Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Plants for new dry border

Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
in Plants
Have a topic going for this in garden design but I know the border I'm going to create now so it's more a case of what plants for the area. Is that ok to have the 2 threads running?



https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/comment/2213655#Comment_2213655

It'll be a dry, sandy border exposed to the wind- marked roughly with the red line above.

Current thinking is hollyhocks to help hide the sheds and other plants in the mix just now are euphorbia for some evergreen structure, echinops, eryngium, salvia. Possibly rose kew gardens. Always prefer plants for pollinators where possible.

Will have approx 1.7m depth so will provide more planting options than the existing border on the right.
«13

Posts

  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' will reach 1.5-1.8m and withstand quite a bit of wind. Echinops can look a bit tatty when it goes over, whenever I see Hollyhocks they always seem to be covered in rust. Eryngium is a great idea.

    Veronicastrum is a good tall plant, looks very nice planted in large groups. It does OK on my dry soil despite the books saying it prefers moisture retentive. Verbena bonariensis would be ideal. Agastache 'Blue Fortune', mid height. Sedum 'Matrona' and Salvia 'Purple Rain' at a lower level. All these are terrific pollinator plants. 

    Salvia 'Amistad' would probably like it there and is a useful mid height.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    edited June 2020
    Ah yes Verbena bonariensis was another I'd thought of, was thinking that for the right hand corner of where the 2 borders would meet.

    Also have Sedum autumn joy to move from the existing border as it's short on space due to geranium Johnson's blue.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Evergreen cistus shrubs may do well there, the white ones are very ‘Kew Gardens’. Agastache has to be the top pollinator in my garden, both the spire and the shrubby aurantica types - the latter are especially addictive to hummingbird hawk moths. Salvia, Achillea and Verbena B are all good for the pollinators too. Bees adore Salvia Guarantica Black and Blue  - makes a tall, dense clump. Plus bulbs like alliums and bearded iris like it poor and dry. All the obvious Mediterranean herbs as well. All assuming adequate drainage of course!
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    If you like silver foliage, artemisias do well in sun and dry sandy soil. For tall and statuesque, cardoon (Cynara cardunculatus) works well here too.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Or artichokes. Violetta di Chioggia is a more decorative one.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Another vote for cistus, verbena b. and salvia Amistad. Amazingly tough plants.
    Coast Rosemary is another lovely one, for a dry border (tiny white flowers for most of the year, silvery foliage, evergreen and hard as nails).
    For height, a hibiscus, maybe.
    Some ground covering, evergreen hardy geraniums would look good too, like St.Ola. Great self seeder but not invasive.
    In my dry border I wouldn’t be without my stipa tenuissima and miscanthus kleine fontäne, as well as a splash of lime smyrnium here and there.
    Your space is amazing!

  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    Perovskia, salvia, various forms of cat mint (nepetas), what used to be called Sedum (large forms), veronica Shirley blue - all these are good for pollinators, bees love them.

    Lots of herbs and Mediterranean plants like those conditions too. 
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    edited June 2020
    Looks like you've got the gardening bug, a symptom is digging up lawns to make borders!
    Allium Purple Sensation, Agapanthus. Caryopteris, Perovskia and Cistus if you want shrubs. In fact there are loads of plants, have a look at https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/plants-for-dry-conditions/?0_0=0&p=5
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • DevonianDevonian Posts: 176
    How about Penstemon? Once established they cope with drought. Also any prairie plants such as Helenium/Rudbeckia etc. Plus Red Hot Poker? Libertia? Gaillardia?
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    Good list already, especially Nepeta, a good all round plant.

    Brachyglottis Greyi can be kept low or left to grow at height. Great foil for a dry border, and should withstand the winds.

    Sissyrinchium Striatum offer leaf contrast and early to summer colour. Coreopsis Viticella 'Moonbeam' and Anthemis Tinctoria 'E C Buxton' suit against grey pale foliage and should keep the interest into late summer. Scabious and Knautia Macedonica could be dotted at intervals to keep some colour going into late summer. 
Sign In or Register to comment.