Does anyone have any Ideas for.....

3 Jun '06 7:13 am

Bergenias are a good idea, a very tough hard working plant. The lack of water plus sun, sun, sun (please note the sunny sunshiney sun that New Zealander gardeners have to cope with - all year round, hee hee) - will possibly affect their 'ambience'. In my garden Bergenia patches which are in full, dry sun tend to protest, choosng not to look quite as lush as their wetter cousins, growing smaller, becoming introverted as if they are concentrating on survival. Which they are extremely good at! No problems, but I feel sorry for them!

A fabulous look with stone, though. What about some other fat leaved plants? Can you grow that ornamental taro, Goose?

I like Liza's Mediterranean ides, too. Cos there are your sun lovers who won't complain about the blue skies!
Good luck choosing!

4 Jun '06 9:55 am

Thank you all for your input, you have given me much food for thought. I want to check out Beth Chattos book but at this stage it looks like Gazanias. Very Happy

8 Jun '06 9:27 pm

Is that Jasminum Officinale growing and living outside, Liza? How do you do it? This is one plant that I have always wanted to have in my garden, but the weather akways kills it off. Do you have a special winter-hard variety...tell more!

8 Jun '06 9:32 pm

BTW Goose...have you thought of the Mirabilis jalapa as a possibility? It loves the sun and gives a heavenly fragrance.

8 Jun '06 9:48 pm

Oh how different it is on the other side of the world.
This lovely plant with the wonderful perfume is considered one the worst plants out over here in NZ. Unfortunately it just loves our conditions and just grows rampant, growing over everything in sight and nothing seems to kill it. It is now on our undesirable list.
So you guessed it I wont be growing this one at my entrance, I am still trying to get rid of it in other areas of my garden.
I will have to check out your suggestion of Mirabilis Sjoerd as Im not familiar with it.

8 Jun '06 10:13 pm

Mirabilis is also known as the Four o Clock Plant (and the Pride of Something - Peru?) and is very invasive in South Africa, especially along water ways, which is why I've not tried to grow it. I don't know if it is on our banned list, but I think not. Jasmine needs watching, but more because it is rampant than invasive. And I see in the RHS's 'The Garden' that agapanthus are being declared invasive in parts of NZ...

8 Jun '06 10:21 pm

If Mirabilis is rampant in SA it will probably be the same here, but I will still check it out just in case.

8 Jun '06 10:27 pm

Wow Jack! What a surprise...I have no such luck. I have to gather seeds and sometimes buy new roots each year. I must be doing something wrong. heh heh. A couple of the older plants come back like they are supposed to, but they are the exception. I'm thinking about digging up the root this year and saving it as I would dahlia roots.
What a surprise...I can't get over it.

10 Jun '06 10:30 am

Gazanias it is. I'll plant some Climbers later.

10 Jun '06 1:59 pm

Sorry to join up at the end of the conversation but I only just looked in this forum.

I grow Sempervivums in a gravel bed. You certainly won't get much lower! They are also very useful on a gravel/shingle slope that needs to be held in position.

Here's a link: http://www.houseleeks.co.uk/cultivars.php

They have a surprising amount of colour and it stays all year. The flowers are very bright on storks that come out from the centre. Beautiful and tuff!

Does anyone have any Ideas for.....

Bergenias

Ideas

Jasminum Officinale

Mirabilis

What happened to your Marking Jack?

Low growing and loves dry locations