but the Hakone died from excessive heat and sun exposure over the summer.

==>>> where are you????

how did you water .. it can be very tricky to water deeply on a hill ... how many hours of direct sun />.???

ken

I have a sloped bed and a few suggestions but they might be more colorful than you are seeking? Are you looking for just foliage plants (green) or am I misunderstanding?

Lathyrus (The perennial speetpea is nice. spreads nicely and will grow in most dry soils,

@GardenHo_MI_Z5 I was thinking green foliage but am certainly not averse to color; would love to hear your suggestions.

@ken_adrian I am in the mountain west. In the spring and fall the house shades that area but in the worst summer heat it gets around 8 hours of afternoon sun.

some ideas: sedum. cotoneaster, Maryland Holly, creeping jenny, miscanthus

Cotoneaster dammeri if it grows there.

I’m in the Mountain West also (near Denver). On my slopes I’ve also used creeping phlox for spring blooms, and geranium Rozanne for all summer blooms. For the cascading-down-rocks I like creeping Jenny, which is quite nice. Also nasturtiums cascade nicely. They’re annuals but they’re extremely easy to direct-sow in the garden. For some pretty heat-hardy workhorses, I’d suggest irises and Russian Sage.

You didn’t answer the question about irrigation. No matter what you plant, you’ll need to baby them until they are well established. Setting up a soaker hose on a timer (if you don’t have a sprinkler system) will make your life much easier for the first year.

I have a drip system in my beds and set up a couple of micro-sprayers to hit the slope. I made sure it came on during the hottest part of the day while I was trying to get the Hakone established. The day lillies did fine but the grasses died.

“I made sure it came on during the hottest part of the day”

That may have been the problem.

For an evergreen you could try Siberian cypress, 18” tall by up to 6 feet wide fitting your desire for a low sprawler. Zone 2 hardy, likes it dry, and takes part to full sun so may work well on your slope with the conditions you describe. If you want to take a chance on another Hakone you could try Aureola instead of All Gold, for me it grows a little better and several websites have it listed as tolerating full sun.. To add color I’d second the suggestions of hardy geraniums and creeping phlox, both low mounders / sprawlers. But like others have said you could also mix in all kinds of upright plants and shrubs if you aren’t married to just low sprawlers cascading down the slope.

It’s best to water early in the morning, even in the hottest summers. Watering during the heat of the day can burn your plants as the droplets magnify the light. If it’s quite hot and dry, then just water for longer in the mornings. HTH

At your elevation and with that much summer sun, you want a full sun plant, not hakone grass. In this area (New England) there are some full sun sedges that would have a similar texture, but I don’t know of any for your area. You could ask at local nurseries. There may also be some grasses for sun that have the form you are looking for.

If you are anywhere close to the Denver area, the Denver Botanic gardens would be worth the trip to get inspiration since they have some large perennial beds that showcase a variety of plants that might fit your needs. There are a range of other public gardens at different elevations and locations in the mountain west, so it is worth doing some searching on the web to see what if anything as far as public gardens is available near you.

In addition to the Sedum, perennial geraniums, creeping phlox, coreopsis, and lower shrubs that others have suggested, look at some of the cultivars of plants that are native to the mountain west such as Agastache, Gaura, and Penstemon to see if some of them provide the form you like. Some of the herbs such as Nepeta/catmint might work well also.

Whether you choose a variety of plants as in garden ho’s photos, or use a mass of just one kind of plant, or just a limited set of a few plants as you originally planned, depends entirely on the look you want. Look at gardens in your area, look at Houzz photos for the mountain west, and check out garden books with photos from you local library to get a feel for what different styles look like.

Another resource is this blog written by one of the plantsmen at the Denver Botanic Gardens. http://prairiebreak.blogspot.com Some of the entries are are plant related trips, but most look at various plants and gardens in the mountain west.

I would also suggest that soaker hoses under mulch will be far more effective than sprayers, especially in your dry air. In order to know if you are running your irrigation for long enough and have appropriateply placed hoses, you will actually have to check the soil several inches down after running it. The goal is to soak deeply (and not daily) so that roots also go deep. If you are watering often and shallowly, the roots stay shallow and the plants won’t have much drought resistance.