10+ Beautiful Xeriscaping Plants for a Low-Water Garden

Worried about investing in greenery when you live in a hot, dry zone? Lush gardens can thrive in even dry and drought-prone areas thanks to xeriscaping! Xeriscaping is a low-water gardening style that favors drought-tolerant and resistant plants. Whether you want to keep your water bill low or transform your barren backyard, these xeriscaping plants are the way to go. 

Cape leadwort or cape plumbago (aka Plumbago auriculata) is a flowering perennial that usually maxes out between 3-4' tall with a 3-6' spread. This deciduous plant creates beautiful blue blooms that attract precious pollinators like bees and butterflies. 

Echinacea or purple coneflower (aka Echinacea purpurea) is a flowering perennial that's prized for its many benefits, including immune-boosting properties and ability to attract pollinators. Purple coneflower is an upright clumping plant that grows to between 2-4' tall and produces lovely pinky-purple blooms with large central cones.

English lavender (aka Lavandula angustifolia) is an herbaceous perennial that usually reaches 2-3' tall with a 2-4' wide spread. It produces purple flowers that are prized for their soothing fragrance and medicinal properties. 

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False indigo (aka Baptisia australis) is an upright flowering perennial that's actually in the legume family (but you won't catch any of us eating it). This showy plant usually reaches between 3-4' tall, with an equivalent spread. It produces beautiful purple flowers on spiky stems.

Mondo grass or dwarf lilyturf (aka Ophiopogon japonicus) is a great xeriscaping choice if you want an evergreen ground cover that looks and spreads like grass, but requires far less water. It can get up to a foot tall and has a mounding growing habit.

Butterfly weed (aka Asclepias tuberosa) is a butterfly-loving perennial that boasts clusters of vibrant orange flowers. Expect this pollinator-attracting plant to reach anywhere between 1-3' tall and 1-2' wide. 

Pink muhly grass (aka Muhlenbergia capillaris), with its puffy pink and purple late-summer and fall blooms, looks like something you'd see in a Dr. Suess book. Unlike many other types of grass, this ornamental perennial grass doesn't actually spread, but forms clumps that can reach up to a foot wide and 3' tall.

Pork and beans plant or jelly bean plant (aka Sedum rubrotinctum) is a colorful succulent ground cover. The curious names stem from its uniquely thick and bean-shaped red and green foliage. It usually stays around 8" tall or less, but can spread up to 15" wide.

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Rose mallow or rose pavonia (aka Pavonia lasiopetala) is a compact perennial shrub that produces rose-colored hibiscus-like flowers. Rose mallows are woody on the bottom and leafy on the top, and are rather drought-tolerant once they're well-established. They usually grow to around 2' tall and 3' wide.

If you're looking for a xeriscape plant with an impressive spread, virgin's bower (aka Clematis virginiana) is a great choice. This perennial produces short-lived, spiky white flowers in mid to late summer and can easily reach up to 20' tall. 

Shore juniper (aka Juniperus conferta) is a fast-growing ground cover with pointy, blue-green evergreen foliage that looks remarkably similar to juniper tree needles. This plant stays under 18" tall with a spread of 6-8' wide.

Yarrow (aka Achillea millefolium) is a great pollinator to add to your low-water garden. This colorful perennial produces clusters of small flowers that come in all sorts of hues, including white, yellow, and pink. Yarrow, with its lacy fern-like leaves, reaches about 3' tall and grows in mounds.

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Jewels of Opar (aka Talinum paniculatum) is another succulent worth adding to your xeriscaped garden. This annual produces 12-18" stems coated with pink flowers that give way to red-orange beads. And thanks to their moderate height, they work perfectly to fill in awkward holes in your landscape layout. 

Keeping your water bills low and your gardens thriving can be a challenge. That's where these drought-tolerant plants come to the rescue. They'll give your xeriscaped landscape maximum beauty for minimum hydration without any fuss.