New! Drought Tolerant Summer Perennials/Garden Style nw

Hi everybody, Debbie here with GardenStyle. So today I'm going to cover three different perennials that I've just put into the ground just recently. You may have heard of them before, you may not have, but I just wanted to make you aware of them and let you know that yes, you can grow these plants here in the northwest. So I'm just going to cruise over here. The sun is shining out here so you might see a little bit of glare, but I have got to show you these plants. Okay, so the very first one I'm going to talk about, as I flip here, the very first one I'm going to talk about is Agapanthus. Now Agapanthus is often thought of as one of those temporary perennials that you get to enjoy during the summer and then it dies back and you never see it again. As long as you are finding varieties that are hardy from zone 7 and below, you can grow them here in the northwest. This particular variety that I have here is called Twister Agapanthus and I'm hoping you can see it, but it's got like the purple on the outsides and the white flowers and these are just now starting to open and I have put them into this garden here. I actually replaced some asters that used to be in here because little unbeknownst to me those things spread like crazy. So I have moved them to a different part of the garden because I am on a very skinny path right here going out to the gate. So I needed something that was a little more well-behaved and I want some big clumps of these because they really stand out when they start to bloom. So Agapanthus, what can I tell you? These can take full to partial sun. I think these guys in here probably get about four to five hours of sun before it finally dives down and they're back in the shade again. They get about 48 inches tall and about 18 inches wide. This particular variety I have chosen is actually a dwarf variety and it is perfect for edging, mass planting, which is my goal here. I hope that we just have really large clumps here in a couple of years. But these large flower clusters will emerge usually about late spring to early summer and by golly they are right on time. These characters are. So yeah, partial to full sun. You only water them when the top three inches of soil is dry. So once they're established, you know, of course I'm going to keep these well watered this year to make sure the roots get in and they get good and established. But once they're established, you don't have to water them a whole lot until you start getting into, you know, right smack in the middle of a hot summer. Let's see, they will bloom from mid to late summer and I find that the blooms on these plants last what seems like forever, for a long time. And there's another one down here. Let me show you this one. It's sending up its initial blooms here, but you can also see where some new buds are coming in down below. So they just keep going and they're stunning. I just, I'm in love with them. What else can I show you? This particular variety is hardy from zone seven to ten. That's basically zero to ten degrees Fahrenheit in really cold areas. Average size is 18 to 20 inches tall and the rest is history. So twister agapanthus. You can see this is the clump of leaves. They do die back during the winter time. I will tell you that and that's okay. I just let them die back on themselves. That way the leaves fold over, they protect their crowns. Of course here in the northwest we have to think about rain during the winter time, so that helps them from getting too wet. And lo and behold, look at that. See, I still see some more new buds coming up. And lo and behold, if you're not going to see these guys again in the early spring. So yeah, I'm in love with them. I fell in love with them when I planted a huge pot of them a couple of years ago. And this pot was sitting outside. It was exposed to 14 degree temperatures and dang if that thing didn't come back the next spring with three times as many blooms on it. So that's when I decided, okay, I gotta have more of course. So twister agapanthus. Okay, so here's the second one that I have planted and this is called liriope. It's a silver dragon lily turf basically is the name of it. I know it looks like a grass, but it's actually in the lily family. And this particular variety is called silver dragon just because of its really neat variegated leaves on it. Now I will flash a picture up there of what it looks like when it starts to bloom, but that's the one thing I really love about this particular plant is it starts to bloom in late summer. So you get to enjoy blooms late summer to early fall without even thinking about it. So why did I choose this plant? I am sitting here in the front yard where it is in the shade most of the day until about, oh I don't know, three o'clock in the afternoon and then just gets blasted by the heat for about three or four hours before the sun finally sets and gets behind the trees. So I needed something tough that could handle, you know, partial shade and then full-on sun late in the afternoons and this was my pick. Now I want to mask these out so you will see that I have made a line of these around the front edge of a garden that is usually pretty darn dry during the summertime, especially when it's sitting underneath fir trees like I have here. And for those of you who have a lot of fir trees in your yard, you're always looking for something that can withstand the dryness because the fir trees just suck the water right out of the soil during the summertime and they barely get anything during the wintertime because of the big canopies that are sitting above them. So I wanted something that, you know, of course I'm gonna have to babysit these for the first year that they're in but by next spring and summer I should be able to back off the watering and have them thrive here. They're really tough plants. So they only get about 10 inches high by 18 inches wide. It's a very versatile perennial with dark green narrow grass-like foliage with the silvery white vertical striping which is, I think, that's why I think they call it silver dragon. It can take part sun to full sun. You keep the soil moist but not soggy and of course it blooms in late summer and it's hardy for us. Hardy down to zone 6 to 11 which is basically minus 10 degrees to zero degrees and it's very moderately growing. It can get about 18 inches wide and they'll