Xeriscape Plants and other Perennials for Full Sun

Xeriscape Plants and other Perennials for Full Sun

By Published October 15, 2013 Updated June 15, 2022

Even if you have limited availability of water, that shouldn’t mean your garden should be limited too. You can still have a diverse garden using xeriscape plants. There are a large number of perennials for full sun that look great without irrigation, so you don’t have to feel guilty about having a great garden. Should you decide xeriscaping is right for you, Plant Delights Nursery offers a large selection of xeric plants, both perennials for full sun and any other light conditions.

Going without any water for months isn’t always a requirement for xeriscape plants, but it doesn’t bother the agaves. We often receive specimens barerooted in boxes and they don’t seem to mind. Agaves make great drought resistant perennials for full sun. Agavescome in a large variety in many colors and patterns, from 6” tall to some eventually reaching 5 feet tall and 9 feet wide. In fact you can consider agaves to be obligate xeriscape plants, they often need well drained berms to survive in wetter climates. Agave ovatifolia is one of the agaves most resistant to wet soil and cold, being hardy to zone 6b.

Just because water may be limited doesn’t mean flowers have to be. There are a number of beautiful flowering perennials for full sun great for xeriscaping. The rain lilies (Zephyranthes, Habranthus) are the quintessential xeriscape plants. Not only do they do well without irrigation, when it does rain you’ll be rewarded with a gorgeous mass flowering. These short herbaceous relatives of daffodils form clumps and over time form masses full of blooms. They can easily be divided, but are happy to flower even when tightly packed, unlike their narcissistic cousins.

Some flowering perennials for full sun with a little more heft in the garden are the Baptisias (Redneck lupines, false indigo, wild indigo) and Salvias (sages). These two unrelated groups of semi-shrubby perennials do great without any irrigation once established, even in drought. Baptisias reward with huge spikes of lupine like flowers in late spring or early summer and elegant silvery rounded foliage from spring to frost. Salvias come in a wide range of colors and styles and bloom for long periods of time.

These and many other xeriscaping plants are available at Plant Delights Nursery, where a responsible garden can still be an amazing garden.

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