I have clayish soil and while our summers here in southwest Missouri are hot and sunny, it's too soggy in the winter for some plants that need good drainage. They do well over summer and then don't return.
Our kids are grown so I'm turning their old 4x6 sandbox into a raised bed. I don't really know what I'm doing but I mixed some compost into the sand and a little bit of bagged topsoil. I might need to add some kind of gravel.
I've ordered agastache 'Black Adder' and Redbirds in a Tree, and I have seeds for agastache rupestris. I plan to put that in there. I'm reserving the rest of the space for something else that is long blooming and attracts butterflies or hummingbirds.
If it goes well, I may add more raised beds. Wish I had a list of all the perennials I planted over the years that didn't return after winter. lol
Does anybody else look through the High Country Gardens catalog and wish for better drainage?
What should I plant?

Perennial salvia, coneflowers, black eyed susans, tall sedum, mums, catmint (NOT catnip!) and there's others but I'm blanking. All these have been mainstays here with clay dug up from the side of the road and moved to a spot that got turned into a garden bed with no amendments. Baptisia. There are different cultivars of them now that come in different colors and don't flop. They don't bloom all season but do provide cover for birds and insects and a nice green background for all the color.

Check out some native plant nurseries in your general area and see what they have and recommend. I've been changing over to native plants for alot of my garden beds and get alot of blooms throughout the season.

Here's one that seems to specialize in plants for the lower half of the state.

https://www.ozarksoul.com/

Coneflowers do have very long flowering and butterflies love them.

Thanks Pepper and Bob. I haven't had trouble growing any of the ones you mentioned without amending my soil much and have planted some natives. I don't have as many as I used to as I've been battling wild honeysuckle and poison ivy in my gardens.
Just trying to decide to plant in the raised bed with good drainage that I might not be able to otherwise.

Get some brush killer for the honeysuckle and poison ivy. It doesn't take much so you won't be doing crazy spraying or anything. Just break a stem and spray directly on the cut, or brush on and it will kill the plant. I've had to do that with virginia creeper that tried to take over my gardens. Ripped out what I could and sprayed the cut stems on the rest. I'm more of a puller than a sprayer but sometimes you just have to resort to sprays to get it under control, especially when out in the country like I am.

Here in MO the issue isn't always drainage but rather the crazy up and down temps without snow cover to provide insulation for the plants. My plants deal with constant moisture then constant dryness then back all year round or like last year, just nothing. I've lost plants that had great drainage but just couldn't take the extreme up and downs we get.

christie8swmo said: Our kids are grown so I'm turning their old 4x6 sandbox into a raised bed. I don't really know what I'm doing but I mixed some compost into the sand and a little bit of bagged topsoil. I might need to add some kind of gravel.

I'll trade you some sand for some clay...

I know so many plants that thrive in clay, and can't be grown here in the bottomless sand...

Seems like choosing plants suited to our site will always be preferable to trying to change the site to suit poorly performing plants...

I'd grow a lot of those plants from high country gardens... except for the high humidity here...

Like cistus...
I do have this cutie growing wild...

Helianthemum Carolianum / Crocanthemum georgianum
Blooms at winter's end...

Y'all have humidity up there too... Not sure that any High Country garden plants are going to grow for you...

Over the years, I haven't been able to resist repeatedly trying some fancy penstemon cultivars; notably in the red-pink-purple colour range. In our garden, they've never lasted more than a year or two. Was just reading in a British gardening source that penstemons hate the "sitting in wet" over winter.

I have had long term success with cultivars of several Penstemon species, particularly of P. digitalis, but no success with much of the penstemon colour range.

Don't know about that catalogue, but perhaps try some fancy penstemons.

Yeah.... P digitalis is locally native for the eastern part of the continent.

Those western penstemon look really cool, though...

Important to be aware of the conditions the plants evolved under, when choosing pretties for our gardens...

Thank you Stone. I didn't realize Georgia was so sandy. I guess we all have our challenges. I'll pass on that trade offer. lol They say clay and sand makes bricks. Thank goodness for compost.
Thanks Amanda - I agree about the ups and downs and we had practically no snow cover with that last bout of below zero weather and it went on for too long. I have some plants I'm worried about.
Charlie - I love the idea of penstemons. Thank you! I think I may order some seeds. Then at least it's not a huge investment if they fail.
It just seems like there are a lot of long blooming hummingbird/butterfly plants in that High Country Gardens catalog so I can't help from wanting.

You might check out Missouri Wildflower Nursery in Jeff City. They only carry natives but have lots of pollinator-friendly choices. They have plant sales throughout the state on multiple dates in spring and they will bring your on-line plant order to the site of the plant sale for free, so no shipping charge. But of course you'd need to be able to get to one of their events - they have multiple options for St Louis & KC, not sure about Springfield or Joplin.