Five Plant Combo: Drought Tolerant

When you train as a gardener designer you are encouraged to develop a palette of plant groups or combinations that tick the following boxes:

1. Same soil type

2. Same aspect

3. Good colour combination

4. Variation of flower shapes

5. Complimentary heights

6. Complimentary foliage size & texture

7. Long or overlapping seasonal interest

Over time, I have tried and tested many combinations and found my favourites. I’d like to share a few with you. 

This combo will thrive in well drained or even poor soil in full sun. 

1.Lavandula ‘Hidcote’: serious bee magnet/ leave seed heads on all winter for bird food and insect habitat/ tight prune in late winter to keep compact.

2.Stachys byzantina: watch raindrops pearl like magic on its hairy silver leaves/ can produce spires of pink flowers, but really it’s all about the rabbit ear foliage.

3.Sesleria nitida: tidy grey green mound with fluffy seed heads.

4.Erigeron karvinskianus: ridiculously pretty daisies on a tangle of tiny leaves/ shear over once first flowers fade and you’ll get hundreds more/ will flower from May to December in London/ self-seeds like crazy (free plants!).

5.Nigella ‘Miss Jekyll’ ( or love in the mist): this is an annual that will appear every year as it readily self- seeds/ unusual geometric flowers above a haze of fine leaves./ mix with the ordinary blue one for even better effect.