Plants for windy gardens with berries and blooms
Plenty of plants, of a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, thrive in windy locations, so it’s possible to create a full and attractive border even in these sometimes challenging conditions
Quick facts
- Windy conditions can increase moisture loss from plants
- Windy conditions can occur in urban/city locations as well as more exposed sites
- Plants that have adapted to windy conditions (e.g. with silver or hairy leaves) can thrive in these sites
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The planting plan
This planting design for a challenging location provides a range of plants that, once established, will thrive in an exposed windy environment while still providing a variety of interest throughout the year.
Plants for windy areas
Choosing plants for a windy garden
The plants in this scheme all show some natural resistance to windy environments. Their adaptations include foliage that may be slightly glossy or waxy, such as the Pyracantha, Escallonia and Elaeagnus, or hairy, such as the Salvia, Phlomis and Stachys).
These plant adaptions are also often seen on plants that cope well with dry conditions. Windy conditions can increase the rate of moisture loss from plants as the air movement strips moisture from leaves and stems, therefore increasing the rate at which the plant needs to replenish moisture from the soil. Waxy leaf surfaces, hairy leaves and leaves with a reduced surface area can help to minimise the moisture loss.
This scheme provides some summer forage for pollinators from the Escallonia, Salvia, Phlomis and Stachys.
The Stachys helps to cover any bare soil, reducing soil surface erosion and helping to prevent unwanted seedlings from establishing. Wind strips moisture from exposed soil surfaces, so groundcover plants can also reduce soil moisture loss.
1 - Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’
2 - Phlomis fruticosa
3 - Elaeagnus x ebbingei
4 - Escallonia ‘Peach Blossom’
5 - Aster ‘King George’
6 - Stachys byzantina
7 - Salvia ‘Amethyst’
2 - Phlomis fruticosa - a spreading evergreen shrub, the erect shoots bearing sage-like, grey-green ovate leaves and deep yellow hooded flowers in whorls from early summer.
3 - Elaeagnus x ebbingei - a large, dense, rounded evergreen shrub with broad, leathery, dark or metallic sea-green leaves, silvery scaly beneath, and small, fragrant white flowers in autumn.
4 - Escallonia ‘Peach Blossom’ - an evergreen shrub, with small, glossy dark green leaves and small but abundant cup-shaped, pink flowers from early summer.
5 - Aster ‘King George’ - a bushy, upright herbaceous perennial with dark green, oval leaves and yellow-centred, violet-blue daisies in late summer and autumn.
6 - Stachys byzantina - a carpeting, evergreen perennial, with thick, soft, white and woolly oblong-elliptic leaves. Flowers are purplish or pink, sometimes appearing striped, arranged in many-flowered whorls in an interrupted spike in summer.
7 - Salvia ‘Amethyst’ - a bushy upright aromatic perennial with ovate leaves and, in summer and autumn, erect stems bearing dense flower spikes of small, violet-purple flowers.
About windy locations
By choosing plants that are adapted to windy locations, you can keep your border looking good and growing well, and once the plants are established, this will reduce the need for additional resources such as watering.
A simple planting plan helps to create depth, interest and good coverage in a border.
The challenge of growing plants in windy locations
Mulching the soil surface, preferably with homemade compost, can help maintain soil moisture as well as suppressing unwanted seedlings. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.
Why choose a sustainable planting combination?
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