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seaside gale-force windproof red plants!
Hi!
I live in a seaside flat where we get gale-force winds. So far I've had great success with African Daisies (Osteospemums)...but that's about it. I have a outdoor balcony that is very exposed to the salty gale-force winds and would love to grow some red flowering or red foliaged plants that can withstand these conditions with a minimum of maintenance (asking a lot I know!). So if anyone has any suggestions that would be great! Thanks, Angela |
#2
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On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 18:44:28 +0100, Angela
wrote: Hi! I live in a seaside flat where we get gale-force winds. So far I've had great success with African Daisies (Osteospemums)...but that's about it. I have a outdoor balcony that is very exposed to the salty gale-force winds and would love to grow some red flowering or red foliaged plants that can withstand these conditions with a minimum of maintenance (asking a lot I know!). So if anyone has any suggestions that would be great! Thanks, Angela Because you mention Osteospermums, I take it that you're looking for shrubby herbaceous plants that don't get too big. I also assume that as you're near the sea, you probably don't get really hard frosts. The following selection is taken from Christine Kelway's book 'Seaside Gardening' (Collingridge 1962), and Miles and Rowe's book 'The New Cornish Garden' (Truran 2003), but I don't have direct experience of the majority of them (although also being a fan of reds, I may do in a year or so!). Arctotis (Zulu daisy), come in whites, yellows, oranges and reds. Gazanias (no real reds, but some good pinks, and gorgeous burnt oranges, as well as yellows and whites) Thrift (Armeria; mostly pinks, but some quite good reds. A. maritima Bloodstone sounds a good one!) Fasicularia bicolor (a Bromeliad and related to pineapple. The foliage reddens up prior to flowering, and the flowers, which appear deep in the centre of the rosette of leaves, are a purplish blue. But the leaves are sharp-toothed so beware) Sedums, flower in the late summer and come in reds, pinks and creamy whites. Some have red foliage. Some carnations (Dianthus). Shrubby mesembryanthemum, e.g. some of the Lampranthus types, rather than the annual Livingstone Daisy type (I have a good red one that will take a light frost; e-mail me if you want some cutting material). Some of the shrubby salvias are suggested, and some salvias are red-flowering, e.g. S. blepharophylla, S. fulgens and S. roemeriana, but whether these are salt-wind proof I don't know. I've recently bought the first, so I'll let you know! Do a search on Google Images to see what they look like. Mostly they like well-drained gritty soil; some prefer it alkaline. Most of them won't take being frozen, and they all like plenty of sun. -- Chris E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net |
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