Leadplant.  A native to the upland plains of the Midwest, this leguminous shrub has  excellent textural foliage of small gray-green pea leaflets and quite nice terminal "antlers" of purplish flower spikes.  The flowers are tiny but are clustered in multitudes.  Good drainage, drought tolerant.

Fragrant Dwarf False Indigo.  An excellent plant for the xeric garden although not the best in sandy soils since it hails from good prairie soil in  the midwest from central Canada down to Texas.  Nice small woody shrub with erect small spikes of clustered small tubular flowes of violet blue petals and red stamens - whoa!

Quirky little evergreen vine from the Mediterranean that brings delight far out of proportion to the size of its flowers. Small curved pipe-like flowers are a subtle burnished pale flesh on the outside accented by thin reddish lines.  The flared pipe bowl is a perky yellow with faint lines in the back of the throat and a rim of umber, delicately whiskered.

A perennial (usually anyway) thistle relative from South Africa which makes a multicrowned clump of softly spiny leaves which by themselves merit nothing more than a good hosing of Roundup but the large purplish flowers are the swan emerging from the ugly duckling.

Bottlebrush.  Perhaps the hardiest clone enduring single digits with scarcely a whimper.  (It may be whimpering but my own wails of despair drown all else out).  Evergreen picking up russet tones in winter.  Summer fuzzy red flowers on the stems.  Deer Proof/drought tolerant.

A Ron Ratko collection of this shrubby gem that flies under everyone's radar.  Native to ID, OR and the SW, we saw this in the White Mts growing with the ancient Bristlecone Pines.  Like a shrubby Spiraea but with white Potentilla-like flowers highlighted by yellow anthers.  Lacy moth antennae leaves.  Dry and well-drained.

Striking blue flowers emerging one per day from clusters of buds held in a clasped purse=like sheath.  The flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon.  The purity of blue is unrivalled.  Loves full sun and fairly drought tolerant and reseeds nicely to create a showy clump.

Pink Lily of the Valley.  Sweet.  Charming pink form of an old fashioned standby.  Nice spreader for the shade garden and quite drought tolerant when established.

Zone 5 hardy Ice Plant which arose as a spontaneous hybrid seedling in Denver and was named for our friend Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator at Denver Botanic Garden and great guy at a party.  Key here is great drainage for our winter wet.  Lean, sandy soil and a gravel mulch is a good idea. Flowers the color of thin-sliced backlit salmon Lox.

This is way too hot to be called an Ice Plant.  Scarlet flowers scorch the foliage in summer and blaze with nary a care.  Great sidewalk edger, rockery or container plant especially for those of you who delude yourselves into believing you really will water your containers. It's xeric.

A seldom-encountered Dianthus from the mountains in South Africa.  Apparently the local indigenous use this in magic - we can attest we are transported briefly to another realm when this flowers.  Nice pink flowers on slowly spreading mats which is best suited for the rock garden.  Good drainage in full sun and hardy to zone 7 and possibly lower.

A nice silver-foliaged selection of the California Fuchsia.  This loves a well-drained soil in a hot sunny spot where it has lots of tubular bright orange hummingbird magnet flowers in late summer.  Disappears in winter but comes up from the spreading underground rhizomes.  Cut back in spring.

Quite an uncommon evergreen species in cultivation from Shaanxi and Sichuan possessing an impish charm to which few others in the genus can lay claim. A smaller species to 12" with cute rounded leaflets which subtend stems bearing rounded simple spurless flowers which are a soft yellow.  Good drought tolerance on this winsome cutey,

A Darrell Probst introduction which is superior to the typical x rubrum.  This has dark rose-red flowers held above the foliage as well as below.  The evergreen leaves are larger and more rounded than typical and when young are accented with a thin red rim.  Drought tolerant.

Rubber Rabbitbush.  Drought tolerant shrub of the arid sagebrush steppe and plains.  So named for the felty leaves and flexible twigs.  This is in the aster family and in late summer and fall will fairly cover itself in small yellow flowers which may not be the best smelling as indicated  by the name but damn its nice!

Rock Fleabane.  A mighty mite in the Asteraceae family, this rock crevice dweller was not discovered until 1978 in the Chiricahua Mts in Arizona and later was found 200 miles east in the Black Range of New Mexico.  It has been very easy and rock hardy for us and although drought tolerant, adapts to frequent irrigation.  Small white flowers.