start to create this really thick clump and then you'll start to see the purple flowers like what I'm showing you here in the picture. So silver dragon lily turf and fantastic little plant. This particular plant, Liriope, also comes in a dark green. They kind of come with a yellow variegated leaf. Just depends on, you know, what you like and what you want to plant in your yard. This is a test drive for me to see how they do here in the front yard. So of course in about a year from now I'll follow up with you and we'll just see how they're doing. Okay and then I'm going to pan over to another plant which you may or may not have heard of. This is a brand new plant for us at the nursery and this is called a dark violet hybrid skullcap. That's right skullcap. But look how pretty the blooms are on that and this is an extremely drought tolerant plant. It just has this profusion of purple violet blooms and a real compact plant so it's pretty small. It only gets about six inches tall by 15 inches wide and it's a very water wise plant. Again something here that I desperately need to grow underneath these cotton picking fir trees. I love the trees, don't get me wrong. Really appreciate them in the summer for the shade that they cast but oh man boy do they suck the moisture out of the soil. So anyway once it's established you only water this thing when it's really really dry. So basically you're going to treat this thing like a succulent once it gets established. It is also very hardy from zones 5 to 8. That's basically minus 20 degrees or 10 degrees Fahrenheit and of course average size is 6 inches tall by 10 to 15 inches wide. So this is going to spread and it's going to get pretty wide out there. But what I love is the colors and this should keep blooming for the next month or two. And again that's another plant that I'm just going to follow up with you by next summer and let you know how they're doing. But I desperately needed an edge along the front of this garden that allowed a lot of space in between each one and if I feel like I need more I'll put some more in. And for those of you tuned into my last video regarding compost and mulch you can see I've got a nice layer of mulch in here which is going to be a huge help to not only keep weeds down but also to cut down on the amount of watering that I have to do. You know and rumor has it that bark can suck the moisture out of the soil or it takes the food away from the plant and honestly in my experience I've never had that be an issue. I'm a true believer in a top dressing or a mulch of some sort. Nothing else just to help me with the weeds, keep the weeds down. All right you guys so there's three new plants for you to try and hopefully here in the next week or so I'm going to probably be ready for a summer garden tour. Getting to that point I've got a lot of plants that are have buds on them and they're just about ready to explode and this is when I get really excited because I am primarily more of a June, July, and August garden. I'm working harder and harder all the time to do more in the spring and it just seems like I am so busy all the time that I don't get to take you on a nice spring tour. So stay tuned for the end of this video because I did take some video and I will show you little snippets of what my garden looked like during the spring. I hope you enjoy it. Okay of course if you have any comments or questions you can leave those in the description box down below or you can get on to our website at sunnycrestnursery.com. Sign up for our email and you'll get monthly if not bi-monthly updates as to what we're up to, plants you can plant for that time of the year, etc. etc. There's all kinds of cool goodies that you can learn about and I think that's about it. So I hope your summer is going well. It's beautiful here today and we'll talk to you soon. Bye for now. Just planted some new Echinacea down here. I have lots of different colors but you can see lots of buds on them. Keep the summer garden going. Keep it blooming. The phlox, same thing. Daisies. I'm going to see all of this in bloom probably in about three to four weeks. This is Ostrancha. Isn't that cool? Yeah. These are new. This is Geum and I'll do separate videos on a lot of these. So I can teach you about them. They're a loveful sun and they bloom all summer. So I'm just keeping you dead headed. Algar in the front. These guys are about ready to explode. These are Johnson's Blue Geraniums. Soon this entire border will be blue. They bloom so hard. Got tree panties. We're getting ready to open. Look at that. Salvias. More geraniums. Stop walking for a minute. I'll just kind of show you the border. Got a purple rhodium bloom over there. Oh yeah. Let me introduce you to these guys. Put these in today. Look at those cuties. That's Louisia. It's a succulent. I'll definitely talk about that in a future video. This is kind of a peachy version. Aren't they sweet? Very heat tolerant, which is what this outside border needs. Especially in the afternoons. Plum tree doing well. Rhododendron in full bloom. Getting near the end. Viburnum. Pretty. Louisia. There's Japanese forest grass. I'm about to put some new gravel down. Some of my pathways. This is a new viburnum I just put in. Called Molly Schroeder and it has a pinkish tinge to the flowers. You see that? He's just a little guy, but this guy can get to four feet tall and just as wide. I'll talk about him in a video too. A lot of these guys are going to be blooming later on in the season. There's another one of my favorite shrubs. This is called a Deutzia. Isn't that gorgeous? Pinkish tinge. Back up here and it's just loaded with flowers. So I planted one on the other side. Not as big yet, but still blooms like crazy. Knockout Rose. It's finally starting to bloom. Those are shady characters called Bastard Bomb. What a terrible name for such a pretty flower. They're cool. Huge hostas. I'm going to pad down here a little bit. Japanese Maple, just in need of a trim. Brody up top is done blooming. Everything exploded within a couple of weeks. Now I'll show you the hostas here just get huge in the summer. Beautiful Mattis. Check that way back. Going back up the trellis. Huge Fatsia here. Lots of new growth. I always plant annuals in this little spot here, but check out this petunia. Isn't that pretty? All kinds of goodies to show you and that's just a beginning of the backyard.