Dry summer plants
Plants that revel in a hot, dry summer and don’t need constant watering should be on every gardener’s ‘want list’. One for the list is mountain phlox, Linanthus grandiflorus, a native of California. It has soft, lilac-coloured flowers that sit above the foliage, which is whorled and spikey, rather like soft pine needles.
Celosias, too, love the hot weather and are well suited to warm climates. Instead of the usual harsh crimson and gold colours, try Flamingo Feathers, a new variety with flamingo-pink plumes. Tom Thumb is a new compact variety of snapdragon which grows only to 20 cm.
A new quick growing perennial ground cover with fine, feathery foliage and bright yellow daisy flowers almost all through the year, Bidens ferruifolia ‘Goldmound’ loves a sunny spot and is now available in handy 14 cm pots. It grows to about 1.5 metres wide by 30 cm tall.
Potentillas are not grown as much as they deserve to be. They, too, are drought-resistant, thrive in poor soil and do well in a hot, sunny position. They are also very frost-resistant, so can be grown in the coldest parts of the country. Strawberry Rose is a new variety available from seed; it has carmine-rose flowers from spring through to autumn.
Sow heat-tolerant varieties of lettuce such as Red Coral, Buttercrunch, and both the green and brown forms of Mignonette.
Pumpkins – try Little Dumpling from Yates. These very attractive grapefruit-size pumpkins are pale green with darker markings.
Beans – choose from Wholepod, Brown Beauty, Gourmet Delight, Hawkesbury Wonder and Pioneer. Climbing beans like Blue Lake and Purple King are useful on a sunny fence. In warm areas you could grow some snake beans, sometimes called yard-long beans.
