Choose heat-loving, drought resistant trees and shrubs for a xeriscape garden but do not forget that even these plants will need at least weekly watering while they get established during the first growing season.

Examples of trees and shrubs, which survive in hot dry areas of the garden, include :

  • Cherry Prinsepia
  • Golden Flowering Currant
  • Genista
  • Hackberry
  • Honeysuckle
  • Juniper
  • Potentilla
  • Sea Buckthorn
  • Sumac - Gro-Low ground cover
  • Ash
  • Buffaloberry
  • Pine
  • Pincherry

The following perennials, once they are firmly established in the garden, are heat and drought tolerant. They will still need to be watered in extremely hot weather but not as often as other less drought resistant plants, which need regular watering throughout the growing season.

Examples of drought resistant perennials include:

  • Potentilla – Red, orange or yellow blooms shrub also available in heights suitable for ground cover.
  • Yarrow – Yellow, red, pink, lavender and white flowers midsummer through fall.
  • Stonecrop – Pink, red, orange and yellow flowers from spring through till frost.
  • Snow-in-the-summer – A mass of white flowers blooming from late spring until early summer has woolly, silver foliage.
  • Sea Holly – Blue spiky lacy flower heads, blooms all summer.
  • Daylily – Variety of colours. Mature plant produces 50 or more blooms for a month or longer. Some varieties for a lot longer.
  • Cornflower – Large cobalt blue or white blossoms. Blooms late spring to midsummer.
  • Hens and Chicks – Pink, yellow or white flowers, with over 300 varieties and over a 100 species to choose from.
  • Blanketflower – Red, orange, yellow. Blooms all summer.