sounds like he keeps you in profit.. lol ...

ken

First thought----Rosemary. The upright or the prostrate. Cast iron. Tidy. Never needs watering or trimming and blooms in late winter about the time you think you can't take another day and draws bees, the prostrate type is a heavy bloomer but it spreads out really big after a while.

Love that title. I'm going to put my thinking cap on, this is right down my alley.

I also think the title is perfect. How about some of the Penstemons? Since they don't like cold and wet, are your winters dry enough? I've found P. pinifolius does well on my well-drained hill. The groundcover Dianthus such as grantianopolis and various hybrids do well in my dry areas. There's an evening primrose that in my garden didn't spread at all, Oenothera fremontii Shimmer. Narrow silver foliage, slightly darker than butter yellow flowers - overall very nice, and is a western US evening primrose I believe, so likes it dry. In shady areas, Iris cristata or perhaps European ginger.

The upright and the prostrate! I'm adopting those labels for some baskets over here:D Campanula, I am a gardener like your client, and here is what is looking good in my garden after a terrible drought and invasion of pests: (like NHBabas) iris cristata, dianthus and european ginger, plus tall blue ageratum, cosmos, marigolds (have lost all snobbery toward them after Marco Stefano's glorious resurrection of them at Untermeyer Garden last year), and, yes -- nepeta.

Yeah, I think so, Tex. Think this one is going to be all about texture more than colour - time to drag out Heidi Gildermeister's Gardening without Water.. It is sheltered enough to get away with a few succulents, even opuntia and as he is an anthropologist/linguist, he would be definitely on board for a more...exotic style...than English cottage style. Since he only has hard paving and borders, there is no disjunction between lawn and the sort of borders I have in mind (grey leaved plants figure prominently).

I might pass on penstemons, NHBabs - they are fairly demanding of deadheading...but I think dianthus is on key . Alliums?

I do have a gravel and scree garden myself but have tended to go for large swathes of rue, gaura, osteos, baptisia....all stuff which is much too big for this small courtyard - I feel I need a more ...controlled and contained feel than my usual rambunctiousness.

True though, Ken - this is one of my eccentric longstanding punters - I dread to recall the numerous plants he has murdered - he has a tendency to go in for uncontrolled hacking...for no apparent reason other than boredom and a mad desire to 'make an impression'. One year, he had a yearning for a palm - a big phoenix date palm...which I duly sourced, transported (and that was a hoot) and planted.$700! Wrapped it up for the first couple of winters, it was growing beautifully, about to make a proper trunk with graceful 12foot leaves (they just expand from the base for the first 8 years or so). It was a unique specimen ( for Cambridge) and looked surprisingly OK...until he stabbed himself on one of the vicious spikes and hacked off half of the fronds. Revenge? A fungus took the opportunity to do for the rest. I now ignore requests and suggestions.

Nerines and/or Amaryllis belladonna.

If you can find them:

Hesperaloe --pink or yellow

Missouri primrose--the kind with the blue foliage because it has lighter yellow flowers with pink stems and is attractive out of bloom due to those light blue leaves, it could accompany the one Babs recommended, a primrose I've been wanting by the way.

Crepe Myrtle. They plant 'em on hot medians around here where most plants would die of thirst, indestructible. There's those dwarfs and now they have ones so loaded with blooms its quite a show. Gorgeous peeling bark in winter.

Manfreda--it sort of grows on you although I thought they looked diseased at first with those dark 'ink' spots on the leaves, sends up an interesting(weird) tall flower in spring. Kind-o-funky, an anthropologist would like it I think.

Sphaeralcea angustifolia lobata or ambigua. Seems they never quit blooming or need a drink. Early spring - frost they bloom.

Talinum calycinum. Plants will bloom in or out of the ground like a cactus pad because they either don't know any better or don't realize they've been culled, a bucket full of culled plants will bloom happily on for a month. Thats drought hardy. Naturalizes well (caution)

Salvia Azurea. It looks better on the dry hell strip than it ever did when it got regular drinks. Its well behaved there.

Lantana of course, the o-o-o-ld stand-by. Everyone plants them cuz they never need any attention and bloom all summer, so why not?

Flame Acanthus--I really can't praise this plant enough, neat, trim, small leaves, red stems, very floriferous long blooms time in the worst heat when not much else blooms and attracts hummingbirds. Only downside, it shoots out seeds far and wide, I don't have problems with volunteers although some people say they do.

