Planting Drought-Tolerant Plants
- Find out which USDA plant hardiness zone your area belongs to here.
- Pick plants based on your zone. Check your local Lowe’s plant nursery for plants that do well in your area and always pay attention to the care instructions and plant tag information. You can also learn more about plants in the Lowe’s plant guide.
- Learn more about the plant’s preferred soil type and prepare your soil accordingly.
- Understand the plant’s watering and moisture needs.
- Most of these plants require regular watering for about a year to become fully established before you can rely on the plant’s drought resistance or tolerance.
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Full sun drought tolerant plants include both perennials and annuals.
1. Lavender
Green, upright foliage combined with beautiful purple blooms make this a landscaping favorite. The lavender plant does well both in planters or in flower beds and can bring more interest to your yard by attracting pollinators and hummingbirds.
- Botanical Name: Lavandula angustifolia
- Needs full sun
- Grows to 24 inches at maturity
- Grows in medium to dry soil
- Suitable for spring, summer and fall plantings
- Blooms from summer to fall
2. Liriope
Looking a bit like an ornamental grass, you’ll often see liriope edging walkways or flower beds. Violet-blue flower spikes accent the green or green and yellow variegated foliage of liriope. Since this is a spreading plant, planting liriope can offer a great value for a landscaping budget.
- Botanical Name: Liriope muscari
- Grows best in partial sun
- Needs well-drained or sandy soil
- Grows to 18 inches at maturity
- Suitable for spring, summer and fall planting
- Blooms in summer and fall
- Good for planters, beds and borders or along driveways and walkways
3. Petunia
This spreading annual can keep your planters, hanging baskets, beds and borders beautiful for a long time, creating blooms from spring up until the first frost. Like many colorful flowers, petunia flowers are popular with pollinators and hummingbirds.
- Botanical Names: Petunia multiflora, Petunia sp, etc.
- Suitable for spring, summer and fall planting
- Requires full sun
- Prefers light, well-drained soils
- Grows to 7 inches at maturity
- Available in a variety of bloom colors
- Insect-resistant
4. Marigold
Marigolds offer a lot of value. This spreading annual is easy to grow and can produce blooms throughout the growing season from spring through fall. Another favorite of butterflies and other pollinators, marigold flowers look great in planters, hanging baskets, flower beds and along walkways. Plant them in odd numbers for maximum impact.
- Botanical Name: Tagetes patula
- Grows to 12 inches at maturity
- Needs full sun
- Performs best in well-drained, loamy soil
- Works well with spring, summer or fall plantings
- Available in a variety of blossom colors
- Deer and insect-resistant
5. Fountain Grass
Fountain grass is a mounding ornamental grass plant that produces green blades and attractive silver or pink flower spikes. This drought-tolerant fountain grass plant will beautify your lawn through spring and summer and on into autumn and winter.
- Botanical Name: Pennisetum alopecuroides
- Needs full sun
- Grows best in loamy soil
- Spring, summer and fall planting
- Grows to 18 to 30 inches at maturity
- Deer-resistant
6. Prairie Flame Grass
This clumping grass has an upright growth habit and is great for mass plantings or for borders. It doesn’t offer blossoms, but its relatively tall, eye-catching foliage make it a standout in the home landscape.
- Botanical Name: Panicum
- Requires full sun
- Works in sand, clay and loamy soils
- Grows to 36 inches at maturity
- Suitable for spring, summer and fall plantings
7. Stonecrop Sedums
With hundreds of types of sedum in nature, you’re sure to find a few stonecrops that appeal to you. This succulent plant has foliage in different shades of green and is perfect for containers, borders and beds. You can even grow it as a sedum groundcover or plant it on slopes to help reduce erosion.
- Botanical Name: Sedum
- Needs partial sun
- Grows best in well-drained soil
- Reaches up to 11 inches in height at maturity
- Best for spring, summer or fall planting
- Displays the best color in low-water conditions
8. Hens and Chicks
Hens and chicks gets its playful name from the way it replicates — by producing small plants offset from the parent plant. With thousands of varieties and a rosette growth pattern in colors ranging from green to purple, there are a lot of potential options with this succulent. Use it to add interest with indoor and outdoor planters, in your garden beds or as groundcover.
- Botanical Name: Sempervivum
- Requires full sun
- Performs best in well-drained or sandy soil
- Grows to 6 inches at maturity
- Best for spring, summer and fall planting
- Cold-tolerant
- Deer-resistant
9. Leyland Cypress
Leyland cypress trees are relatively fast-growing and work great as screening plants, so you’ll often see these dark green evergreens growing in rows along property lines to give homeowners a bit of privacy. They're also useful for creating wind breaks.
- Botanical Name: Cupressocyparis leylandii
- Needs full sun
- Plant in fall, a few weeks before the first frost
- Performs well in loamy, clay and sandy soils
- Grows up to 50 feet at maturity
- Insect-resistant
10. Crepe Myrtle
Plentiful, showy blossoms in shades of pink and purple characterize this drought-tolerant tree. Look for the green foliage to turn reddish-orange in fall. Crepe myrtle trees are great for border plantings or as plantings to create shade.
