20 tough plants for North Texas yards (that survive August)

These are plants we install around here because they keep working through a North Texas summer. Most are native or well adapted. All of them need water to get established the first year.

Shrubs

• Texas sage (cenizo): silver leaves, purple blooms after rain, needs good drainage
• Dwarf yaupon holly: the native answer to boxwood
• Agarita: tough, evergreen, spiny
• Possumhaw holly: red berries all winter
• Red yucca: not a true yucca; coral blooms all summer

Perennials

• Autumn sage (Salvia greggii): blooms spring to frost
• Turk's cap: shade-tolerant, hummingbirds love it
• Flame acanthus: orange tubes, very drought tolerant
• Lantana: native types hold up best
• Blackfoot daisy: low, white, likes it dry
• Purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan
• Mexican bush sage: big purple fall show

Grasses

• Gulf muhly: pink cloud in fall
• Little bluestem: native, rust-orange in winter
• Inland sea oats: for shade

Trees

• Live oak, cedar elm, Shumard oak, chinkapin oak for shade
• Mexican plum and redbud for spring blooms

Skip these

Bradford pear (splits and spreads), red tip photinia (disease), and anything that wants acidic soil, like azaleas. Our soil is alkaline.

See xeriscape and native landscapes or landscape design.

More guides

• A month-by-month lawn calendar for North Texas
• Bermuda, St. Augustine or zoysia: which grass for your North Texas yard
• Why your backyard holds water after every storm (and how to fix it)
• When is the best time to lay sod in North Texas?
• How much does sod installation cost in North Texas?
• What does a French drain cost? (And when you don't need one)
• Lawn mowing prices around Rhome and north Fort Worth
• Why is my St. Augustine turning yellow or brown?
• How long should you run your sprinklers in North Texas?
• When to trim trees and shrubs in North Texas (and when not to)