| Strudlahead, I live in Wyoming - also hot, dry summers and cold, dry winters. Some of the xeric plants that work in my garden are: gaillardia, iris, russian sage, salvia, red hot pokers, coreopsis, snow-in-summer, various ornamental grasses (check out bluestem.ca), catmint, oriental poppies, dwarf sundrops, sedum and yarrow. And there are many more. I would suggest you google xeriscaping and look for the sites out of colorado - their climate in similar (zone 5) and they have a lot of good info on xeriscaping. Especially look for Colorado State Univ. sites. Also you might want to look at highcountrygardens.com. They specialize in xeric plants and while not all of their stock in cold hardy, much of it is. Happy hunting. |