Plants that Tolerate Dry Conditions

Landscapes in Minnesota require plants that can tolerate cold winters and occasional hot, dry summers. Drought-tolerant plants are essential for sustainable gardening as they require minimal water, reducing your environmental footprint and conserving vital resources. There are many beautiful and low-maintenance plants that thrive in dry conditions and can tolerate drought.

Deciduous Trees

  • Elm
  • Hackberry
  • Hawthorn
  • Honeylocust
  • Ironwood
  • Maple, Amur
  • Maple, Autumn Blaze
  • Maple, Norway varieties
  • Oak, Bur
  • Oak, Northern Pin

Evergreens

  • Juniper
  • Pine
  • Spruce, Black Hills

Deciduous Shrubs

  • Barberry
  • Chokeberry
  • Cotoneaster
  • Currant
  • Diervilla
  • Honeysuckle
  • Ninebark
  • Potentilla
  • Rose
  • Smokebush
  • Snowberry, Red
  • Spirea
  • Sumac

Perennials & Grasses

  • Achillea
  • Andropogon, Big Bluestem
  • Artemisia, Silver Mound
  • Asclepias, Butterfly Flower
  • Calamagrostis, Feather Reed
  • Coreopsis, Moonbeam
  • Coreopsis, Zagreb
  • Dianthus
  • Echinacea
  • Euphorbia
  • Festuca, Fescue Grass
  • Gaillardia
  • Helictotrichon, Blue Oat Grass
  • Nepeta
  • Perovskia
  • Rudbeckia
  • Schizachyrium, Little Bluestem
  • Sedum
  • Sempervivum
  • Sporobolus, Prairie Dropseed
  • Stachys, Lamb’s Ear
  • Yucca