Finding the right plants to withstand our super hot weather

Photo: Jay Baumeister

Pollinators love this very heat-tolerant and dramatic-looking perennial, Echinops ritro or Globe Thistle, which is also drought-tolerant.

With (maximum) temperature records continuing to fall, most of the gardens I see around the valley are really suffering.

Gardens that looked great only a few weeks ago are looking downright beleaguered now.

Heat stress causes many ornamental plants to loss their buds and blossoms or fail to bloom altogether, leaving your landscape a monochromatic crispy green.

It was with some trepidation that I checked on our xeriscape demonstration garden last week, uncertain of how it was surviving in the intense heat.

The Okanagan Xeriscape Association hosted a group of master gardeners from Michigan, who were on a gardens tour of Western Canada. So I really hoped the garden would show well. Wow, did it ever.

The garden was popping with colour and buzzing with pollinators, with all of the six themed gardens looking fantastic. Not only are the plants featured drought-tolerant but many are also heat-tolerant.

One of the plants I originally trialed in my own garden, and have since planted in the demonstration garden, is Echinops ritro, commonly known as Globe Thistle. I don’t know if the association with thistle is off-putting for some gardeners but this perennial deserves to be more widely-planted.

It is a tall, bold perennial native to Asia and Central and Eastern Europe and it is appropriate for growing in Zones 3 to 8. It reaches up to four feet in height and features golf ball-sized blue spheres above spiny thistle-like foliage, hence the common name.

Echinops ritro is extremely long-blooming, in flower from July well into September, and is not bothered by poor, infertile soil or heat. It has no serious disease or pest problems and is an absolute magnet for a wide variety of bees and butterflies. You can include Echinops ritro in a cutting garden where its unique blooms will add drama to bouquets.

Another perennial unfazed by our recent hot weather is Platycodon grandiflorus, (Balloon Flower.)

The cultivar we planted in the pollinator garden is “Astra white.” Though I typically prefer colour in the garden, this cultivar provides a bright, clean perfect white that draws the eye.

This perennial is native to Eastern Asia and is also commonly called Chinese bellflower. It is a compact perennial that reaches a little over a foot tall and wide and as such is ideally planted near the front of a border. Successfully grown in Zones 3 to 8, Platycodon grandiflorus features outward and upward-facing bell-shaped blooms.

The buds of this perennial give it one of its common names as they resemble tiny balloons. As with the Echinops, this perennial survives drought with the help of a deep tap root and is therefore difficult to move once established.

Visit the garden to see these two perennials blooming through heat and drought and mark your calendar for OXA’s third annual fall plant sale to be held Sept. 21.

Both of these perennials and many more will be available for purchase at the sale.

Take up the challenge

As in years past, the Make Water Work challenge encourages homeowners to take the pledge to make water work smarter on their landscapes. By heading to the website and pledging to choose plants suitable to our dry environment, you will become eligible to win one of two prizes of $500. The pledge encourages you to make better choices about your water consumption so there will be enough water for firefighting, aquatic health and agriculture. It only takes a moment to make your pledge.

Know your district’s water restrictions and abide by them. Currently West Kelowna and Peachland are on stage two water restrictions, which means outdoor watering is restricted to two days a week. (Yesterday, the Regional District of Central Okanagan imposed Stage 3 water restrictions for users of the six water systems within RDCO boundaries. Stage 3 restrictions mean only watering one day per week.)

On July 25, the province raised the Okanagan to level three drought, meaning serious socio-economic and ecosystem impacts are possible and water suppliers may be impose future restrictions.

The Okanagan Xeriscape Association is grateful for the ongoing financial support of the Okanagan Basin Water Board and is proud to be collaborating with them on their Make Water Work campaign.

Sigrie Kendrick is a master gardener and executive-director of the Okanagan Xeriscape Association.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.