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Drought Busters

by with No Comment Drought tolerant plants

Rethinking the Garden for a Drier Climate

I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the weather. According to drought.gov, Chester County, Pennsylvania where I live is experiencing its 7th driest year in the past 132 years, and we remain nearly six inches below average rainfall.

And when we are lucky enough to get rain, it often comes all at once—a deluge that runs off rather than soaking into the soil—or is followed by strong winds that quickly dry out the landscape. It’s making me rethink how I garden.

I’ve started removing some of my more water-hungry plants, including hydrangeas, and replacing them with plants that are better equipped to handle dry conditions. My goal is to create a landscape that is both beautiful and resilient—one that can thrive without me constantly standing at the end of a hose or continuously running the sprinkler.

Plants That Are Thriving in My Garden

For sunny areas, several plants have performed particularly well for me, even through periods of heat and drought. Some of my standouts include:

  • Iris domestica
  • Calamintha
  • Antennaria
  • Penstemon ‘Red Rocks’
  • Kniphofia
  • Allium
  • Aster ‘Snow Flurry’
  • Nassella tenuissima
  • Yarrow
  • Amsonia
blue flowers on amsonia with stone moon gate in background
Amsonia ‘Storm Cloud’ blooms reliably in the spring and doesn’t flag in intense heat and drought.
stone bird bath surrounded by plantings of purple allium and white calamintha
The wispy texture of Calamintha ‘White Cloud’ and the purple globes of Allium ‘Millennium’ pair beautifully in the hot sun.
flowers on antennaria plant
My Antennaria (pussy toes) is planted along the driveway. Even with the reflective heat of my driveway, it looks stunning.
orange kniphofia and nasella in a garden
Kniphofia ‘Mango Popsicle’ and Nasella tenuissima stand tall in dry conditions and never disappoint.
yellow iris domestica flowers with variegated hakone grass in the background
Iris domestica, commonly known as blackberry lily, blooms for an extended period of time and doesn’t mind periods of drought.

For areas with shade, I’ve found that these plants can tolerate considerably drier conditions than you might expect:

  • Helleborus
  • Epimedium
  • Erigeron pulchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’
white hellebore flower with buds
Hellebores are thoroughly happy in my dry shade garden.
red and green leaves with spines on epimeidum plant
Many varieties of Epimeidum are available and well adapted to drought once established.

As I continue removing super-thirsty plants and reworking different areas of the garden, I plan to rely on some of these tried-and-true favorites. But I’m also excited to experiment with plants I haven’t grown before.

Some that have recently caught my attention are Eryngium yuccifolium (Rattlesnake Master), Carex rosea (Rosy Carex), Commptonia peregrina (Sweet Fern), Arctostaphylos uva-ursi ‘Massachusetts (Kinnikinnick). and Blephilia subnuda (Smooth Woodmint).  I’m curious to see how they perform in my garden and whether they might become new favorites.

For me, gardening in a changing climate isn’t about giving up on a beautiful garden. It’s about choosing plants that are better suited to the conditions we’re actually experiencing. A resilient garden can still be lush, colorful, and full of interest—it just may need a different plant palette.