Container Gardening with Drought Tolerant Plants

Container gardening is a nice way to ensure you can always change your mind when a new garden design is what you crave. It’s a portable ménage of pots and plant types, all working together to create a certain look. They can jazz up a porch or patio, and make a nice border to a stair set. Containers also allow outdoor plants the ability to be moved indoors should the weather prove to be not to their liking. These three selections of container plants are all nicely drought tolerant.

Spineless Yucca (Yucca elephantipes)

The spineless yucca is a part of the Agave family and is a perennial evergreen shrub that works in containers as well as indoors in addition to the landscape. Uninhibited the shrub can grow up to 30 feet high, but container plants will typically be smaller. Trunks develop on a swollen base with shiny green leaves that lack the traditional yucca spines. Foliage grows in a rosette and is adorned by white bell-like flowers. Grow in well-drained soil in full sun to shade conditions. Propagate by cuttings or by seeds in USDA hardiness zones of 9 through 11.

Leadwort (Plumbago auriculata)

The leadwort is an evergreen shrub that attracts butterflies and is drought tolerant. It grows 3 to 10 feet tall and nearly as wide in a loose form. Stems are semi-woody and leaves are light green and oblong. Flowers are light blue and are in clusters that look phlox-like. There is a white flower and a darker blue variety. Blooms appear most of the year, from spring to fall. Plant a leadwort in light well-drained soil that is slightly acidic. It prefers full sun but will survive in partial shade. Propagate by tip cuttings or by seed in USDA hardiness zones of 8b through 11.

Yeddo Hawthorne (Rhaphiolepis umbellata)

The yeddo hawthorne grows 4 to 6 feet high and approximately the same in width. Leathery leaves are dark green while fragrant clustered flowers are white or blush pink. Berries are blue-black and will ripen in the fall season. It prefers to be planted in full to partial sun and any slightly acidic well-drained soil. While moist soil is preferred it is drought tolerant. Propagate by cuttings or by seed in USDA hardiness zones of 8 through 11.

Coontie (Zamia pumila)

The coontie is a perennial easy growing evergreen that grows up to 3 feet high. It has a palm-like form with dark green leaves that are pinnate. Cones are rusty-brown in color. It can be in full sun to dense shade without too much issue and is drought tolerant. Propagate by seed in USDA hardiness zones of 8 through 10.

Drought tolerant container plants are good insurance if you travel often and don’t want to bother the neighbors to water your plants. They can survive periods without supplemental watering without alarm and can bring some very interesting textures into your landscape (the coontie looks like a fern). Whatever your reasoning for container gardening, drought tolerant container plants can help lessen the maintenance.