Researchers at the University of Georgia in Tifton are developing an ornamental peanut ground cover for your yard that won’t require any fertilizer or extra watering. But gardening center owners in Georgia say consumers are more interested in colorful plants, regardless of how much they need to water them.

UGA Professor Wayne Hanna says drought will always be a problem in the state. So, he and his colleagues are working on finding more drought-tolerant plants. He says a perennial peanut, which doesn’t grow nuts, but flowers, survived the most recent drought beautifully.

“Everything else turned brown without irrigation. And this thing just stayed as green as could be. It was just beautiful. Actually, the little more stress it gets under it, the more yellow flowers it produces.”

The so-called “Cowboy Peanut” plant could be available to the public in two years.

Still … Larry Dasher, owner of Dasher’s nursery in Valdosta, says his customers are more interested in plants with big colorful blooms.

“Everybody wants color. It really don’t matter whether they need to water it or not.”

Dasher says a big seller right now is knockout roses, which are drought-tolerant.

Tags: perennial peanut plant, Dr. Wayne Hanna, Larry Dasher, drought-tolerant