My Favorite Plants This Month Are….

Plants that don’t wilt in this oppressive late July/August heat and humidity in downtown Baltimore, of course.

Every year I get to this point.  The point where I don’t want to garden in a place where the entire summer is spent overwhelmed,  running from one side of the garden to the other with a hose, trying to rescue wilted plants at the end of the work day.  It’s a little easier to handle on the weekends, cause that’s what I expect I’ll be doing.  I’ve decided we need an irrigation system in the Plants Nouveau trial gardens (currently our home garden…).  I told my husband, it’s a business write off – right?  I get more stressed than normal because there are times I have very special, sometimes one of a kind, sometimes  there’s a few more of said plant in the world, but not many.  Imagine a breeder giving you the only division from their newly found baby and it’s your job to keep it alive…ah!  Enough said – I NEED an irrigation system.  Email my husband Andrew to lobby for this…please!

OK – back to those plants that make me happy this time of year.  There are quite a few.

My favorite drought tolerant shrubs (once established) are:

Hamamelis ‘Primavera’
Native , deciduous Azaleas – all kinds
Forthergilla gardenii
Hydrangea quercifolia
Clethra virginiana
Physocarpus opulifolius

Here’s the perennials:

Agastache rupestris
Rudbeckia fulgida
Heuchera ‘Caramel’
Vernonia noveboracensis
Yucca recurvifolia
Echinacea – especially the Milkshake, Meringue, and Pink Double Delight - to name a few
Tiarella cordifolia ‘Octoraro’
Tiarella cordifolia ‘Wissahickon’
Tiarella ‘Elizabeth Oliver’
Phlox paniculata ‘Lord Clayton’

At Plants Nouveau, we strive to select plants that make your gardening life easier.  Plants that adapt to normal garden sites easily is the goal.  Not all plants are drought tolerant, that would be way too much to ask (even though new gardeners and homeowners with new landscapes expect it…), but having a few good selections you can count on is a nice respite from the dog days of watering in July and August.

Happy watering and please remember to email Andrew about the irrigation system I so desperately need.  Future new selections are counting on you!