Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantina) is a wonderful evergreen perennial, mostly grown for its rich rosettes of showy, velvety, silvery tongue-shaped leaves, resembling lamb's ears and bringing interest to the border. Pink-purple flower spikes appear in late spring or early summer. Their fuzzy flowers add textural interest, but cutting them off promotes foliage growth and improves the plant's vigor.

Incredibly attractive, Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) is prized by gardeners for its ornamental and showy velvety flower spikes produced from late summer to first frost when other summer plants have given hope of doing anything productive. This evergreen shrubby perennial grows in a wonderful display of very attractive bicolor flowers consisting of soft purple sepals that create a lively contrast to the fuzzy white flowers. They rise in dense, arching spikes above the lance-shaped leaves, gray-green on top and fuzzy white underneath. Native to Mexico.

Native to Texas and Louisiana, Lindheimer's Beeblossom (Gaura lindheimeri) is a remarkably pretty perennial plant with tall, airy-looking flowers giving the appearance of butterflies floating in the garden. It adds a unique texture in the garden with its 4-petaled, pink-tinged or white, 1 in. long (2.5cm), butterfly-like flowers borne at the top of the airy spikes. It enjoys a long blooming season, typically from early summer into fall, and forms a vase-shaped clump, about 2-4 ft. high (60-120 cm). Tolerates drought, heat, humidity, partial shade, and dry soils. Deer and rabbit resistant, Gaura attract butterflies and hummingbirds.