Susie’s Garden
Our expert looks at flowers that thrive in dry conditions…
Last summer, our garden got hardly any rain between Easter and autumn, while gardeners in other parts of the country were saying how wet it had been. Luckily, the flower garden coped well, thanks to the mulch I’d put down in early spring which kept the soil damp – though David needed to water the vegetables, especially the thirsty courgettes and beans.
There are plenty of ways to make the most of a dry garden. You can enhance the soil with lots of organic matter and mulch it, covering the ground to lock in the moisture. The mulch can be put directly onto the soil or you can use a weed suppressant fabric which allows rain in but deprives weeds of light. Then cover it in something attractive to set off your plants, such as wood chip or gravel. As an alternative to plastic, there are biodegradable products made from corn starch or high-performance paper. I also grow plants in gravel. It reflects light, keeps the necks of the plants dry, lets rain soak in, and looks good. The kind of plants that do well in dry gardens look particularly right growing in gravel beds. Many have evolved silver or greygreen foliage to cope with lack of rain, such as lambs’ ears and lavender, the light colour reflecting the harsh sun. Other adaptations are hairy leaves or fleshy ones that store water.
In a dry, sunny garden that gets little frost, glorious foxtail lilies (Eremurus) do well. Tall, colourful and majestic, they grow wild in the dry grasslands of Asia, and combine well with ornamental grasses.
Bearded irises thrive when their rhizomes are part exposed and can bake in the sun. Sea hollies grow in coastal shingle, Verbena bonariensis hails from South America, verbascums, cardoons and evening primrose are from the Mediterranean; in the wild, all cope well with drought.
Day lilies (Hemerocallis) are very drought tolerant and come in a wonderful range of colours and petal shapes. For foliage, one of the best is the honey flower, Melianthus major, with its beautiful grey-green leaves.