Plants for coastal gardens: flowers & foliage

Plenty of plants, of a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, thrive in coastal areas, so it’s perfectly possible to create a full and attractive border even in these sometimes challenging conditions

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Plants with silvery or hairy foliage can cope better with coastal winds
Plants with silvery or hairy foliage can cope better with coastal winds

Quick facts

  • Plants in coastal areas need to be able to cope with salt-laden winds
  • They often have adaptations such as waxy leaves or hairy foliage
  • Choosing the right plants for coastal conditions will help to ensure they are healthy and performing at their best

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The planting plan

James Lawrence, RHS Principal Horticultural Advisor, has designed this simple, attractive, and most importantly, sustainable border design for you to try at home with plants that are easy to grow, widely available and look good together.

This planting design provides a range of plants that, once established, will thrive in an environment exposed to drying, salty winds to provide a variety of interest throughout the year. A simple planting plan helps create depth, interest and good coverage in a border.

Plants for coastal areas with flowers & foliage

© James Lawrence

Choosing plants for coastal areas

The main function of this scheme is to provide plants that can thrive in coastal conditions, which may include locations where salt spray is carried inland on strong winds.

Plants such as Phormium, Griselinia and Crambe have thick waxy foliage to help protect the leaves and to reduce stress caused by the weather exposure. The Tamarix has small scale-like leaves which, with a reduced surface area, reduce moisture loss in windy conditions. The Echinops and Eryngium have silvery leaves, which help to reflect strong light and protect the leaf surface.

The ground cover Erigeron helps to protect and cover bare soil, thereby reducing erosion and the wind’s drying effect on exposed soil. They will also help to prevent unwanted plants from self-seeding by covering areas of bare earth.

Additional organic mulching, preferably with homemade compost, can further improve soil moisture retention and weed suppression. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist, to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.

1 - Griselinia littoralis 
2 - Tamarix ramosissima ‘Pink Cascade’ 
3 - Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ 
4 - Erigeron karvinskianus 
5 - Crambe cordifolia 
6 - Eryngium x zabelii
7 -  Phormium ‘Sundowner’ 
1 - Griselinia littoralis is a fast-growing large evergreen shrub with rounded, glossy, bright green leaves.

2 - Tamarix ramosissima ‘Pink Cascade’ is an arching deciduous shrub with reddish branches clothed with tiny scale-like grey-green leaves. Small pink flowers in long feathery plumes are produced in late summer and autumn.

3 - Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ is a herbaceous perennial with jaggedly divided, prickly dark green leaves with whitish undersides. Spiky, spherical violet-blue flowerheads, which are loved by bees, are held on silver-green stems through the summer.

4 - Erigeron karvinskianus is a perennial forming a low-growing carpet, with hairy leaves and masses of daisy-like flowers that open white but soon adopt a pinkish purple flush.

5 - Crambe cordifolia is a herbaceous perennial with large bold, dark green, lobed leaves and branched sprays of small, scented white flowers in summer.

6 - Eryngium x zabelii is a herbaceous perennial with spiky, silver-green foliage. Stiff, branched stems are topped with blue, thimble-shaped flowerheads that are a magnet for bees and are surrounded by a ruff of prickly, silver-blue bracts.  

7 - Phormium 'Sundowner' is an evergreen perennial forming a clump of upright, strap-like bronze-green leaves, which are striped towards the margins with red and pink.  

About coastal areas

Coastal gardens can often be more exposed to wind, which can strip moisture from the plants. Salt spray can also be carried on the wind and this can affect many plants that are not resistant. Coastal locations may also often be milder and dryer than some inland locations, so this can also be a factor in choosing plants.
 

The challenge of coastal areas

Coastal locations can sometimes be challenging, but by choosing plants that are adapted to the wind, salt and often dry conditions of coastal gardens, you can keep your border looking good and growing well. However, the plants will still need watering while they grow new roots and establish themselves.

If you have room, it will help to make some shelter from the main wind direction. An extra wind break of shrubs will provide this; you can also use a brushwood screen while they establish. A fence or a sturdy wall may alternatively be an option.
 

Why choose a sustainable planting combination?

Using the ethos of ‘right plant, right place’ to create a sustainable planting combination is great for the environment. It helps avoid waste and the use of products and practices needed to try and help ailing plants, such as the application of fertiliser. It also creates robust, long-lived planting that benefits soil health and garden biodiversity. For more information about sustainable gardening, please see the RHS Sustainability Strategy.

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.