Pikes/Pines | Hotlipped Sage, Pearly Everlasting, and more queen Capitol Hill plants that won’t wilt during drought

On Capitol Hill, across Seattle, and in nearby communities, all our drinking water comes from two watersheds — the Cedar River and the lesser known, South Fork Tolt River. Every sip, shower, and sprinkle is largely at the whim of snowpack, which acts as a slow release into the reservoirs that Seattle Public Utilities manages in these watersheds. We are extremely lucky to have this resource and I’ve always felt a bit ashamed using this water just for my gardening needs.

When the Washington Department of Ecology declared a statewide drought emergency this April, it did nothing to assuage that shame. It fanned them into full-blown panic. Aside from being able to afford to water a garden, how can I ethically do so? To me, it feels imperative to both have a garden that contributes to my local ecosystem in more than paltry ways, and one that uses very little water. That water is needed for salmon and entire food-webs outside our own. And while I don’t intend to shame others for having gardens that take a lot of water and tending, I am thankful there are ways to enjoy garden plants without feeling like I’m just sucking the marrow of our dwindling snowpack. (Note that SPU says we are doing “ok” with our water but even if Cliff Mass says there’s no obvious trend in snowpack, it’s hard to feel optimistic with more frequent drought conditions across Washington.)

Many of the native plants on the Hill are widely distributed and can in theory do well with hotter, drier summers. I purposefully planted snowberry, oceanspray, and Mock Orange around our yard because of this. But not every native plant can handle what an urban summer throws at them, (and not everyone can accommodate shrubs that want to be ten feet tall and just as wide like Oceanspray).

I rep using native plants in gardens because I think they have the potential to make us pay more attention to the plight of their wild cousins. They are also often easier to grow because they are adapted to our soils, climate, require little to no fertilizer, and typically offer more ecological value to boot. But there’s still a need for climate adaptive plants in our human oriented landscapes and a discerning eye for right plant, right place can also lead to a waterwise garden. In fact, two of the plants listed here that are not native to Washington and one is not found on this side of the Cascades in Washington. I listed them because I like them, they are pretty, and they don’t require you to scour nurseries to find them.

All this is a lead up to a few choice plants that will shrug off summer droughts and barely need a sip of municipal water. Even if you don’t plant them, keep an eye out for them on your next stroll around the Hill.

Hotlipped Sage – Salvia microphylla

Salvia or sage are members of the mint family. They are aromatic and lovely additions to the garden, native or not. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

This is the plant from the furthest away and probably the one with the most eye-catching flowers on my list. Washington has a native sage (not to be confused with sagebrush), and there are many native to the West Coast of North America (and over 1000 worldwide). However, this one is native to Southeastern Arizona and much of Mexico. Hotlipped Sage is a valuable addition to your garden because they are easy to find at almost any garden store (there are dozens of cultivars and hybrids), very drought tolerant once established, are a beautiful small shrub that blooms for months, and hummingbirds love them. During the summer I wake up to the buzzing of hummingbird wings outside my bedroom window because of this lovely plant.

Blueblossum Ceanothus – Ceanothus thyrsiflorus

A variety of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus enjoying a hot spot in an urban garden in Anacortes. If you stop watering them after their first couple of years in the ground they will actually live longer. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

Like Hotlipped Sage, there are many cultivated varieties and hybrids of this beautiful Ceanothus and their close relatives. You’ve undoubtedly seen it around the Hill and across Seattle, and you may also call them California Lilac because they are a common sight along the coast of California up into Oregon (though they are not related to liacs, except in flower hue). Commonly used in landscaping because they are drought tolerant, evergreen, and showy, you’d struggle to find a wild type of this plant in a nursery but we won’t hold that against them. There are a handful of native Ceanothus in Washington State, but they are hard to find in nurseries because they are difficult to propagate. Ceanothus thyrsiflorus is not only a pollinator magnet, but is a nitrogen fixer.

Kinnikinnick – Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Kinnikinnik enjoying a rocky, hot spot along a path. This plant gets sun most of the day and loves it. Watering them from above often encourages fungal spotting on their leaves, a sign that they don’t want or need excess water. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

You can find Kinnikinnick growing wild in Puget Sound County, but these mini manzanitas are the belle of practically every parking lot planting strip in Western Washington. They are basically bomb-proof once established and rarely grow over a few inches tall. Their little urn-shaped flowers might look familiar to anyone who has seen madrone, blueberry, and heather blooms – they are all in the Ericacea family. Many of these plants rely on special mycorrhizal relationships to tolerate the poor soils they often grow in. Bumblebees love them and birds flock to their little red fruits. Like the two above you can find them at big box stores quite readily, though you’ll likely end up with Massachusetts Kinnikinnick, which is a variety cultivated from New England, which is more cold hardy than our local populations.

Idaho Fescue – Festuca idahoensis

A two-year old Idaho Fescue that will double in size next year with no additional irrigation. Those brown blades will make great nesting material next spring. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

Even on the Hill you can find wild native trees and shrubs fairly easily. Not so with native grasses – most of the species you see on an average day are not native, including all the turf grass, (most of our native grasses are bunching rather than turf forming). Idaho Fescue is a showy, often blueish, bunch grass that is mostly found in the prairies and shrubsteppe East of the Cascades. However, they are happy in soils with good drainage and plenty of sun, even on the west side. Many native bunch grasses are hosts for moths and butterflies and I love watching birds gather the previous year’s growth for their nests each spring.

Pearly Everlasting – Anaphalis margaritacea

Pearly Everlasting might be a bit of a weedy species depending on your tastes but they are easy to grow and attract a host of native insects. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

This is the only plant on my list that could feasibly be growing wild on the Hill, (I have yet to see it though). There are certainly showier native wildflowers, but I enjoy Pearly Everlasting because of their long-last blooms, it’s in the name, and their grayish green foliage. Plant them in your most gravely, sandy, sun soaked patch and they’ll happily spread by underground rhizomes. No watering required, and watch the butterflies and bees flock. I even like it when they have galls created by a little native fruit fly – bring on the biodiversity even if it is “unsightly”!

Knowing that in the US we use around 8 billion gallons of water for residential landscape irrigation (much of which just ends up evaporating or running off with excess fertilizer in tow), waterwise gardens really do seem imperative. There are dozens of other ways to have a waterwise garden, finding native plants to reduce our water needs is just one way to do it.  And yet, even if I’m motivated by generational catholic guilt or climate anxiety, I appreciate my garden quite a bit more when I don’t have to drag a hose around or set up elaborate irrigation schemes. Plus, it leaves me to simply enjoy the plants themselves and the animals in their orbit, myself included.

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