Although most clematis are not considered particularly drought tolerant, C. texensis may be a good choice for you. It is native to hot, dry areas of the southwestern US (Texas), it is quite hardy (zone 4), has a long bloom season and does grow readily from seed, although I have no suggestions of where to locate seed or as to how long after germination one could expect flowering. And I'd sure want to make sure it gets sufficient moisture until it is well established.

It can be. Here are a few thoughts. 1. To get and maintain purples, your soil has to be in a narrow layer of soil pH that is difficult ��"but not impossible- to achieve when planted on the ground. Add garden lime per label directions if your soil is already acidic. If your soil pH is already alkaline, add garden Sulphur, green sand, iron sulfate or aluminum sulfate per label directions. Your own soil will govern how well and which shades of purple you can get when you amend. 2. It is easier to control soil pH when you grow them in containers. In the ground, you could end up with purple sections in the bush⦠with other areas with a slightly different color (blue/pink) or shade of purple if some of the roots do not absorb the necessary minerals in the same amounts as other roots. 3. Named varieties with the word "purple" will produce good and deep purples. Glowing Embers, Enziandom, Purple Tiers, Purple Passion, Royal Purple, Nightingale, Mathilda Gutges, Marechal Foch and Merritt Supreme can give you nice purples. Enziandom leaves turn nice colors at the end of the growing season. Nightingale produces a lot of bloomage per stem. The named varieties given above produce blooms only in the Spring. 4. Colored re-blooming hydrangeas can also be useful but, they will not necessarily give the deep purples of the above named varieties. Example: the Endless Summer Series or the Forever and Ever Series. The good thing about rebloomers is that you get blooms at multiple times throughout the growing season and, as each set of blooms opens, you can see the result of changes to the soil pH, compared to the previous set of blooms. If new blooms in May were pink and if new blooms in June-July were blue, that means you have amended too much and need to tweak the soil pH in the opposite direction. So, it may take less time to get the purple shade that you/she want if you have colored rebloomers. 5. You can choose from many hydrangea macrophyllas or serratas but you will need to keep and eye on their winter hardiness (you are in Z5). Most if not all will need winter protection if planted outside in the ground. If planted in a container, you will need to bring the container into the garage or similar place during the winter months and water it once every week or once every two weeks. 6. Full sun exposure⦠it may cause the color not to be as deep as it could be because the sun may bleach the blooms a bit. Hydrangeas must have afternoon shade (or the leaves will suffer from too much sun) here but, your not-as-strong summer sun in NY may allow you to grow them in full sun. If no one in your zone & location comments, I would drive around looking for similar colored (blue/pink/purple) hydrangeas and see where they were planted (sun-wise) and if they had winter protection. Luis

Having to buy plants will limit your choices to what is available locally. So we could list all sort of suggestions for you but few of them may be available. Most local plant suppliers can tell you which of their varieties are ok for containers. But that raises another issue. What size of containers are you talking about? That alone will make a BIG difference in what plants you can grow. The usual "flower pots" don't work for tomatoes. 5 gallon containers is the smallest recommended but bigger is better. In zone 7 you can grow any variety you wish so it will be the big containers and soil-less potting mix plus the watering and feeding you provide that will make all the difference. Check out the Growing Tomatoes forum here as well as the Container Gardening forum for many discussions about which varieties work best in containers. then I;d suggest you go to your local supplier and make a list of what plants are available and let us know the names. We can then tell you which of them might work for you. Dave

That's really attractive! It looks more like a sedge (Carex) of some kind rather than a grass, based on the growth pattern. Can you get a close-up of the foliage? Is there any evidence of seeds or blooms?