Tag Archives: drought tolerant plants

Echinacea

Echinacea Need more late summer perennials to extend your season?  Purple coneflowers will continue to bloom until frost then go dormant for the winter.  Showy 4" rosy purple daisies are lightly fragrant and make good cut flowers for bouquets.  The clumps spread slowly and can be carefully divided after 3 or 4 years.  There is also a beautiful white variety called White Swan.  If faded flowers are left in place, the bristly seed heads provide food for finches in winter.  

The herb echinacea is derived from varieties of this flower.  E. angustifolia is used nowadays as a fortifier of the immune system, mainly to prevent flu and minor respiratory diseases by increasing the body’s production of interferon.  The roots are the part of this plant used for medicinal purposes.   Echinacea was used by Native Americans more than any other plant in the plains states.  It’s antiseptic properties were used to treat snake and insect bites, to bathe burns and to help cure the “sweats.”  They chewed the plants roots to ease the pain of toothache.  It was also used by the Native Americans for purification.  The leaves and the flowers can be used in teas as well.

Drought tolerant open space project

Drought tolerant open space projectI’m designing an open space for a HOA for their housing tract. I’m planning on a central sitting area connected by a series of paths and surrounded by large flat Sonoma fieldstone rocks for sitting. This will be a challenging project as the plants used will not only have to be drought tolerant but will receive no irrigation at all after they are established. The site is browsed by deer so the plants will also need to be deer resistant and gopher resistant. . I think the concept I’ve developed will work and be useful for the residents.