BY ELLEN PRESLEY
Special to the Record
Finding the right plant for the right place can sometimes be a challenge: and sometimes it’s letting go of a particular idea and going with the flow.
If you have a really hot area that can be difficult to water, and you try to design your garden with lush water-loving plants, you will quickly become frustrated. Instead, you may need sun-loving drought-tolerant plants.
One of my favourites is Euphorbia ‘Wulfenii’ (Mediterranean spurge). This is a stunning evergreen 3-4’ shrub that can create an interesting year-round focal point in your garden. It has blue-green leaves with thick bottlebrush-like chartreuse green bracts. For a shorter variety try ‘Ascot rainbow‘ (20”) which has variegated green and yellow leaves and clusters of variegated cream, lime and green flowers. The foliage is tinged with pink in the cooler months. There is also the low-growing Euphorbia polychroma ‘Bonfire,’ which has deep purple, red and orange leaves with a touch of chartreuse. The foliage has yellow bracts in the spring, which deepen to burgundy in the summer and turns a rich red in the fall.
All Euphorbia love full sun, dry to medium dry soil, and very little water. They are deer and rabbit resistant and attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
Cut the flower stems to the base after flowering and be sure to wear gloves when cutting as both stems and leaves contain a poisonous milky sap.
An unusual plant is the Kniphofia (red hot poker). Two interesting cultivars are ‘POCO Citron’ (14-20”) which has short dense spikes that emerge a creamy lime-green and mature to a lemon yellow and ‘Fire Dance’ (20”) which forms a clump with sturdy stems rising above with spectacular tubular coral red and yellow flowers.
All Kniphofia are disease-free, deer and rabbit resistant and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. (And the name is fun to say: (Nuh.fow.fee.uh)
The award-winning Gaillardia (Blanket Flower) ‘Arizona Sun’ (10”) is a very hardy red, yellow and orange bicolour, which is ever-blooming and drought tolerant with little maintenance. It is also deer and rabbit resistant and attracts butterflies. Two other varieties are ‘Arizona Apricot,’ which is yellow with an apricot center; or ‘Burgundy,’ which has wine-red flowers with a yellow/red centre. All are long-blooming and easy to maintain.
For ground covers you can try the Delosperma (Ice plants) which are 2-3” tall. ‘Fire Spinner’ has attractive foliage and intense colours of flowers that are a mix of brilliant orange and magenta petals. They have no serious issues with insects or disease or deer, and they will attract butterflies.
You can also play with all the colours and textures of various succulents, which are great for rock gardens or the edge of borders.
I will end with the charming Lewisa (6-8”) ‘Elise Mix’ or ‘Little Plum.’ These award-winning plants are hardy but have dainty-looking flowers. They come in a variety of sweet pastel colours: pink, rose, salmon, orange, white and yellow.
When choosing plants for a dry area, gravitate towards terms like xeriscape and drought tolerant. Choosing the right plant for the right area, makes life easier and gardening less challenging. Happy gardening.
Ellen Presley is the owner of Anderton Nursery. Her columns appear weekly in the Comox Valley Record throughout the spring months.
