I have coneflowers, salvia, yarrow and catmint in a very hot location facing South. I do hit them with the hose a couple of times a week, so they aren't surviving without water, but much less than everything else. I didn't know that Parma violets were drought tolerant, I have a very neglected little Parma violet that I have been meaning to move so I can water it more easily, guess that it is still alive only because of being drought tolerant.
Diana

Bearded iris, and sages.
I love Indigo Spires and "Hotlips" sages.

Of course, we've also got a lot of brugmansias and plumerias, Staghorns, too.
But I don't expect that's what you had in mind.

Jeri

Centranthus (Jupiter's Beard). True geraniums. Heuchera. Ornamental oregano (absolutely a wonderful choice, lots of varieties). African blue basil (freezes out in Sacramento but I buy it new every year for all of the flowers). Teucriums of all kind, from the big silvery fruticans (azure flowers in the winter) to the littler mounding types. Sages, sages, sages. I have some brugmansia, too, but they're hardly drought tolerant, and they certainly die dramatically when it gets cold (and return from the roots). I have myrtle, too - the variegated one - and some grasses, especially Calamagrostis (Karl Foerster). Plumbago - both the true plumbago, which grows as a ground cover and has intensely blue flowers, and Cape Plumbago, which looks like a blue, mounding phlox.

I water them just like I do the roses, a couple of times a week. Most of them would survive with no water for longer, once they are established. Alyssum self-seeds and adds to the fragrance and bloom. My goal is to have very little ground visible in my planting beds.
Anita

What the others said, and also santolinas, both gray and green. Some sedums, too.

Rosefolly

Thanks everyone, great suggestions.
-do you know of a website where I can see photos of
santolina, 'Indigo Spires' and "Hotlips" Teucrims and Calamagrostis?
thanks again, Lux.
Post scriptum.
I had a huge problem a few years with a 3 to 4 foot tall purple flowering Sage that had many ants crawling all over it all year long, has anyone else had this problem with sage? the ants preffered it above any other plant.

I've never had ants in a sage -- but I suspect they had a nest at its roots.
I HAVE had this happen with roses.

'Indigo Spires' is a very large salvia, int. from the Huntington.
'Hot Lips' is a medium-size salvia, int. from the Strybing.

Both benefit from being hacked back periodically.

{{gwi:295098}}

Jeri

Sedums, Hens and Chicks. I use prostrate Rosemary on the edge of terraced beds. Penstemmon is fairly drought tolerant.

I like upright rosemary, of which I pinch the tips to make it more bushy. Marjoram is loved by bees, and is covered with tiny white flowers for much of the time. It grows into a 2 x 2 foot dense shrub Upright lantanas, of which for me the white is the most beautiful. Day lilies of course, and different kinds of lavenders. Also, sea lavender for a dramatic, large-leaved accent with huge panicles of purple flowers that can be dried. (I know, they're not really flowers, only the little white parts are, but who wants to quibble).

Ingrid

I really like diamond frost euphorbia. It is an annual for me in zone 7, but I am going to figure out how to propagate this - it's a great plant and I want a lot of these

Helen von Stein lambs ear
Silver mound artemesia
Russian sage and salvias of all kinds
Verbena bonariensis is a new one for me this year; also called purple top verbena

what everyone else said.

Here are my favorites, but if you think roses are zone-specific, please consider that perennials are even more so. I have perennials that will thrive in one garden and not in the other, 35 miles away...
Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue'
Agastache 'Tuitti Fruitti'
Lavendula aungustifolia 'Madrid Blue'
Nepeta 'Walker's Low'
Salvia nemerosa any kind you like - 'East Friesland' I love
Phygelius - my favorite is 'New Sensation'
Verbena bonariensis
Superberna
Diascia 'Strawberry Sundae'
Pelargonium ionidiflorum

I second the plumbagos. I like the short, groundcover-like electric blue hardy one but I love the tender cape plumbago, which is a nonstop bloomer with the most refreshing sky blue color. It's also not a dinky plant, but puts on substantial size, and seems pest free. It roots pretty well from cuttings but takes some time, at least in early spring. Small plants grow fast once it's hot. THRIVES on heat, as seen in the huge ones in New Orleans.
I also like rose campion for the silver foliage and airy flowers. It reseeds very well. Larkspur is drought tolersnt. I like artemisias for silver lacy foliage. Also many mentioned above, and am another fan of Diamond Frost Euphorbia. ANother neat plant that gets by on little water is New Zealand wire vine. It is all green, but a pretty textured thing, with it's many small, leathery dark green glossy leaves on black wiry stems and cascading growth.
Linda

Plumbagos are gorgeous but get very, very large here.