Scutelleria drummondii--low neat, purple flowers, tiny leaves easy from seed. There is also a red(pink?) blooming type with greener and even smaller leaves that eventually forms a very wide low mound. A+ to both, I like them equally. Eazy Peezy.

Back to work. If I think of more lazy girl plants, I'll get back.

who refuses to water plants, even though the hose is practically in his hand and the plants are withering under his eyes.

I know this is OT but this is me exactly right now. I would rather watch TV then go water all those plants that really need it (lots do). I am tired of the garden and gardening right now.

Gardens not needing additional water are grown by environmental hero's in my book I say Koodoo's (spelling?). I get so sick and tired of seeing sprinkler systems going every other day around here. Its shameful.

Should I have said 'Trailing Rosemary' in that other post? At least I didn't say Prostate Rosemary.

I thought of a garden, at a Hispanic Church that qualifies as one of total neglect except for annual spring cleaning and cutting back. Other than that, zip for the rest of the year. I know because I've been there plenty of times since its close by a favorite restaurant.

The simplicity of it in looks and care is the key -- the effect is attractive, no nonsense and perpetually blooming, even during the worst, hottest, long term drought we ever had in my life. This garden never stopped blooming or looked bad and it is the simplicity that makes it work. Its like that every summer. All it has is:

Several Artemisia plants (either Silver or Valerie Finnis, I think the second type is best)

Large cold hardy Lantanas. LIght pink/yellow (looked like 'Carnival') and the other type solid yellow but big and upright, not the ground cover type (unknown).

Russian Sage Plants

Several various colors of Salvia Greggii, large ones.

Thats all except for lots of Lance-leaf Coreopsis that blooms in spring then gets mowed to stay low the rest of the year, the rest of the garden blooms the whole season.

The plants are all big established plants, which seems to keep out weeds and its a mass of healthy, colorful, blooming similar height plants that are each different enough to be interesting and separate and tough as nails. The garden is located on the corner of a busy 4 lane main street in the Hispanic part of OKC and the garden is in full day sun, southern exposure with heat radiating off the road and parking lot.

Tex, I assume you have Sphaeralcea? Where did you get it? Did you get seed or plant? I haven't grown it, but it sure looks like something I would want to have.

I ordered seeds from Plants of the SW, they come up easily and grow fast. The plants need room as they get rather large after about 3 years, mine is chest high this year and pretty wide. Sometimes the wind snaps off branches in spring after we've had a lot of rain which causes fast growth but the plant fills back in. Its one of my earliest bloomers and last to quit in fall.

Poliomentha longiflora (Mexican oregano)(unfortunately they do not make seed), Sedum palmerii, Calirhoe involcrata, Calylophus berlandiera, Lysimachia atropurpuria, teucrium aroanum, Teucrium cosini, , Teucrinum chamedrys postratum or the regular.Teucrium fructicans 'azureum', Ageratina havanense, Habaranthus and Zepheranthes species, Salvia reptans, ( I can send seeds for some of these). The Lysimachia is easy to grow from seed. Lavender. I can sen rain lily seeds if they bloom with the rain again.

I ought to mention what is thriving (against the odds) - as well as the evergreen agapanthus, an enormously rampant Burmese plumbago (Ceratostigma griffitthii) and a small hebe pinguifolia are doing well.

Oh, outstanding selections - especially the teucriums and skullcaps (which will stand the odd damp patch). Salvia greggii - now I have a lot of these, but nearly all in pots where they really do suffer without irrigation...but in a border, I think it is worth trying. And yep, what comes to mind is 'less is more'. One of my enduring fails is the tendency to stuff far too many different plants into a space which is too small. Annoyingly, talinum have defeated me several times - I have a bloomless clump of it sitting in my garden right now...but the callirhoe are winners. Sphaeralcea also seems to grow far better in the south west of the UK (I have tried many and although they survive, they are either straggly (Munroana, Newleaze Coral, ambigua) or massive (a NOID pink which almost swallowed my allotment shed). I am thinking that I could transfer a spare anisodontea over though as mallows have come to my rescue many times.

We really don't have the heat for lantanas...or crepe myrtles for that matter (although I actually saw a lagerstroemia blooming in East Anglia at a recent plant fair - first time in my life).

I also have a large spare agave americana (don't we all - offsets!) so might try and plant that on a nice gritty bed with the nassella. Pop in a few auriculas with early pinks and species tulips maybe.

