Drought Tolerant Plants

Drought Tolerant Plants

Choosing plants with a degree of drought tolerance is becoming increasingly important, especially as climate change presents gardeners with the challenge of gardening with less water. We offer a wide range of plants that are resistant to drought, tolerating dry soils and low levels of rainfall, especially after they've become established. Plants with light leaf colours such as grey-green or silvery foliage tend to be most drought tolerant. Those with fine hairs on the stems and foliage also tend to fare better when the conditions are dry, as they have been this spring. Some of the best plants to use where regular irrigation is challenging are Euphorbia, Sedum, box plants and Ceanothus.

Growing drought tolerant plants can help you do your bit for the environment by reducing water use. On hot summer days, around two-thirds of domestic water use goes on the garden, which can be hard for water reservoirs to sustain. In the extreme, water companies sometimes ask gardeners to reduce water use, which can lead to a difficult choice if our gardens have been planted up with varieties with little or no drought tolerance.

Suitable conditioning of the soil can be as important as the choice of plants themselves. Most plants will thank you for incorporating plenty of well-rotted garden compost or organic matter into the planting hole, which acts like a sponge, retaining moisture below ground through periods of low rainfall, rather than allowing it to percolate away. A regular mulch of bark chippings or similar (taking into consideration the acidic preference of your plants) also helps suppress weeds, preventing them for competing for moisture with your precious plants.