlife dot com where you can listenand read all of the show notes to
every episode and if you have anyquestions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share yourfavorite garden tip, email us at the
Farm at owgarden dot com. Untilnext time, Thanks everyone,
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