Leaf adaptations such as fleshiness, furriness and waxiness allow plants to withstand heat and drought well. The dark leathery leaves of the Mahonia and Fatsia, and the silvery hairy foliage of the Phlomis and Ballota, reduce the water lost from the foliage.

Several of these plants will also attract vital pollinators to your garden, helping to improve biodiversity.

The Phlomis and Hylotelephium form groundcover, which suppresses weed growth and helps to cover the soil. Keeping ground covered reduces soil erosion and the loss of water from the soil surface by evaporation. Using an organic mulch, preferably homemade compost, while the plants establish can help to provide the same benefits. 

1 - Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’

2 - Salix lanata

3 - Fatsia japonica

4 - Phlomis russeliana

5 - Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Stardust’ 

6 - Ballota pseudodictamnus

7 - Hylotelephium ‘Ruby Glow’ 

8 - Hylotelephium telephium ‘Xenox’ ^PBR

2 – Salix lanata is a small, bushy, slow-growing deciduous shrub with rounded, silvery, woolly leaves. Male catkins are upright and silvery, becoming yellow, while female catkins are longer and creamy in colour, with green tints.

3 – Fatsia japonica is an open, spreading evergreen shrub, with large lobed leaves and rounded clusters of pollinator-friendly small white flowers in autumn, followed by small black berries. The leaves have a shiny, waxy surface and contrast well with other foliage types.

4 – Phlomis russeliana is a hairy perennial with large, rough-textured, grey-green leaves. Stout stems bear whorls of hooded, soft yellow flowers in summer and early autumn.

5 – Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Stardust’ is a clump-forming perennial with fleshy grey-green leaves. White flat-topped flowerheads are produced from mid-summer to autumn, with the seedheads persisting to provide winter interest and habitat. 

6 – Ballota pseudodictamnus is a low-growing dwarf evergreen sub-shrub with hairy, rounded leaves and hairy stems, with small pink flowers borne in whorls near the stem tips.

7 – Hylotelephium ‘Ruby Glow’ is a herbaceous perennial forming a low clump of spreading deep red stems to 25cm in height, with purplish-green fleshy leaves and flat heads 6cm across of starry, deep crimson flowers.

8 – Hylotelephium telephium ‘Xenox’ ^PBR  is a mounding, clump-forming perennial with fleshy, purple-green leaves that deepen in colour with age to burgundy-purple. Heads of pink flowers open from dark red buds in mid to late summer.