Compact daylilys such as 'Janice Brown', Chrysocephalum apiculatum, a wonderful plant with silver foliage and intense yellow flowers for months and months, the compact Santolina (has 'nana' in the name), Limonium perezii, the small agaves such as 'Blue Powder' and A. desmettiana variegata, Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun', Blue Oat grass, Festuca glauca 'Elija Blue', California golden poppies, Calocephalus brownii (looks like a clump of silver wire, quite amazing), the variegated Society Garlic, Salvia 'Mystic Spires', Coreopsis, Dusty Miller, the dwarf Phormiums, Mariana sedifolia, Aeonium...

Limonium perezii with Agave desmettiana variegata in the foreground:
{{gwi:295099}}
Mariana sedifolia with Phormium:
{{gwi:295100}}

Santolina with a silver Liriope:
{{gwi:295101}}

My favorite drought-tolerant companions are:

* East Friesland salvia nemerosa
* Salvia greggi ("autumn sage")
* 'Goodwin Creek' lavender
* Upright rosemary (fairly drought-tolerant but does better with regular watering)

It isn't drought-tolerant for me, but my favorite rose companion is alyssum. I let it self-seed underneath the roses and grow right through the roses' feet. In the filtered light shade of the roses' canopy, and with the supplimental watering that the roses get, the stuff blooms like crazy all spring, summer, and fall. Our furnace-like heat can't even stop it as long as there's regular water and filtered sun (it can't take full summer sun here). Very non-invasive and shallow-rooted. Easy to remove if you wish. Love the stuff!

Randy

Companions:

blue fescue is still happy out there
Salvia - the hotter it gets the happier it seems to be
Agastaches, licorice mint, hyssop (which is whithering right now, waiting for a bit of coolness)
My lavender succumbed to this extreme summer, so I put in 'Hot Lips' just last week - it seems happy.
Russian sage - the blue looks so nice against my magenta/pink Rose Rescht, and Louis Phillipe

:-)

Lantana looks great here. We also use lillies, blue sage, and Homestead Purple Verbenas. I sure would like to suggestions as to how to keep the bermuda grass out of the verbenas. Their roots are so shallow and break easily.

Sammy

Sammy, bermuda grass is terrible! I am not much for any sort of chemical, but I have been known to use a grass killer out of desperation. There are a few different products out there - ones using fluazifop or clethodim are most effective. These will kill only the monocots (grasses) that they contact, and not damage dicots (broadleaf plants), and are of low toxicity for mammals or for groundwater. If you are using a sprayer, be sure it's not one that has been used for Roundup (which is nonselective, which means that it kills all kinds of plants) or a broadleaf weed killer. You can buy the product already mixed. Be sure to follow directions, and to spray at the intervals recommended (a one-time spraying barely discourages it). I've been told that August is the best month for killing it with herbicides, so have my eye on a few patches in my garden, with deadly plans.
Anita

I'm trying to get perennials going, especially gypsophilia paniculata, but it hasn't bloomed yet, tried some crushed drywall (chalky) to lower the ph a little. Coreopsis went double on me, loved that, but hard to train right, cut it back.

I have grown annual salvia 2 years now but want to go perennial where I used that, blue crystal this year and sangria last year, also a freebie yellow coneflower looks nice, meadow sage is good, haven't had time to mulch it yet and can't get that bed watered much. Some Color Parade lilies. Trying to get some delphs and white foxglove going. Crazy daisy should bloom next year. And catmint, not doing much this year but hangin' in there. Annual alyssum is very drought tolerant. White, pink and purple phlox.

I stuck in some Rudbeckia Prairie Sun, very striking but not where it is, supposed to self-seed.

I want something medium height or tallish with purple bells. What might that be? Failed twice trying to get campanula? ladybells going from seed, will give it one more shot. Russian sage I love but it gets too big, should try to find the smaller variety. Finally, clematis. Have two kinds going well now; one too young yet, one won't bloom, and one isn't happy where I put it.

Many of the plants people in warmer zones are using doubt will grow in my zone.