| (or
'going beyond columbine and lupines')
Lisa Bouray, manager of Durango Nursery and
Supply and owner of Edge of the Rockies Native Seeds,
and Allison Scarpella, of Down to Earth Landscaping, offer
these suggestions for xeric and native perennials:
 •
Eriogonum umbellatum (sulfur flower) – A native
low-mounding perennial with stalks of clusters of tiny
yellow flowers and silver-green leaves. Grows in dry,
well-drained, poor soil. Full sun.
Rating: XXX
• Artemesia frigida (fringed sage) - Native perennial,
grows to 1BD feet with finely cut white leaves and small
yellow flowers in the fall. Full sun.
Rating: XXX
 •Ratibida
columnifera (prairie coneflower) – Native to central
United States. Drooping red and yellow petals surrounding
a brown center; can grow to 4 feet tall. Full sun.
Rating: XXX
• Artemesia ludoviciana (Prairie sage) –
A shorter-growing sage native to Southwest with intense
silver foliage. Grows to 2 feet tall and spreads between
2-4 feet. Blue flowers on 1-foot spikes. Blooms summer to
frost. Full sun.
Rating: XX
 •Perovskia
atriplicifolia (Russian sage) – Woody perennial
with upright stems of gray-green foliage topped in late-spring
and summer with sprays of small purple flowers. Grows
to 3-4 feet tall. Full sun.
Rating: XXX
•Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob’s ladder) –
Upright-growing plant, 1-3-feet tall with 1-inch lavender
flowers. Grows best in shade.
Rating: XX
 •Penstemon
(beard tongue) – Native perennials with numerous
species in a range of various sizes, shapes and textures.
Narrow, bell-shaped flowers in intense colors from red,
blue, lilac and white. Blooms in early to mid-summer.
Thrives in dry, well-drained soil. Full to partial sun.
Rating: XXX
•Iris germanica (bearded iris) – Hardy midspring
bloomer with large purple flowers on 2- to 4-foot stems.
Grow best in full sun but also does well in partial shade.
Rating: XX
 •Delosperma
(ice plant) – Hardy ground cover and rock garden
succulent with bright green leaves and a profusion of
1-inch yellow, pink or red flowers in spring. Partial
shade.
Rating: XX
•Nepeta x faassenii (cat mint) – Soft, mounding
plant with gray-green foliage, grows to 1-foot tall, 1-2
feet wide. Loose spikes of small lavender flowers in spring,
early-summer. Grows in full sun, partial shade.
Rating: XX
 •Sedum
(stonecrop) – Numerous species in an array of sizes.
Fleshy, evergreen leaves topped by clusters of small,
star-shaped flowers that start off pink when they open
in late summer, later darkening to coppery pink and rust.
Full sun or partial shade.
Rating: XX
•Achillea (yarrow) – Gray-green leaves with
clumps of yellow flowers on stalks in late summer, early-fall.
Grows in full sun.
Rating: XX
– Missy Votel
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