- Botanical Name: Lagerstroemia indica
- Needs full sun
- Grows to 25 feet at maturity
- Plant from after the final spring frost to fall
- Suitable for sandy or clay soils
- Blooms in summer and fall
- Attracts pollinators
- Disease-resistant
11. Juniper
A juniper is a tough shrub, and a popular choice if you’re looking for a low-maintenance drought-tolerant plant. Junipers do well even in poor soil, giving you green to turquoise foliage with silvery new growth.
- Botanical Names: Juniperus chinensis, Juniperus squamata, Juniperus horizontalis, etc.
- Available in upright, mounding and low-profile trailing growth patterns
- Does well in full sun
- Performs best in well-drained soil
- Grows from six inches to two feet in height depending on the variety
- Suitable for spring, summer, fall and winter planting
- Works in containers, beds and borders
- Deer-resistant
12. Buddleia
This flowering shrub dresses up any landscape with elegant, arching branches that end in brightly colored clusters of small flowers. The attraction of buddleia shrubs doesn’t stop with great looks — this drought-tolerant plant has a fragrance similar to that of honey. It makes a great addition to a butterfly garden as well, welcoming bees and butterflies alike to your landscape.
- Botanical Name: Buddleja davidii
- Grows best in full sun
- Reaches a height of up to 8 feet at maturity
- Suitable for spring and summer plantings
- Blooms in spring and summer
- Available with blooms of pink, red, purple and white
- Works well in containers, beds and borders
Types of Drought-Tolerant Landscaping Plants
Before planning your landscape, there are a few things to consider. Make sure there’s enough space for each new plant to grow. Plan your landscape with bushes and ground-covering plants in the front, followed by shrubs and taller bushes. It’s good to grow flowering plants in groups to attract pollinators. Below are a few different drought-tolerant plant types to help you choose the best plants for your landscape.
Drought-Tolerant Perennials
Perennials return year after year, making them a great investment for your yard.
Here are a few whose drought tolerance gives them even more value. Popular drought-tolerant and drought-resistant perennials include
lavender, liriope, creeping phlox, dianthus, hellebore, periwinkle, aster and artichoke.
Drought-Tolerant Annuals
You’ll need to replant annuals each year, but they can offer a lot of enjoyment while they’re growing and you can swap them out for different types to add variety to you landscape each year. Some annuals do quite well during dry periods. Commonly grown annuals are marigold, petunia, begonia, pansy, vinca and zinnia.
See our guide to annuals and perennials for tips on choosing and caring for these plants.
Drought-Tolerant Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental grasses make attractive additions to your landscape. In addition to the visual appeal of the foliage, many can also offer pleasant motion and sound as the blades nod and rattle in the breeze. Fountain grass, prairie flame grass, maiden grass, pink muhly grass and sedge grass are a few examples.
Succulents
Succulents are great choices for both indoors and outdoors. There are a huge number of varieties to choose from and these drought-tolerant plants add interesting shapes, textures and colors wherever you use them. Some common examples include sedum, aloe vera, echeveria, graptoveria and jade.
Get tips on planting succulents and other succulent ideas.
Drought-Tolerant Shrubs
Shrubs can be a valuable part of your landscape, whether you use them as foundation plantings to make your home more attractive or as accent plants to add texture and color to your yard. It’s good to know there are some that can make the most of limited water. Juniper, buddleia, bayberry, butterfly bush, holly and rhododendron are a few options you can choose from. Artemisias are another popular type of drought tolerant shrubs and include both herbaceous perennial and annual varieties.
When you’re ready to plant your new tree or shrub, take a look at our tree and shrub planting how to.
Drought-Tolerant Plants FAQs
What are Drought-Tolerant Plants?
In terms of plants for your landscape, drought-tolerant means that a plant can typically survive up to a month of dry conditions, even if you don’t water it. While these plants come in all different forms, many plants that are drought-tolerant have common features such as:
- Waxy, plump leaves that help hold water
- Small or thin leaves
- Leaves with hairs that help collect moisture
- Roots that grow deep into the soil
- Shallow roots that spread widely under the soil
- Roots that retain water
- Spikes and other protective elements
Are Drought-Tolerant Plants Good for Your Landscape?
Yes! Choosing plants that are drought tolerant helps your landscape survive hot, dry conditions. They also allow you to use water more wisely and sparingly. These plants can help reduce or eliminate lawn and landscape maintenance.
What’s the Difference Between Drought-Tolerant vs. Drought-Resistant Plants?
You may hear the terms drought-tolerant and drought-resistant used interchangeably with plants, but they describe different capabilities. While drought-tolerant plants can make it through up to a month of dry conditions, they’ll need thorough watering at that point. Drought-resistant plants, on the other hand, can make it through months or in some cases years of drought conditions without needing supplemental water. Here’s a list of drought resistant plants to consider for your garden:
- Juniper
- Cactus
- Agave
- Yarrow
- Hens and Chicks
- Sedum