Annual Flowers That Are Drought-Resistant

Where summer temperatures soar so high that the thought of traipsing to the garden to water is too much to bear, let drought-resistant annuals come to the rescue. Plant them in spring, and when thirstier plants take a summer siesta, these annuals will blanket the garden with color.

Drought-tolerant annuals need regular watering until their roots become established. 

Drought-resistant is a relative term. In extremely prolonged dry spells, even drought-resistant plants benefit from occasional water.

Pinwheel daisy flowers with fiery, yellow-tipped red petals can only belong to Indian blankets (Gaillardia pulchella). At home in full sun and sandy, dry well-drained soil, Indian blankets reach 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall, Narrow, hairy grayish-green leaves line their heavily branched stems. The leaf hairs cool the plants by shading the leaves and preserve leaf moisture by deflecting drying winds.

Moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora) carpets the ground in colors as hot and bright as the sun they love. Growing just 3 to 9 inches tall, and up to 1 foot wide, each plant pairs succulent, needle-like foliage with dozens of ruffled, rose-shaped blooms. Each flower lasts only a day, but the parade continues from summer until frost. Moss rose needs very well-drained soil. It's a very suitable choice for edging sunny concrete where reflected heat would cook other plants.

From mid- to late summer, when their color is needed most, 4- to 6-foot Mexican sunflowers answer the call with enchilada-sauce-red, golden-eyed daisy flowers. The 3-inch blooms flame against a backdrop of large, deep-green triangular leaves. As the name suggests, these plants dote on sun. They also relish poor, dry, well-drained soil. Fertile soil weakens their normally sturdy stems, encouraging foliage growth at the expense of flowers.

When only exotic will do, few annuals outshine spider flowers (Cleome hassleriana). Growing an impressive 3 to 6 feet tall in a single summer, they grab the early-summer-to-frost spotlight with dense clusters of fragrant, white, pink or -- for a cooling touch -- blue-purple flowers. Prominent, thread-thin stamens explode from the blooms in every direction. Spider flowers thrive in full sun and moderately fertile, well-drained soil.

Taxicab-yellow daisy flowers crown yellow cosmos' (Cosmos sulphureus) upright, 2- to 6-foot stems through the summer. An appropriate choice for dry, infertile soil and full sun, cosmos continues blooming as long as its spent flowers are removed before setting seed. Removing the flowers also curbs yellow cosmos' tendency to spread. Sporadic reports of its invasiveness have occurred in some areas.

Star-flowered constellations of sky blue hang suspended from borage's (Borago officinalis) grayish, branching stems in summer. Relaxed posture and large -- up to 6 inches -- downy green leaves give the 1- to 3-foot annual a somewhat unkempt look, so it's best used in informal settings. Borage likes dry, averagely fertile well-drained soil and full sun to partial shade.