along this coastline and for good reason! For something more colourful go for the wonderful tamarisk with its springtime froth of pink flowers and fine leaves – it, too, twists and turns to the tune of the wind. And Jupiter's Beard, lagerstroemia indica or crepe myrtle tree with its delicatelooking crepe paper flowers in pinks, lilacs and white or hibiscus syriacus, in the same colour ranges, with double or single flowers. Both are tougher than they look or sound, rarely breaking branches no matter how strongly it's blowing. The toughest palm of all is chamaerops humilis, the dwarf Mediterranean palm – which is also, incidentally, immune to the palm beetle – and is seen all along this coastline. Inside the tree line the tough shrubs take over and these are some of the best! Eleagnus x ebbingei or silverberry with frosted white leaves; try intermingling with dodonea viscosa purpurea, the purple-leaved hopbush for a very striking combination. Silver-grey leaves lead the way in toughness and drought resistance, so try teucrium fruticans, acca sellowiana or pineapple guava, metrosideros excelsa or New Zealand Christmas tree (for its festive red flowers) and various cistus with their tissue-paper soft flowers. There are several prickly plantings that are often seen too; prunus spinosa or blackthorn – which give us sloes for adding to gin – the berry-bearing pyracanthas and mahonias and the really spiny shrub rose, rosa rugosa and r. rubrifolia glauca with its coppery-mauve foliage. The tumbling branches of mock orange, philadelphus coronarius, sway and swing in the wind wafting that delicious orange blossom perfume and I like too the swaying heavy flower heads of cestrum elegans, in deep rosy pink. Some photinias come with lovely marbled leaves of greygreen, cream and pink or there is photinia Red Robin with bright red young shoots. Dense greenness
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can be achieved with viburnums, v. tinus or v. lucidum and both bear heavily scented creamywhite flowers and the Californian lilacs, ceanothus, have deep green small leaves which are a great contrast to the sky-blue
flowers. They come in many sizes from sprawling ground-cover to large shrubs. Another very useful family are the Australian grevilleas; all are tough and tolerant and, again, there's a huge range of sizes. Try g. rosmarinifolia, g. rosea, g. olivacea (looking like a wild olive) and the lowest of all, g. lanigera Mt. Tamboritha. These are collectively known as spider flowers because of their unusual
and attractive flower shape. Lower plantings often come in two distinct shapes; those with swordshaped leaves so that the wind can easily filter through them. Things like agapanthus, kniphofia, tulbaghia, phormium, allium, anigozanthos, allium and crocosmia are all examples of this type, along with a great many grasses. Rounded balls of plants tuck in to avoid the worst weather; things like lavender, perovskia, convolvulus cneorum, senecio viravira and artemisias such as a. stelleriana and a. Powis Castle. Small or fine-leaved plants also suffer less. Hence plantings like helianthemum, cerastogima wilmotianum, hebe, dianthus, spartium junceum, erigeron karvanskianus and achillea do the job well. Salvias are stalwarts of maritime gardens too. Look out for any plants that bear the name maritinum in their name – it´s a sure sign of a maritime background. So, plants like armeria maritima, crambe maritima and that prickly customer, eryngium maritinum or sea holly – these are definitely old crusties. As is limonium Salt Lake which seems to have salt crystals already layered on its leaves. Some taller plantings can be introduced with euphorbias and towering verbascums whose rosette of leaves hug the ground anchoring that tall flower stem. Gaura and verbena bonariensis will sway and dance like whirling dervishes, bending and bowing but never breaking! Remember that all these plantings are ideal for us too. For those of you with seaside apartments they are perfect; but hillside campo dwellers too can get vicious winds. These are truly the windbusters! Happy holidays! Please remember that the Garden Centre is closed during the month of August, reopening on Tuesday 6th September 2016.
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