"Blooms from dry climates"

These plants thrive in dry sunny spots and bloom in late winter in Sydney.
Sunday, 27 August 2023     

Erysimum Winter Joy

I find the provenance of plants a fascinating subject, as it seems to help to know where plants originate in order to decide if they will grow in our gardens. This information also helps to determine what sort of conditions they might like and has been of great use to me over the years in working out which plants to grow in my Sydney garden.

At this particular time of year, I am struck by how many of the plants in bloom are fairly tough customers which originate in dry climates such as Mediterranean regions and two places in the Atlantic Ocean off Africa: the Canary Islands and Madeira. Many plants from these localities do not like our humid summers and fail to thrive in Sydney but these particular late-winter bloomers seem to survive well in a fairly dry, sunny spot in our gardens, all combining well together to bring a splash of colour that is very welcome. All of the plants should be cut back fairly hard after flowering. One thing I have noticed about many of these plants is that they tend to exhaust themselves after a few years in our Sydney climate, so it is worthwhile to take cuttings of them every couple of years or keep a lookout for self-sown seedlings. Some of them are annuals, which do self-seed from year to year, luckily!

A sunny, well-drained corner of the garden is just the place for a bush or two of lavender, and the French version (Lavandula dentata) is one of the better choices for our climate. It forms a rounded bush to about 1m tall, with plump lilac flower heads which appear throughout the year but are particularly profuse in winter and early spring. It comes from the western Mediterranean region and Atlantic islands. To continue the colour theme, you can add some clumps of the very tough winter-early spring flowering purple flag iris - the original Iris germanica (ht 40 cm) - which is also a Mediterranea native, thrives in the same conditions and blends in well with look of the lavender. It is a plant which has been grown for years in old country gardens (such as the one shown in the picture, which belonged to my grandmother) and passed from gardener to gardener.

From the Canary Islands, perennial statice (Limonium perezii, ht 60 cm) with its thick rounded leaves and clustered heads of starry white flowers held in papery purple bracts, also looks perfectly at home with the lavender and the iris, whilst providing a contrast of form. It flowers for a long period, but particularly in the late winter-early spring period.

Another tough native of the Canary Islands is the wallflower (Erysimum mutabile), a shrubby perennial with narrow leaves. The cultivar 'Winter Joy' (ht 80 cm), which is shown at the start of this blog, has pretty clusters of purple flowers from winter into spring. There are other good cultivars that survive for a few years in Sydney gardens, including 'Apricot Twist' and a lovely bright yellow one (name unknown to me), which I grew from a cutting from a friend (pictured above).

Also at this time the wonderfully profuse cultivars of Marguerite daisies (Argyranthemum frutescens) - which originated in the Canary Islands and Madeira - are bursting into bloom, in single and double forms and colours of white, pinks, purple, cerise, yellow and lemon. They grow 40 cm to 1 m tall, depending on the cultivar. Argyranthemum maderense, also from the same provenance, is another lovely daisy, with greyish-green leaves and primrose yellow flowers. Again, these plants enjoy best a well-drained position in full sun, on the dryer side. The cultivar of Salvia fruticosa called 'Greek Skies' (ht 60 cm) mentioned in last week's blog, is a Mediterranean plant that also flowers at this time of year, with lovely blue blooms held amidst silver-grey foliage.

A fragrant little plant which likes similar conditions is the Canary Islands and Mediterranean annual known as sweet Alice or alyssum (Lobularia maritima, ht 10 cm). It produces a bobbled mat of minute white, purple or pink flowers which match the look of all the other winter blooms mentioned here. Where it is happy, it will self-seed for years. Nowadays, we are lucky to have a perennial version of Lobularia (ht 10-20 cm) in pink or white hues, and these last several years, as long as they are cut back when they get straggly.

Orlaya grandiflora (ht 30-40 cm) is another Mediterranean annual that grows well in Sydney gardens. It has soft, fern-like leaves and in spring it bears frothy white flowers rather like a small version of Queen Anne's lace (Ammi species). It blooms over a long period and self-seeds.

Unlike many hellebores, the Corsican hellebore (Helleborus argutifolius, syn. H. corsicus, ht 60-80 cm), a Mediterranean plant, will grow in sunny, well-drained soil. Its pale-green cup-shaped blooms last a very long time and look stunning with blue or purple flowers. It too will self-seed to form colonies if it likes the place where you plant it. Another Mediterranean plant with green flowers (or in fact bracts) is Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii (ht 1 m). My specimen is flowering at the moment, and I find I can just gaze and gaze at it for ages to admire its amazing form.

The bold and dramatic shrub known as pride of Madeira (Echium candicans (ht 1.8 m) is now in full bloom, with its huge flower spikes covered in luminescent purple-blue stars. I have had this a few times in my garden over the years; now I am content to admire the specimens in our local park, which attract attention at this time every year, as they do need quite a bit of space to be seen at their best.

Adding some of these easy-going plants to a corner of your garden will brighten it from late winter into early spring!

Blog originally posted on 23 August 2009; updated 27 August 2023.


 Reader Comments

1/3  Margaret - 2122 (Zone:10 - Warm Temperate) Monday, 24 August 2009

Another interesting blog. I have success with statice, wallflowers, but not so much with iris. Will need to try these again, as they make a good statement in the garden. My annual wallflowers seed for me and I have had the yellow one flowering for five years now. Good value, dont you think?

Thanks, Margaret. I have never tried the annual ones but they sound good. The pale yellow perennial wallflower is very pretty and I hope to grow it one day. Some of the other hybrid ones like Apricot Twist are also very good doers. Deirdre.


2/3  Margaret - 2122 (Zone:10 - Warm Temperate) Monday, 28 August 2023

It is fascinating and useful to know the provenance of plants - thank you for enlightening we gardeners. I have success with 'winter joy' and the yellow wallflowers, both of which seed in my garden. French lavender does well, along with Marguerite daisies. Life span of all of these seems to be three years, so your advice to take cuttings is wise. This year I am trying orlaya. Your wallflowers are a delight! Hope the Orlaya does well for you. Deirdre


3/3  Bren - 2540 (Zone:10 - Warm Temperate) Monday, 28 August 2023

Cistus species (rock roses) are also great flowerers from the Mediterranean that do well in our conditions. And I always associate Aeoniums with the Canary Islands. Though not grown for their flowers, they do send up interesting spires of yellow flowers when they feel inclined. My Dracaena draco, also from the Canary Islands, is thriving, and the berries, rather than the flowers, are very striking at the moment.There certainly are many good plants from the Mediterranean area. I find my climate too humid for Cistus, but they do very well in the inland country garden that I help to look after. Deirdre


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