I was so enraged to see the mangled pittosporum and a carefully tended clematis I had brought back from the edge (vanished without trace) that I threatened resignation so I have the upper hand at the moment (he will pay!) and can be...experimental.

I can assure you, Rouge and Kitasei, you are quite definitely nowhere in the same category as my idle client (I have seen pics).

Thanks, Tex. i'm going to order some sphaeralcea seed. Anxious to give it a try!

Maybe he needs a Japanese gravel garden. and some well placed rocks. Heavy on tacky garden art for that needed splash of color . :-)

I have never seen a Salvia greggii in a pot. Set those guys free. My gregii "pink Preference' sit on the steep slope of limestone marl and a tad of Decomposed granite and composite. That is a selection that is even more xeric than the others. Proven too me during the Great Drought of 2011. This year, They sail through flood, 2 months of not a drop and then flood again. Last year they started the early summer with a flood and then not a drop of rain till October 31 and then another flood. I am not a waterer because of the living on rain water only. Could you set up some soaker hoses on a timer if the bed is long and thin. That seems like a easy fix two balance off the character defect..

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'? Can't kill those even if you tried. Maybe Yucca??? :) couldn't resist!

I can kill rudbeckias in Texas easily, But England is not Texas But Camp's area actually has less water on average than Austin area, believe it , or not. I think their average is around 24 or 27", I forget. Mine is 30"average , close. This year Mine comes in flood and then drought with high evaporation rates, up to 59" at last count, bizarre year. Not much gentle seeping in on soil that is as porous and non water retaining as they come. Don't plant yucca in a 4' wide strip unless it is a Y arkansana, or Y harimaniae or one of the other tiny ones.

Calamintha nepeta seems to resent water but still tolerates my heavy clay soil and has survived two winters perfectly

Allium seems to shrug off anything thrown at it so long as it has enough sun.

Euphorbias? I only just planted my first this year (E. polychroma) so I have no personal experience with how it does but supposed to be tough.

That reminds me , I have had good luck with Nepita 'walkers low' in dry alkaline situations and dry amended soil..

Yeah, I have made many sarcastic comments about florus plasticus over the years...

A decade ago, myself and an electrician installed garden lighting and a fairly rudimentary irrigation set-up. Total freak out disaster. The entire house wiring was last inspected sometime around the 1900s (as was the plumbing) and various shorts occurred all over the house - nothing to do with us and everything to do with his habit of putting one extension plug on top of another...and another...but we got the blame. A year or so later, after he had chopped through a cable, we abandoned garden lighting (and irrigation).

A little anecdote to clarify the level of lunacy we are dealing with here. Reuben (my partner) and I did a loft extension for him which involved an extra staircase...but I jokingly mentioned an electric one I had seen costing almost as much as the entire loft build. Needless to say, he wanted it and one was duly ordered from Germany and installed by me. Well, it worked a treat apart from making an anguished screaming noise as the stairs descended or ascended - like a tortured donkey. (The motor, not my installation). At the same time, he also insisted on remote control external window shutters - designed for Scandinavian countries with massive snowfall...at enormous cost. Never once used. And yet, he has a bathroom in horrible avocado plastic from the 1970s and the bath actually has a split in it. ''Can you squirt some mastic in it or something to 'fix' it?

Yep, I can see nepeta somewhere in there.

Perhaps some of the dry-land folks can weigh in on Lonicera sempervirens (native US trumpet honeysuckle) as far as drought tolerance. Mine is under the edge of the eaves, so snow and rain shadowed, and is in a bed that doesn't ever get watered (the rust in the water stains the white house if there's any splash), and I've read it does well in low water situations, so it might work as a climber if there's space.

Just to chime in again about Flame Acanthus (flame acanthus flame acanthus flame acanthus). Really, it is a 10. A++ Easy from seed. Good size plant for a bed. Rather more drought hardy than Salvia Greggii which can look a bit peaked when very dry unless they are in good soil, that makes all the difference. Flame Acanthus is in the same family as Tree of Heaven, when I dug one out once I noticed the stems smell like Tree of Heaven. I thought, well heck, do the math.....it has to be bullet proof.

