My article last month on drought-resistant plants certainly seemed to stir a lot of you into enquiring about ‘dry’ plantings so I thought we’d continue with the theme and give you yet more ideas on how to convert your campo wilderness into a sustainable yet beautiful garden. We’ve taken special note of what you want, we’ve acted on it, and we now have an area at Viveros Florena which is entirely dedicated to those Drought Devils – just look for the signs – to make it even easier for you to select suitable plants. Stock comes and goes, of course, so ask us for advice; we’ll happily give you more information on size, flower season and colour. We like to keep a very wide range of plants so that you can almost always get what you want but, don´t forget, if you want a lot of the same type just let us know and we will order in for you. So, to details of a few more plants that will laugh at the summer season! Many of you will know teucrium frutescens, bush germander with its lovely grey-sheened leaves and denim-blue flowers but do you know about the much rarer teucrium ackermannii? 
This densely-packed silver-green low shrublet has a lovely low spreading habit to around 15cm high and 50cm across. It has rosy purple scented flowers which are extremely attractive to bees and butterflies. Epilobium canum Western Hills is a particularly free-flowering form of the Californian fuchsia. This is a fuchsia with a difference, far from the green plants with dangling bells that we know best. This one forms wiry bushy plants with tiny silver-white felted leaves and brilliant scarlet tubular flowers. It thrives in sunshine and very dry conditions. To around 50cm x 50cm. Leucophyta (syn. calocephalus) Silver Cushion looks just like it sounds, forming silvery cushiony mounds in dry sunny conditions. A native of southern Australia, it looks very much like a silvered tumbleweed ready to blow around in the wind! It does very well in salty air and dry, poor soil. It’s a spectacular contrast plant, reaching about 1m x 1m, and has small yellow flowers, though it is the foliage that attracts. Galvezia speciosa is commonly known as island snapdragon and it’s unusually showy for a drought devil! With bright green rather fleshy looking foliage and lipstick-red flowers like snapdragons it doesn´t convince, but this one is a native of dry areas in California where it grows in stony scree and rocky canyons, though it is probably better in dry semi-shade than full sun. The arching stems to a metre or so become weighed down with the mass of the flowers. If you’re looking for some height and deep colour to contrast with all the silver leaves, dodonea viscosa purpurea, or purple hop vine, is one of the best. Its metallic-look bronzed leaves create real impact year round and the addition of tiny pink bracted flowers in springtime just add to the delight. It’s one of my favourite backdrop plants, a great windbreak plant and definitely under-used. It’ll do 3 to 4m or more in height with a couple of metres spread and is ideal for hedging too. This is another one that will stand up to tough coastal conditions. Rock roses (cistus species) are in great demand so we are extending our range yet again. A new one in to us is cistus obtusifolius, a low sprawler reaching a maximum of 1m x 1m, with the typical sage-green/grey leaves and this one smothers itself in white flowers during late spring – it’s very prolific and good-looking. Whilst all these plants become very drought resistant and will usually survive without irrigation, they do need watering during their settling in period, which can be a couple of years. March News: As well as all these dry plantings, our main stock of bare-rooted roses have also arrived. So we’ve a huge selection of hardy teas, floribundas, climbers and ramblers, scented and glorious. These bare-roots settle in very quickly and are the cheapest way to buy roses; they’re already shooting and will have flowers by springtime. Remember that many roses originated in what was Persia, so they are not as alien to our harsh landscape as you might think. Rosa lutea, from Persia, was the fore-runner of all our modern-day yellow roses. And the best-smelling roses are said to come from the arid, desert-like area of Kashan in the middle of Iran! With spring looming we’ve slashed prices on our bedding plants so that you can brighten up your pots and flower beds for very little money and keep everything looking at its sparkling best. Our Wednesday Fresh Food and Health Market is attracting a lot of people; it’s expanding and we will have a dedicated Health Corner between 11am and noon every week with a qualified nutritionist in attendance. Also, on March 20th, the first workshop, of a series of three, on Aromatherapy will be taking place. Contact us or check out our web page for more details. Viveros Florena, Cómpeta, Málaga. Garden Centre, Landscape Designers and Constructors. Winter Hours: 10-4 closed Sundays and Mondays. Bio Food and Health Market every Wednesday morning. Tel:689928201 Email:florenaspain@hotmail.com Web:viverosflorena.com Facebk:Lorraine Cavanagh’s Garden Centre, Viveros Florena
