Agastache – Hummingbird Mint: 

This may be the best perennial you’ve never heard of. Fragrant leaves and brightly colored, tube shaped blooms make this bright bloomer a plant that hummingbirds and butterflies can’t resist. The slightly hairy leaves mean agastache is both drought and pest resistant. The tidy growth habit makes this summer blooming perennial good for both pots and borders. You will find Agastche in shades of yellow gold, red, pinks and an impressive deep violet blue color on the award winning plant called Agastache ‘Blue Boa’. Plant this perennial in well-drained, sandy soil.

Tip: For containers and smaller gardens choose the Agastache Kudos series as the plants are more compact but still colorful.

Bergenia – Pig squeak: 

Huge paddle shaped leaves make this perennial a go-to plant for adding texture to the rock garden or dry perennial bed. This spring blooming plant thrives on neglect and will even grow in poor or sandy soil. If you live in a mild winter area the foliage will be evergreen. If you like early spring color, the wands of bright, pink bloom clusters will delight you. Bergenia may have been blooming in your grandmother’s garden. However, the newest varieties are making this plant the rock star of the rock garden. Bergenia ‘Lunar Glow’ has lime yellow leaves that highlight the bright pink blooms. The dwarf bergenia ‘DragonFly’ is more compact for tiny spaces.

Tip: In dry shade, plant bergenia in front of fall blooming Japanese anemone and alongside the fine texture of shade plants such as ferns, bleeding hearts and lamiums where you can enjoy the lovely contrast of foliage.

Campanula – Bell Flower: 

This cottage garden plant has many different varieties but all have bell shaped blooms in shades of blue, lavender, white or pink. Most of the campanulas are drought resistant especially when grown in the shade garden. There are dwarf rock garden campanulas often used in tiny fairy gardens and the hardy wall campanulas that will reseed and colonize piles of rubble and old rock walls and other spaces where no other plants seem to survive. Some of the easy to grow campanulas can become invasive so this perennial is recommended for areas with dry soil.

Tip: It is best to move, add, or transplant campanulas in early spring or in the fall. They need somewhat moist soil to get started. After, they are more drought resistant once established.

Crocosmia – Montbretia: 

Grassy, sword like leaves and brilliant orange blooms on plume-like spikes make this summer flowering bulb a favorite for sunny hillsides or any spot with well-drained soil. If your winter temps stay above zero degrees the small bulbs will come back in larger colonies year after year. If the weather is colder, cover the bulbs with a mulch to keep them from freezing. The variety of crocosmia called ‘Lucifer’ has large and very bright orange blooms. However, new varieties with yellow and scarlet flowers are also available.

Tip: If you notice that your crocosmia have fewer blooms after a few years in the garden, then it is time to dig and divide the corms or small bulbs. Do this in the fall once the green leaves start to fade.

Eryngium – Sea Holly: 

Spiny leaves and spiky blooms make this a dangerous looking perennial. The silver color means this plant needs little water. Once established, the flowers are unique, star-like and vivid purple or electric blue. Eryngium is a taller perennial that has a long bloom time that will go from summer to fall as the flowers dry out in the sun. Leave the flower bracts and this plant may reseed in all the rocky, sunny parts of your garden.

Tip: Harvest the unusual blooms when they feel dry to the touch and use them in everlasting floral arrangements or wreaths.

Helleborus –Christmas Rose, Lenten Rose: 

This long- lived and evergreen perennial is not only deer, slug and drought resistant but flowers in late winter and early spring when not much else is going on in the garden. The large, pointed leathery leaves make a great summer backdrop for hosta or for shading the ground under hydrangeas. Hellebores can take some morning sun but prefer afternoon shade. The deep roots do not like to be disturbed. Make sure to loosen the soil in the planting area well and add organic matter when you plant. Your hellebore can stay in the same spot for decades. The winter blooms can be enjoyed indoors by floating them in bowls of water where they will look like mini waterlilies. New varieties such as the ‘Winter Jewels’ offer more colors and double flower forms. The taller, green- blooming Corsican Hellebores (Hellebore agutifolius) are the most drought and sun tolerant.

Tip: Hellebores hate to be divided so to get new plants look for seedlings near the mother plant in early summer and transplant into small pots or a new location. In areas with wet winters clip off the old summer foliage before the plants flower in the spring. Removing the leaves not only allows you to see the winter blooms, but also helps to prevent foliage disease that first appears as black spots on old leaves.

Heuchera – Coral bell: 

Astounding foliage on evergreen, mounding plants make this perennial the darling of the decorator crowd. Heucheras complement so many other plants, especially in container combinations. Heucheras are relative to native woodland plants. They need an extra helping of compost or humus mixed into the planting hole if you want them to be drought resistant. Heucheras come in hundreds of varieties from the brightest red of “Fire Chief’ to the golden peach of ‘Amber waves’. The low growing Canyon series works well as a groundcover plant in areas of high shade such as under tall trees.

Tip: All heucheras appreciate protection from the hot afternoon sun. However, some varieties handle more sun than others. Plant heucheras where you want them. If the leaves turn brown and crispy from the sun move to a more shaded location. Alternatively, try a different heuchera that may have more sun tolerance. It’s easy to add or transplant this perennial any time of the year as long as the ground is not frozen. You can add heucheras plants to container gardens in the fall to replace summer annuals.

Lavender – Lavandula: 

The gray or silver foliage of this fragrant shrubby perennial is the tip-off that lavender thrives with very little water. This aromatic herb does best on mounds, slopes or in sandy soil. The only place it really struggles is where the humidity is high and the air circulation low. Don’t crowd your lavender plants. New varieties come in different leaf and flower shades. Lavender ‘Platinum Blonde’ has foliage that looks yellow – tipped with a bit of silver.

Tip: After your lavender blooms the first time in early summer, trim the plants into tidy balls by removing the spent flowers and stems. Don’t cut into the old wood of the plants.

Ornamental Grasses – Miscanthus, Festuca, Muhly Grass:

The slender leaf blades and spreading roots make the ornamental grasses popular for large landscaping projects that don’t need extra irrigation. Grasses do need to be established with a good root system before they can survive on rainfall alone. Some are more drought resistant than others. Plant in drifts of five to seven to create waves of texture in the landscape. Alternatively, use tall grasses like miscanthus to create walls and living screens.

Tip: Notice what type of grasses is planted near public buildings or along the highway in your area. These are the varieties that will do best in your region.

Sedums – Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Sedum Angelina: 

Thick, succulent leaves make all members of the large sedum and succulent family well known for their ability to store water during times of drought. The most common are winter hardy sempervirens or Hen’s and Chicks as they need very little soil to thrive so are used in vertical gardens and growing out of leather shoes and other novelty containers. For outstanding beauty and structure in the late summer and fall garden grow the upright Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ with the bee attracting flat panicles that start green, then bloom pink until fading to a rusty brown in the fall. To crowd out weeds and as a bright groundcover chose the sedum ‘Angelina’ with a low growing or trailing habit and bright yellow foliage.

Tip: Sedums are about the easiest perennials to multiply. Snip off a section of stem, remove some of the lowest leaves closest to the cut then poke the cut end into the soil. Sedums root even sooner if you allow the cut stem to dry a bit by having it sit in the shade for 24 hours before poking it into soil.