Kez-- Sphaeralcea love our heat. I didn't factor in the lack of heat in GB. S. angustifolia (Coppermallow) is the one I think I have. I'd ordered seeds of S. ambigua and got only one plant from the whole pack (poor germination). Wantanamara sent me a plant of S. angustifolia around the same time. Long story but one was moved and died the other never came back and what I have is from a volunteer seedling therefore its ID is a best guess but I think its angustifolia because its orange.

I can assure you, Rouge and Kitasei, you are quite definitely nowhere in the same category as my idle client

Thanks. But still many plants are suffering unduly because of my inaction. Come winter come!

Astonishingly, Cambridge is one of the driest areas of Western Europe with an average of less than 20inches of annual rainfall! Pretty arid...although we also have some of the best agricultural soil in England, resulting from draining ancient alder carr which made up extensive ancient peat wetlands. Although we are on chalk in Cambridge, my customer's soil is actually deep, loamy and very free draining...so I think a complete overhaul will be in the offing...and for someone who can spend eye-watering amounts on remote control staircases, I intend to squeeze his budget till he squeals.

Kez, I have found several types of Schaeralcea seeds at Alplains. Some are from further north in Colorado. Really pretty ones too. I am particularly drawn to the S. parvifolia. I have not ordered them yet since I am filled up with propagating meds from new Mexico right now , but I am lusting. I am lucky, that I can get many colors of the S ambigua from the stores around me. I have a tall lavender reset Mallow that was sold to me as a Ambigua and it is not , but it is nice.

Schaeralcea Seed at Alplains Catalog

Fantastic selection there,Mara...and lethal for this seed obsessed gardener. D'ya think they ship to the UK? Wonder if yours is laxa (grew it myself - monster).

I don't know. There is always asking. I have not ordered from them yet, TxR has , I think. Getting seed into Gr Br is not as hard as getting them into US. I still am at the drool over the computer screen double checking on google stage.

1. One group of plants that have not been mentioned are the Daleas, i.e. D. biflora. I have grown Dalea fructescens, Dalea gregii (great silver foliage for a billowing ground cover), Dalea area,and Dalea purpurea. D. villosa is one that I am not familiar with but am attracted to and good for those up north.
2. I do not know what I did to get these listed numbers appearing. I can get seed for the D. purpuria

I planted Sphaeralcea coccinea 'Stavely' a few years ago. Its underground runners surface about 2' away in the first year. On further reading, it appears that the runner can run very deep. Apparently that is how they survive forest fire. I dug up the plant but another surface the next year. The flower is so pretty. I think I will keep it and keep pulling any extra.

Also a not to Flame plant that Txr mentioned Flame acanthus is actually, confusingly so , Flame ANISACANTHUS.

anisacanthus/Acanthus

Oh well, if you want to get TECHnical. I thought this thread was about the utterly neglectful as I often am when it comes to names.

Flame Acanthus aka Hummingbird Bush aka Wright's Desert Honeysuckle aka Wright Acanthus aka Mexican Flame aka Wright's Mexican Flame aka Anisacanthus quadrifidus wrightii.

I've never ordered from Alplains, I thought you had?

No, I thought you had ... LOL. I want to. But I have enough right now. Snowed under with work and what I already have in pots... And it is in the mid 90's again and they keep taking away the cool fronts and rain..

I got a fit of giggles reading your post with the mysterious numbering, wantonamara.

Sphaeralcea is new to me ... very nice and High Country Garden describes it as thriving in heavy clay soil. One for the list.

Clay soil in New Mexico is very different from clay soil in Illinois. I am always amazed when I find Opuntia basileris from a grower in Arizona and it arrives at the nursery in red clay and then it promptly died after I planted it. That was years ago. I know to remove it from the soil and then plant it. What works in Arizona is a kiss of death in Texas. Their clay is mostly dry caked clay that is wet a few days out of the year. The top layer might get a misting, just enough to crack later on.

Good point -- much more moisture in IL in general but especially in my neck of the woods.

Opuntia basilaris is so persnickerdy it rots if you so much as sweat on it. For success, you simply need to plant it in a crack in a rock where it should do fine. I don't have a suitable rock so I finally planted the remaining pads of 'Theodore Cleaver (beavertail cactus--do ya get it?) in a pot where it sits under the over hang of the carport. It gets half day sun but never gets anything but a bit of wind blown rain drops, only if the wind is in the right direction. It spends all year there. O. basilaris var santa rita is a bit less persnickerdy. I found a couple spots where it grows well in the ground -- in coarse sand on a mound.