Do you suffer from wind?

Gracious me, it’s been blowing a hoolie here for most of this week.  Sadly not accompanied by rain this time either. 

If your garden regularly gets a wind-battering, choosing plants for it can be tricky, but we have some ideas for you……

Phlomis is a tough and resilient plant from the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and China.  There is a shrub species (P. fruticosa, aka Jerusalem sage) and herbaceous perennial one, P. russeliana, that I have.  Batons of pale yellow hooded flowers spring upwards from the rough furry leaves on stems as stiff as broom handles (though not as long, obvs, they get to about 1m), and then …..stay there no matter how strong the tempest.

Don’t be too handy with the autumn tidy-up – the pepperpot seedheads of this sun-lover look great in the winter landscape.

Lots of grasses are fab in windy spots – they have the very handy habit of sifting the wind rather than presenting a barrier for it. I have clumps of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Rotsilber’  (Chinese silver grass) – which has bluey-green leaves with a sparkly silver vein running through each one, and feathery silver-white plumes of flower in later summer.  It’s not evergreen but is another winner in winter – all the stiff stems turn honey-gold to enliven the darker months (and provide welcome shelter for wildlife).  When it comes to cutting them down, you need to be ‘on it’ in early spring; the new green stems coming shooting through the old ones at a rate of knots….

You can still grow herbs even if your garden is windy. The best kind to go for are the ones that grow in the Med because they are adapted to grow on the breezy coastal hillsides. Thyme is a good ‘un because it has the ground-hugging capabilities that we would all like to adopt in a gale. Fennel is pretty rock-solid in a raging wind too (shocking self-seeder when it’s happy but there we are), but my best recommendation would be rosemary which has lots of woody stems and tough little leaves like needles. The bees can’t get enough of the blue flowers either.

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Yes it’s felt like the Mistral winds of the Camargue have sprung up across Sussex this week leaving a trail of desiccated leaves, snapped stems and frayed tempers. But let’s look for some positives amongst the negatives and as ever there are some previously unsung heroes amongst the wreckage which are now having their star turn. My dieramas, or angels fishing rods, are performing like singing divas belting out classics in front of a wind machine (Caroline’s secret karaoke ambition ..), bouncing and tossing their pretty pink flowers around on tall flexible stems that seem to have the strength of tensile steel. Not the easiest plants to get established, they seem to like airy situation unencumbered by neighbours where they can deservedly hog the limelight.

Closer to ground level it has been the germanders that have risen to the challenge and particularly the yellow version Teucrium flavum. It has formed a very satisfying 18 inch aerodynamic mound of small glossy leaves topped with delightful lipped pale cream flowers, seemingly impervious to the battering wind laying waste to lesser designed mortals around it. My hunch that it is a little super-trooper was confirmed when I saw it recommended as a coastal hedging plant.

The sorry plight of most of my garden trees has made me all the more keen to plant a tamarisk this autumn. With really tough needle-like leaves, pretty pink flowers and the same joie de vivre as the dieramas when its sinuous branches are blown around I feel it would provide just the uplift the garden needs in times like these. I’ve never grown one before so would welcome advice from our readers on the best one to choose?

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Teucrium and Tamarisk sound like curry ingredients to me, they’re doubtless above either my ability or tenderness limits here in the Scottish Highlands where wind creates problems at multiple levels – from pushing my sunflowers around to felling centuries-old trees.

My previous home had a ferocious onshore wind you could depend on. Here, it comes from all angles so staking is a must for any tall annuals (cosmos, hollyhocks etc) and, as it turns out, my precious Alstromeria Indian Summer although it might also have succumbed to Laura’s bad ju-ju as she dislikes it intensely.

Laura’s not actually that fond of hardy geraniums either as you might deduce from her picture caption above (I know, it’s like being immune to the charm of kittens) but I find them very good, particularly if you chop them down after flowering so their second flush is still quite close to the ground! Even the airy ones like G psilostemon seem able to waft about without actually lying down – an example to us all.

Another easy-care plant that I find can withstand a good blast without need for staking (which comes with its own perils in my experience), is Astrantia.

My sisters won’t credit them because they lack glamour/jeopardy – but Astrantia is the stalwart schoolfriend who sympathises with all your petty dramas while dealing uncomplainingly with a tornado of their own. 

And what about good old Red Hot Pokers – Kniphofia? Particularly K. caulescens which flowers later than others and in a more muted colour, but has the physique of a champion wrestler. I spotted it at 2 Durnamuck on our wild west coast (our feature image shows this wonderful garden) where huge drifts of Persicaria, asters, Eupatorium, Anaphalis and so on, withstand daily poundings. It’s a case of united they stand, divided they fall – A TED talk right there in a herbaceous border!

What has worked for you in a windy or exposed spot? We’d be very interested to hear your recommendations

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This is not the first time that we have discussed this topic, and we thought you might be interested to read the article we wrote a few years back. It may give you a few more ideas about choosing plants for a windy spot

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This rare form of a native annual is enjoying a welcome revival and in Louise’s eyes, deservedly so. Its delicate form, arresting colour and the way it dances and shimmers in the breeze combine to make it her Great Plant this Month.

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We’ll be sending one of our subscribers this sumptuous pair of oven gloves and matching chopping board soon. If you already get our weekly newsletters, you’re already entered in this free draw. Definitely worth encouraging your friends to follow us – just send them this link…

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When we put these Sophie Conran topiary shears in our shop, stock numbers plummeted right away because we all bought them! They’re an absolute joy to handle and perfect for getting those sharp angles on your pruned shrubs. You’ll find them here

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