Beautiful but tough perennials that will thrive in both hot, dry summers and cool, wet ones. Plant recommendations from Antique Perennials, a top Australian perennial plant retailer whose summers are usually hot and dry, but have recently been cool and very, very wet! (Meanwhile we got the hot dry summer in the UK!). Most plants suitable for USDA zones 5-9 (and cooler), all the UK, plus parts of Northern Europe, Canada, South Africa and, of course, Southern Australia!
00:00 Welcome
00:20 Antique Perennials: https://antiqueperennials.com/
01:40 Tips on starting to plant up a perennial garden
02:46 Stipa gigantea (Golden Oats) Hardy to minus 28C/minus 20F
03:16 Persicaria affinis (Fleece flower) Hardy to minus 40C/minus 40F
03:40 Sedum (now Hylotelephium) ‘Autumn Joy’ Hardy to minus 40C/minus 40F
04:14 Panicum ‘Blue Steel’ (try ‘Heavy Metal’ if you can’t find Blue Steel) Hardy to minus 34C/minus 30F
04:39 Stachys ‘Big Ears’
05:02 Achillea (Yarrow) ‘Moonshine’. Hardy to minus 40C/minus 40F
05:28 Lepechinia salviae (Chilean Pitcher Sage) Hardy down to minus 10C/15F
05:53 Aster ‘Twilight’ (Erybia x herveyi) Hardy to minus 40C/minus 40F
06:57 Crocosmia ‘Miss Scarlett’. Hardy to minus 20C/5F
07:48 Phlomis russeliana Hardy to minus 28C/minus 20F
08:21 Do the larger persicarias survive a hot dry summer as well as Persicaria affinis?
09:07 Allium ‘Millenium’ Hardy to minus 28C/minus 20F
09:37 Grasses make a perennial garden
10:34 Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ (Feather reed grass) used as a hedge. Hardy to minus 34C/minus 30F
11:56 Beautiful borders playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrZRLHPUbGmCjrR_RaI01_mGKMaTlx_gf
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26 Comments
Another EXCELLENT video. Thank you so much for the upload. DA
Lovely video. Good to know some tough plants. Thank you for filming this.
Lots of interesting plants❤❤❤❤
I just love all of the grasses. Something I need to add in my own garden.
This is fantastic Alexandra! This is exactly the kind of plants we all need and can grow – many even in northern climes – given our increasingly unpredictable weather
Thanks for this Alexandra I needed this great information. We’ve had the exact weather you covered. Our garden was flooded for a month and now it’s dry as 💚🇦🇺
I adore my stonecrop (autumn joy) plants. I am not a great gardener (I try) but I can vouch for how amazing it is. The bees love it. It is not phased by any soil, light or weather (mine is in various soils including clay). They are suuuuuper easy to propagate and I've made four new vigorous plants already just from last year. They don't care about extreme cold or extreme hot. The flowers last for weeks. The colour of the foliage is incredible. I think it's one of the hardest working plants in the garden.
I need more sedum. Thank you for a great video and information.
Life is easy with full sun.
Would you do a list of perennials that will stand on their own without staking, and then those that will stand without flopping if given a Chelsea chop ❤❤
Beautiful! The grasses really bring this garden to life!
I have decided to save up and start collecting some perennials – as a new gardener I would always buy the little pack of annuals.I just bought my first perennial salvia, veronica and two echinacea which I love – so exciting – but man have we had some rain here where I live …pretty much rained all summer long …I hope my heat loving perennials survive all the rain – we are still getting rain now in beg Autumn, but some sunny days.
Grasses are ubiquitous in these gardening videos. In my opinion mostly they just look like you haven't mowed your lawn for weeks. I wouldn't pay for overgrown grass – ever
Got to say mate, could make a lovely top gear table with that engine.
Thank you for making this video. In my area we have wet springs and parched summers so this list is very helpful. Some of the plants I have were featured so good to know I'm on the right track. Will look for some of the others!
The sedum does great in my part shade garden whether it’s really wet or dry. Other sedums are great ground covers. Love the millennium allium as well. Blue star juniper is doing well in very wet boggy soil as well as dryer spots for me. Pacific Northwest zone 8b
Are they all good for British pollinators. My gardens have British plants only. Most classes as weeds because the Victorian's went exotic mad. But British have loads of flowers that are now classes as weeds. And the pollinators love them and my tortoise can eat loads of them
Can anyone tell me what kind of grass is growing in the foreground (right side) at around the 9:00 minute mark? Love it as well as everything else!
Sedum also very easy to propagate.
That was a great idea Alexandra – to cover the extremes of late spring/summer weather – rain or shine! Thankyou x
Lovely video about grasses. I resist the thought of putting grasses in, but as a hedge might just work for me. Thank you!!
Thanks for the wonderful video. We live in Melbourne so must visit the fabulous nursery.
Great info. You always ask the best questions. Those looked like eucalyptus trees in the background in the national park. The idea of a grass 'hedge' to serve as a screen, but not block out a view entirely is interesting, and could work very well in a lot of situations, though would probably not be best as a windbreak. I appreciate knowing what works in different parts of the world with similar climates, though as you say, actual weather is often a coin-toss.
Your summer last year was like ours EVERY year. Didn't understand what the hubbub was about until you said they wouldn't let you water anything. 😲. We're never (knock on wood) told to not use water but it is cheaper for those of us who have irrigation.
But then again, you have to understand we're the ones who LEFT England 400 years ago so if someone was to tell us to not water at all, we'd just laugh in their face or run them out of town. 😆. Just kidding. Sort of.
I have my list and will use it this year. I started to pull plants last year that required either too much water or too much care. I can certainly testify to sedum autumn joy being one of the best plants around. I have divided my original 12 year old plant many times. The only thing I try to do is cut them in half by the end of June so they don’t flop over with heavy heads. I don’t always get to all of them, and it doesn’t matter, really. They are gorgeous in whatever spot they are in, flappers or not. If the rest of these suggestion are anything like my autumn joy, I am going to love them. As always, thanks. So appreciative of such good advice.
It's so important these days to get resilient plants 🌱 🌼 Thanks for sharing 👍💛