A super xeric introduction by the Plant Select program which is a joint venture by Denver Botanic Garden and Colorado State University trying to find great plants for the Rocky Mountain states.  This takes serious cold, heat and dry. has long lasting yellow flowers fading orange and is deer proof.

Very compact Escallonia to the point of being formal tidy buns.  I don't often go for tidy or formal buns, usually am more intrigued by wilder more free-form buns but this is the exception.  Just 2' high and 3' across with medium pink flower in June and sporadically after.  Evergreen, drought tolerant.

Exceptional selection of this cross between Garrya elliptica and G. fremontii from Glasnevin in Ireland.  What is notable about this is the long late winter catkins have conspicuous wine-colored bands.  We're talking Pinot Noir here not Pinot Grigio.  As a bonus, the stems are dark colored as well.  Winter interest, anyone?

This rugged South African is sun, wind and drought tolerant and absolutely hardy in the PNW.  One of the most admired plants in our border for its profuse display of large yellow to orange daisies on low stems.  Good drainage.

A white flowered variant of this familiar Geranium whose flowers are backed by a green calyx rather than pink which adds to its overall indispensable lightness of being. The paler than normal green leaves accentuate this and makes this valuable for brightening a somber corner or tempering hotter colors.  Takes dry shade - very tough.

We acquired this incredibly tough, tuberous, summer dormant Geranium in the 80's from East Lambrook in southern England which was home to Margery Fish and the original English Cottage Garden.  Provenance alone is merit enough but good lavender blue flowers and drought tolerance carries the day.

Officially Xeric Awesome Perennial. Seeds we got from Panayoti Kelaidis' home garden in Denver. This has rosettes of foliage which erupt in early summer to 2'-3' branched displays of orange to yellow poppy flowers. Nifty seed pods too. This really wants good drainage and hot sun and you will be smitten by the Horned Poppy.

Heart-leafed Globe Daisy. Pleasing little alpine from the mountains of southern Europe and Turkey. Low and slowly spreading domes like a small overturned pie with evergreen leaves and lavender-blue pom-pom flowers on short stems. Easy and tough enough for a beginner, sweet enough for the rock gardener who has grown it all.

We saw this at the O'Byrne's in Eugene and Plant Lust caused our pollen to shed and our stigma's got a bit sticky.  It is so embarassing but Ernie and Marietta are used to it.  Completely hardy here and clothed in small white crinkled fragrant flowers in Apr-May.  Yes. Yes. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Rio Grande Rain Lily.  This has the cheeriest yellow flowers with burnt orange streaking which appear without leaves in late summer to early fall with the onset of fall rains if grown in a sunny dry spot.  These get 6" tall but are wicked cute and will self sow to make an enviably vibrant patch in time.  Native to the Southeast and Mexico.  Zone 7.

Grown from seed given to us by xeric, steppe and rock garden guru, Panayoti Kelaidis of Denver Botanic Garden.  Brilliant plantsman who, if you gave him an hour lead time, would be conversant in aquatic plants native to Lake Malawi and the nearby Great Rift Valley.  This Central Asian species grows natively on rocky, sandy slopes and in the garden, is quite drought tolerant.  Thrives in Denver, this will get 3'-4'+ with pink flowers in summer.

Algerian Iris.  Nothing like this evergreen Mediterranean prize.  This blooms depending on the weather as early as November but generally the main flowering is in February with short-stemmed good-sized light lavender blue flowers.  We cut the leaves back to 6" in Nov to best see the flowers.  Newly potted strong divisions.

We were gifted this little green "roller" from John Grimshaw, Director of the Yorkshire Arboretum at Castle Howard. As he handed us a nondescript pup, we wondered what magical thing attended this to earn a place in his exquisite collection. "This is from the garden of Carl Linnaeus" STFU! The Father of Binomial Nomenclature!?! Linnaeus & Grimshaw - now that's provenance!

Pinecone Thistle.  Pretty cool 6"-12" tall plant from dry pine woods and wastelands in southern Europe and northern Africa.  The spineless gray-green, thistle-like leaves, are felted gray-white underneath and are a perfect accompaniment to the art project flowers.  Tufts of filamentous purplish flowers erupt from hefty cones of overlapping, feathered brown scales.