Dear Roger: I can’t afford to water my plants extensively in summer. So daylilies and hostas are out. Can you suggest plants that would work well in a low-maintenance, xeriscape garden in our area?- Pressey, Fayetteville.
Dear Pressey: Xeriscaping means landscaping with plants that require little watering, fertilizing, mulching or other care beyond what they get from nature.
Generally, native plants are considered first choices. But I would push for plants from anywhere on earth as long as they fit the low-care, low-water requirement and are exceptionally beautiful.
Saving water is an increasingly important issue in urban areas throughout the nation.
Here’s a list of plants that will grow reasonably well with very little attention and watering in our gardens:
Dogwoods are the finest of our native trees. They need good care to become established. Do not plant deeply or you’ll kill the tree. Plant shallow and mulch well.
Keep dogwoods watered well the first two years after planting, and you can expect to give them no more care thereafter, except to water if there is a severe drought in hot weather.
Magnolias are excellent in our region and are among the first trees to bloom in spring. I’m not talking about the summer-blooming, large-leaved evergreen magnolia that’s native here. The native magnolia has fairly high maintenance requirements because it constantly drops leaves. It can require very large amounts of water for three or four years to become established. And it takes so much water from nearby plants that they often grow poorly.
Instead, I’d grow the tulip or saucer magnolias, as they’re often called. These are more specifically calledMagnolia soulangeana(a hybrid from denudata),Magnolia nigra(the small tree with purplish flowers found in many older gardens),Magnolia denudata(tall tree, pure white flowers),Magnolia sprengeri(huge flowers like white or pink basketballs on bare branches),Magnolia salicifolia,Magnolia stellataandMagnolia kobus, to name a few.
Like azaleas, camellias and dogwoods, these Oriental magnolias must be watered weekly the first year after planting and must be given good soil and a mulch.
Azaleas, you’ll notice again, are not native. At least not the evergreen or semievergreen ones we usually grow. They’re from Asia. But they are among the loveliest of our shrubs.
Don’t bury the roots of azaleas. Put the plant on top of your prepared soil and pull up soil and leaves, mulch or compost around the root ball. Water well and frequently the first year, or two years if the plants you start with are small. After that, the plants will need water only in the hottest part of summer when there is no rain for more than 10 days.
Camellias, also from Asia, are choice plants for shady and partly shaded spots. One generally thinks of camellias as needing large amounts of water. But I’ve found that they are drought-tolerant in my garden, as long as they are not exposed to full sun. Plants in full sun will need much more water to survive and won’t always have good leaf color.
Native azaleas are seldom used in our landscapes, but many are more drought-tolerant, cold-resistant, colorful and showy when in bloom than the Asian types. We often fail to value what is beautiful that is closest to us. Azaleas bred from our native types are available in many colors of yellow and orange that cannot be found in the Asian azaleas.
One of my favorite, easy-to-grow natives is the box sandmyrtle, whose formal name isLeiophyllum buxifolium. Dr. Bruce Williams, a founder of the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, gave me a small rooted cutting of one many years ago. I planted it in a bed with some azaleas. Given the same care as the evergreen azaleas, it has developed into a 2-foot-tall by 2 1/2-foot-wide shrub of great beauty. I have given it no care except occasional watering.
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