Best plants for the hottest pots
These lush, succulent options will beat the heat on sun-baked patios
Most of us tend to site our patios or sitting-out areas in the hottest, sunniest spot in the garden. And why wouldn’t we? With Britain’s relatively scant days of sunshine we have to make the most of every ray we can muster. But what about the plants we grow in these situations? They often tend to be containerised and have no option but to deal with blasting heat. This calls for a very particular set of plants that will lap up the sunshine but don’t need watering every day, or even every week. Through trial and error over the years I’ve come up with a collection that can be given minimal attention but will thrive in hot pots on baking patios.
The most obvious plants for this situation are those from Mediterranean or desert regions, which have evolved to thrive in relentless heat with little water. Perhaps the easiest of the lot are creeping sedums, such as S. acre and S. album. These succulent creepers can survive on rainwater alone and, rather than wither at the first sight of summer, intense heat often causes the leaves to take on attractive ruddy tones.
Another easy group of succulents are sempervivums, or house leeks. Many garden centres and nurseries carry a multicoloured range of these plants. They can be grown in the shallowest of pots or bowls on a table, where their fleshy rosettes of foliage can be appreciated close up. They, like sedums, will muster flowers in the heat, too.
Another useful succulent is echeveria. This genus originates in central America so is extremely adept at coping with heat. They produce rosettes similar to sempervivums, but on a much larger scale, with some species forming branching plants.
A stunning form available at nurseries now is ‘Duchess of Nuremberg’. It has the most extraordinary foliage tones, perhaps best described as a dusty purple with hints of blue. It works brilliantly when planted in a shallow bowl mixed with other echeveria and sempervivums. These plants are best grown in a terracotta or stone container with 70 per cent soil-based compost and 30 per cent Perlite for super-sharp drainage.
For something larger and altogether more architectural, try agave. A. americana has thick, blue-grey leaves and will easily reach 70cm (2½ft) in a pot. It’s the hardiest of the lot and will cope outdoors most winters in city gardens or protected areas. A more compact form is A. victoriae-reginae. It forms a ball shape of white-trimmed, dark green foliage tipped with dark spines. I’ve had one sitting on a table on my patio, unwatered for the last three years – it even survived February’s Beast from the East!