Welcome to the Stellata Plants Reference Lists. These are intended as a visual introduction to the collection; a place to start for both home gardeners and designers looking for plants for specific conditions or uses. They do not reflect availability or the full breadth of plants I grow.

Although all the plants you buy are propagated by one person, Stellata Plants is very much a collaboration with local gardeners and horticultural professionals (and some further afield as well!). The plants I recommend are trialled not just in my garden, but in the gardens of friends, colleagues, and customers, and I am grateful they allow me to incorporate their expertise and experiences into the plant descriptions.

Preferred Low Water/Drought Tolerant Grasses for Sun

These grasses will all thrive in low water conditions in well-drained soil. For fully unirrigated gardens, Festuca mairei, Stipa barbata, Stipa calamagrostis, Stipa gigantea, Stipa ichu, Stipa pulcherrima, and Stipa tirsa perform the best.

Preferred Low Water/Drought Tolerant Perennials for Sun

All plants need regular watering in their first year after planting. The best time to plant is fall, ideally September to mid-October. This allows the plants to establish in warm soil, and take advantage of moist spring conditions so that they are fairly well established by the time summer rolls around and they are reliant on your supplemental watering. All plants on this list will tolerate summer watering but not all of them will tolerate going fully without, so please check the plant descriptions for more information on each plant. These plants will happily combine with Mediterranean classics like cistus, lavender, nepeta, sage, and thyme.

Low water typically refers to supplemental watering at minimum every 10-14 days during the summer, but depending on your soil type, wind exposure, and weather extremes, you may need to provide water more frequently to keep the plants growing within your aesthetic range. I say “aesthetic range,” because it is up to you to decide how you will provide resources in order to get the look you want. Plants grown in full drought conditions or in fast draining sandy soil or in constant wind will behave much differently to plants in sheltered back gardens with regular soil and access to water. Plants under stress typically grow slower, tighter, shorter, and only flower once (generally in spring/early to mid-summer), and may even go summer dormant. Providing some summer water will encourage larger plants, lusher foliage, and longer, later flowering.

Gardening is a process! Sometimes things don’t work, or at least don’t work in the way you intended, and sometimes they’ll surprise you with how fantastic they are. Plants die. Plants self-sow. Plants choke out their neighbours. Plants fail to grow. And you can have a hand in all of it if you want, or you can just sort of let them duke it out. We all make choices, and I hope you find fun and flower-filled joy in yours.

Low Water Plants for Part Shade and Shade

I don’t currently offer any plants that I would say are fully drought tolerant under established trees in partial or full shade. All of these plants will require occasional summer water in order to grow. They may be able to survive full drought by going dormant, but, over the long term, most, if not all, of these plants are not cut out for year after year of three hot months without any water and under root competition. Plants that can survive those punishing conditions and still look garden worthy are few and far between! Some of our native understory plants or woodland ephemerals are things to explore if you absolutely need to underplant mature trees but can’t water. You may have more success with a wider range of plants in full drought conditions if there are no trees competing for resources (eg. shade cast by buildings - but be aware of how much overhangs affect available moisture in the wetter months when many of these plants are growing).

Favourite Perennials for Cut Flowers

Below are some of my favourite genera and species for cutting in the garden. Not all of these plants are low water/no water! However, all of them delight pollinators and gardeners alike, not to mention the florists. There are, of course, many, many perennials suitable for cutting, but these are ones from my collection that I especially enjoy.

Flower Comparisons

Originally posted on the Stellata Plants instagram account!

A Note on Deer

Unfortunately, there is almost no plant that deer will outright avoid, particularly as their numbers in urban Victoria increase. Generally, look for plants that are scented, spiky/prickly, hairy, or re-grow quickly when browsed. Suggestions include:

  • Achillea

  • Agastache

  • Anthemis

  • Ballota

  • Berkheya

  • Calamintha

  • Centranthus

  • Chionochloa

  • Digitalis

  • Epilobium canum

  • Eriophyllum lanatum

  • Erodium

  • Eryngium bourgatii

  • Eryngium giganteum

  • Eschscholzia californica

  • Euphorbia

  • Festuca

  • Genista aetnensis

  • Geranium

  • Glaucium flavum

  • Helichrysum

  • Hyssopus

  • Kniphofia

  • Lychnis

  • Macleaya

  • Marrubium

  • Monardella

  • Oenothera macrocarpa

  • Origanum

  • Phlomis

  • Salvia

  • Satureja

  • Sesleria

  • Sideritis

  • Stipa

  • Teucrium

  • Thymus

Reference Books

The Dry Gardening Handbook by Olivier Filippi

Bringing the Mediterranean into your Garden by Olivier Filippi

The Plants of Free Spirit Illustrated Manual by Lambert and Marjanne Vrijmoed

Gardening in the Pacific Northwest by Paul Bonine and Amy Campion

The Dry Garden by Beth Chatto

The Beth Chatto Handbook by The Beth Chatto Gardens

Planting: A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury

Sowing Beauty by James Hitchmough

The Encyclopedia of Grasses for a Living Landscape by Rick Darke