Maintenance| Selecting a Plant | Selecting a Style | Selecting a Pot

Due to recent droughts, most homeowners are acutely aware how much their landscape can cost to water, and many would like to find alternatives that would reduce this cost.  In many of the drier parts of the United States, people are learning about the Xeriscape concept which aims to promote suitable and appropriate landscaping to reduce water needs. There are sevenprinciples to the Xeriscape philosophy, one of which is to use low water demand plants.

There is much misunderstanding about the concept of a low water use plant, however.  The water needs of a plant must be viewed in relation to how much rainfall occurs naturally in an area. The relative water use is the additional amount that a homeowner must apply to achieve the desired growth and health of the plant in the landscape. In other words, a plant that can do well with the natural rainfall of a climate is a low water user, even if it does need a lot of moisture at times.  Put simply, a plant does not need to be able to live in a desert to be considered a good Xeriscape plant.

In a climate such as ours that has natural periods of low rainfall (May -June, September -November), drought tolerance is an important quality in a Xeriscape plant. The ability of a plant to be drought tolerant is primarily due to the plant's ability to limit water loss through the leaves and acquire more water through the roots.  Plants have developed several mechanisms to reduce foliar water loss, many of which can be recognized in native and cultivated plants. When shopping for garden plants, the presence of the following characteristics is a good indication that they will be drought tolerant.

Look for:

<sup>1. small, narrow, or pinnate leaves,
2. fuzzy surfaces
3. resinous surfaces
4. leathery leaves, and/or
5. succulence</sup>