Recommendations on Drought Tolerant Plants

Neahkahnie’s New Reality
The Need for Drought-Tolerant Garden Plants

Decades ago, when I first arrived in Portland, I marveled at the city’s rhododendron, particularly those at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. I mentioned to a groundskeeper, likely during a spring rainstorm, how fabulous it was that the rhodies got enough water most of the year to sail through summer unaided. “No way,” he answered. “We water.”

I was gobsmacked. This much rain and plants still needed water? Sadly, having made good my escape from East Coast heat and humidity, it seemed I’d still be subject to the tyranny of the hose.

By the mid-2000’s in the gardening world, summer watering became less of a given and more of a choice. By the time the City began issuing water restrictions, waterwise gardening ruled the day. Colorful gravel gardens gained favor over Rose City’s often bedeviled roses and the trendiest lawn color, hands-down, was and remains summer-dormant beige.

I got to the coast in 2017 and lo and behold, what did I find? Rhododendron! Not simply in gardens but growing on the edge of woodlands and right along 101. Could it be? A rhodie growing hose-free? In fact, Rhododendron macrophyllum, the Pacific or Coast rhododendron, has managed just fine without us for the last fifty million years.

Our native evergreen rhodie is a superb garden plant, the first on my list of drought-tolerant choices for smart coast gardeners. This is a big plant, minimum 10’ and double that in shade, with bell-shaped flowers ranging from blushed to saturated pink. Since this rhodie takes both sun and shade and isn’t fussy about soil, your challenge won’t be growing it but finding a nursery source. Keep looking.

Armeria (sea thrift) is a rugged sun-loving, salt-tolerant groundcover. Count on low cushions of evergreen foliage topped by tiny spheres that, starting in that cruelest month, truly bloom for months. Flowers range from white through many shades of pink to red. Note: I killed the red one.

Erigeron (Oregon beach daisy), like Armeria, is going to look familiar for very good reasons: it thrives in sandy soil and loves to bloom. In the Hoffman Wonder Garden, we grow ours in gravel with no summer water and recommend trimming it to keep it tidy and flowering through fall.

Hebe, pronounced HE Bee, comes in a universe of sizes, from 6” to 6’. We grow 8 different varieties that are so unlike one another you wouldn’t know they were of the same genus. And why would you? Leaf colors vary from pewter to chartreuse with a nod to burnt orange and flower colors from pale lilac to deep dark purple. Yum.

Cistus (rockrose) works much like a sun-loving rhododendron with its big round evergreen presence and super showy flowers. That’s it for the resemblance; most rhodies hail from the mountains of Asia while Cistus is strictly Mediterranean (read: no summer water). Let size and flower color be your guide (our fave is called ‘Jenkyn Place’).

Arctostaphylos (manzanita) is what we lovingly refer to as “the shrub that spells home”. The many pleasures of this genus are why we now celebrate Manzanita Day (it’s March 31st). In sizes ranging from groundcovers to small trees, with leaves on a color spectrum from powder blue to lustrous green, manzanitas ask only sun, fast drainage, and hose-free summer neglect.

Most of the plants listed above can be seen at the Hoffman Center Wonder Garden across from the Hoffman Center for the Arts. Please stop by and enjoy these plants as well as many others that could find a place in your landscape!

Ketzel Levine is a former Morning Edition correspondent and plant expert for NPR. More importantly, she says, she’s the plant curator at the Hoffman Wonder Garden.