3 minute read
Garden Talk
from SE21 August 2020
by SE Magazines
Plants Adapted To Climate Change
Garden Talk with Janine Winlaw | Instagram @janinewinlaw
With summers generally getting hotter, it makes sense to use plants in the garden that once established won’t need regular watering. Beth Chatto’s gravel garden and the RHS Hyde Hall’s dry garden, both in Essex, are fantastic examples of drought-tolerant planting. This kind of planting is especially useful in front gardens that get watered less, or south facing gardens. Drought-tolerant plants often originate from hot, dry environments and have adapted in different ways to cope with the conditions. They also tend to like well-drained soil, so add grit or sand to clay soils. SimonG_MK @Pixabay Grey or silver-leaved plants conserve water by grey-green hairy foliage and whorls of lilac flowers reflecting the sun. Stachys byzantina (Lamb’s ears) also copes well without much water. with its woolly silvery low growing leaves is a Sedum store water in their succulent leaves lovely example of this and most love hot dry conditions. Tall upright varieties are a great addition to the border with their large flat flower heads turning glorious shades of pink in late summer/autumn. Sedum ‘Autumn Bliss’ is a vigorous variety with flowers that gradually turn from pale green to deep red while S. Matrona has striking purple stems and pale pink flowers and Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’ is a dusky purple sedum with pink-red flowers. Carpet forming sedum varieties such as S. tetractinum are great for containers and also produce attractive flowers. Some plants, often those originating from dry rocky Mediterranean conditions such as lavender and rosemary have tiny aromatic leaves for
Stachys byzantina - Photo by Havard Lillethun @Pixabay reduced evaporation, and keep cool by releasing (S. ‘Silver Carpet’ has smaller neater leaves than S. ‘Big Ears’). Convolvulus cneorum is a fab small evergreen sub shrub with shiny silvery leaves and essential oils. Lavender varieties such as the popular compact L. angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ with dark purple flowers is a good drought tolerant choice. Other herbs such as thyme and rosemary also cope masses of white flowers throughout the summer, with dry conditions. and Ballota pseudodictamnus is a more unusual Other means of adaptation include bearded evergreen sub-shrub with rounded furry greyIris which store moisture in their rhizomes making white leaves. Sun-loving cistus varieties with grey them fairly drought tolerant once established. green leaves and masses of short-lived flowers are Make sure the rhizomes are on the soil surface in also good for dry conditions. Some of my favourites full sun. I. ‘Black Swan’ is a sumptuous dark purple include pretty pale pink C. argentus ‘Silver Pink’, variety and I. ‘Jane Phillips’ is a pretty pale blue C. x pulverulentus ‘Sunset’ with vibrant magenta variety. Finally plants such as Gaura lindheimeri flowers and C. x purpureus ‘Alan Fradd’ with large cope with dry conditions by having long taproot. white flowers. The airy spires of flowers on this perennial go on Taller herbaceious perennials that cope with into autumn. Another example of a plant with dry conditions include Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ with long tap roots is Euphorbia. E. characias, which silvery foliage and tall spires of violet blue flowers originates from the Mediterranean and once in late summer. Phlomis tuberosa ‘Amazone’ with established copes well with drought.
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