Day lilies after they are 3 years old are heat and drought tolerant .Vetch ,cacti,living stones ,locust beans, aloe vera . for a start .The driest desert in the world is in South America IT RAINS 1 TIME IN 4 YEARS . I would love to know what growes there.

rudbeckias

Desert chia , locust beans , blue agave , cacti , yucca, prickley pear , pitaya ,mescal, mesquite. check : Native seeds search Tucson Az. for some of their strains .

Plumbago, pachypodiums, aeoniums, bouganvillia is unkillable.

Most succulents, and lithodora. (Although I don't know if it will grow in sand. It handles the texas heat and drought very well).

You may want to try "Hopi pink corn" (70 days) it does best in all drought tests and is sold by native seeds search of Tucson AZ . You might want to try some and breed some in to your strains.
The carobe tree and sunflowers are drought tolerant .

Apache plume, purple coneflower, gaillardia, yarrow, tansy, rosemary, daylilies, and, if your winters are cold enough, daffodils.

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Gardens

Possibly lantanas? I'm zone 7 here in NC, but I've had several cultivars--not just Miss Huff--survive 2 winters here so far, plus 2 summers with a month each of no rain whatsoever and temperatures in the upper 90's. They kept right on blooming and didn't wilt a bit. I would think that your winter temperatures there might be more of a problem than the the drought or sand would...

My ornamental garden gets no watering. Things get watered the day they were planted and not again. Annual rainfall is about 450 mm (18 inches?). Sandy soil, full sun.
I grow scented geraniums, lavender, roses, carnations, thymes, wormwoods, jonquils, elder, tansy, catmint and catnip, sages, various citrus, petunias, clary sage, rosemary,echium, daisies, a box hedge, rocket and mustard, and even the asparagus seems to be thriving! It is my personal challenge to grow 'nice plants' and not just give up with a few scraggly natives and prickly pear, like my neighbours! Once Ive found my way around this site I will put some pictures in the gallery.

Great to hear all the suggestions. Over the summer, I had success with...,
> Yucca
> Rubeckia
> Day Lilies
> deep-rooted Ornamental Grass
> Cone Flowers
> Crown Vetch
> Wild Rose
Hopefully, I can branch out with more selections for next summer. Not far from me, Prickly Pear Cacti grows in dry sand. The blooms are great.

Well my soil is sandy/loam...pretty stoney in some locations, but no pure sand. It's hot and dry here in summer and average precip is 17"; we get no rain between June and October. I water infrequently but deep in the hottest months. The following don't require organic mulching, but they do get fresh gravel mulching from time to time. I do mulch with straw other not so drought tolerant planting areas to conserve moisture like the veggie beds for example.
1. Thymus spp.
2. Lavender
3. Salvia officinalis
4. Sedums/Sempervirens
5. Blue Flax
6. Gaillardia
7. Echinacea...although if too dry too long at 90+...leaves can scorch)
8. Coreopsis lanceolata, C. tincoria
9. Rudbeckia

10. Rose Campion
11. Daffodil
12. Bearded Iris
13. Muscari
14. Crocus

Don't forget some of the ornamental grasses :D

Vera

The best draught plant i have discovered is the curry plant,(which is not the plant where the spice comes from, although it smells like it)Helichrysum.
It survived the whole summer here, the driest ever, without a drop of water, and only just planted, i found it very resistant and decorativew with is whitish foliage.

Here's a website for you with some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: low water use plants

I love this forum, this is exactly what I needed!
Only some of my drought-loving plants are: achillea, osteospermum, dracena, hibiscus syriacus, passiflora, argyranthemum, solanum rantonnetti, eucaliptus, cariopteris, maclura...

I don't know if Farm freedom, who started this forum, is still around, but we have to consider his/her Zone 5 temps. I also notice that most of the suggestions are for perennials. Farm freedom, if you're there, can you describe your conditions more exactly and what you're looking for? Do you want food plants, ornamental plants, trees, shrubs, bulbs, annuals? Thanks.

Melissa

P.S. I like a lot of these suggestions. Greth gardener's garden sounds like what I'm trying to do here, although he's in a slightly warmer area. I'd like to know more about his/her methods. Greth gardener, are you there?

Oops, it was deep roots who began the thread. Sorry.

Melissa

Melissa, I have a section of ground that gets dried out and baked during summer. Because of this, I have looked at Xeriscaping and Drought information to help me figure out how to plant this area. Once, I got interested, then I developed an interest in seeing what vegetables, edibles, flowers, bushes, and trees would do in such an environment. Note that I've found some plants survive, but don't thrive in such conditions. Some of these take a slightly different form and vegetation color in dry conditions. Other bulbs get progressively smaller each year until they no longer come up.

The suggestions given here have been great! I plan to do some more experiments this summer.

False Indigo (Baptisia) is a lovely plant/shrub and VERY drought tolerant.

In the landscape here in the Albuquerque area,almost every plant is drought resistant, there are--
lavender,
yuccas,
cactus,
hardy oleanders,
mexican bird of paradise,
agaves,
and different pine trees.
sage,

I'm going to try winecups next year. Bet they'll look great with licorice plant and blue and purple sage flowers and yellow-green foliage plants.

Best drought tolerant plants for me:
Sedum (several in my garden)
Hens-n-Chicks
Knautia
Echinacea angustifolia (much more so than E. purpurea)
Lavender
Thyme
Salvia
Coreopsis laciniata and Coreopsis tinctoria (annual)
Ratibida columnifera
Rudbeckia hirta (can be annual, biennial or perennial from same seed source!)
Gaillardia
Blue Flax (Linum lewisii perenne)
Daylily
Bearded Iris
Sweet Alyssum
Perennial Alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis 'Gold Dust')
African Daisy (Venidium....annual)
Dianthus (not sure the species....a perennial to about 8-10" with dark pink/fushia blooms)
Feverfew 'Flora Alba'
Saponaria 'Flore Pleno'
Cosmic Orange Cosmo
Yarrow
Inula ensifolia (had it but killed it during tranplant)
Grasses: Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Blue Fescue, Oatgrass, Feather Reed Grass

That's all I can think of at 5am LOL!

Annual precip. here is an average 17". Hardly any of that is in summer! I water maybe once every 2 weeks not because the list above wouldn't make it otherwise, but because I also have other plants planted among the rest: Joe Pye Weed, Marigold, Monarda, ect., but I try to just water at the base of just those plants, however lately I've been lazy and just water everyone :D
I summer mulch with grass clippings and straw moistly in veg areas (they get watered 1x week) and other beds are densely planted enough that the soil is hidden. My other beds are quick draining gravely/sandy loam.