Dry Areas

Verbascum are a wonderful plant for making a garden feel uncontrived, producing masses of flowers without taking up lots of space on the ground. ‘White Blush’ is one of the most popular varieties. Growing to just 100cm, the dark crimson buds open to reveal large white flowers with deep purple stamens.

Thymus serpyllum is one of the most versatile groundcovers. Forming dense evergreen cushions of flowers these low maintenance plants don’t require mowing, watering or care, and can take a lot of abuse. Its leaves can be used as a culinary herb and its uses in the garden are almost unlimited.

'Sunrise White' is a white form of the Black Eyed Susan vine. Very quick to bloom, the flowers smother the vine throughout summer to first frosts. White petals surrounded by a bold black eye, these are plants that add a dash of chic to the summer terrace or border.

The Black-eyed Susan vine has recently become a firm garden favourite. They grow quickly and starts flowering at an early age. This twining vine blooms in a bright blend of creamy white, orange and yellow flowers all with the characteristic chocolate-purple centre which inspired the common name.

Summer-blooming spiky flowering plants - in garden design parlance ‘the verticals’. We all need some, and there are lots of contenders, but a plant that can go just about anywhere in the garden, cope with almost all situations and bloom with copious plush spikes over several weeks is a very rare treat.

What can I say? Its a plant you can pet!...Bees love it…children love it….and you just have to stoke it on the way past! Lambs' ears is a well-known ground-covering perennial, popular for its soft, fluffy foliage, plus, it’s a great silver accent in between all the green going on in the garden.

Brought to the forefront of the design world by the Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, Sporobolus displays a magnificent fountain of fine textured, emerald-green leaves which develop rich shades of reddish-gold or deep orange in the autumn, but the great joy of this plant is that it produces a great cloudy haze of tiny flower heads.

Whether planted in large numbers or used as a single specimen Sempervivum are both beautiful and enduring. A selection of winter hardy species, the sheer variation of colour, texture and size of these fascinating succulents is almost infinite and their tendency to produce offsets makes for easy increase.

Sedum Roof Garden Mix is a formula mixture of many important varieties for roof gardens in full foliage and flowering colour range. Low maintenance, durable and interesting, grow them on walls or banks, as a ground cover or as a green roof. Sedum strut their stuff where many other plants dare not venture!

A mixture of many attractive low-growing sedum varieties representing a wide range of foliage types and flower colours. Low maintenance, durable and interesting, grow them on walls or banks, as a ground cover or as a green roof. Sedum strut their stuff where many other plants dare not venture!

Sedum Ruben's Lizard is a low-growing sedum that has tight, rosy-green cushion of needles with reddish tips. Throughout the summer the plant is covered with many tiny, star-shaped white flowers. Drought and heat tolerant or low maintenance, whatever you want to call it, 'Lizard' takes a lot of abuse.

Sedum ussuriense is at its best in late summer and through autumn, the blue-green succulent, rounded leaves are followed by a glowing display or carmine-red flower clusters. It even pleases the eye in winter when its seed heads turn into a stage for dew drops and ice crystals.

Hugely impressive in any garden, Sedum telephium ‘Emperors Wave’ boasts succulent, blue-green foliage and masses of star-shaped flowers in glorious shades of deep pink and purple. They are popular with late season perennials and ornamental grasses. The extreme contrast in flower shape enhance each other, adding to the textures and colours of the late season garden.

Sedum spurium 'Voodoo' is a stunning little perennial groundcover for hot, sunny locations. The intense dark mahogany foliage that provides a stunning contrast to the almost neon, luminous rosy-red flowers which appear June through August.

Sedum spurium coccineum is the most robust sedum, with deep crimson blooms and bronze-green leaves. Low maintenance, durable and interesting, they enhance the appearance of green roofs, rockeries and containers. In July, dense clusters of showy crimson blooms smother the evergreen plants.

If you’re looking for a beautiful plant that thrives with virtual neglect, Sedum reflexum just might fit the bill. The small bushes spread over the ground and the foliage resembles mini spruce branches. They are at their loveliest spilling over edges of walls and rocks to create the illusion of a living waterfall.

Sedum forsterianum ‘Silver Stone’ is one of the more unusual textured species, with whorls of silver-green foliage. In late summer bright yellow star shaped flowers appear. This low-growing succulent plant grows to a height of 15 to 20cm, extremely hardy it can cope with temperatures down to minus 34°C.

Sedum album is one of the most popular forms of sedum, known for its dense foliage as it changes colour throughout the seasons. The leaves emerge a coral-salmon in spring, change to bright green in summer and then to reddish bronze with the arrival of cooler temperatures. In summer the plants explode in masses of tiny, white star-shaped flowers.

Delicate in appearance and yet very cold hardy, Sedum acre is beautiful from the first stirrings of early spring to the twilight of autumn. Hardy and very easy to grow. Started early it will form a nice dense ground cover the very first season. If the weather is favourable it will flower within six months.

Santolina, commonly known as Lavender Cotton is a small shrub with soft, woolly, finely divided foliage, that make neat, rounded bushes. They are valuable for mass planting, ideal for knot gardens and small hedging around herb gardens etc. It will stand any amount of clipping and shaping - a perfect plant for control freaks.