Plants for Hot Weather and Droughts

Isn’t the hot, dry weather excellent for getting around to all those odd jobs outside? 

I have put off painting our white wall for the last six years because there’s generally a risk of rain but could procrastinate no longer and my wall, like many others on our road has had a fresh coat.

I can imagine the paint manufacturers have seen very little or no sun for the last few weeks because they have been too busy mixing the exterior paint to cater for the demand.

I’ve also been making a new perennial bed for the ever growing plants I got earlier this year. Most of them have outgrown their 2 litre pots and were drying out on an hourly basis in the sun. I’ve put the plants quite close together into the bed as I’ll be moving a lot of them to a more permanent spot next year in the front garden. 

When I dug the holes for the plants I filled them up with water before putting the rootball in. This saved a lot of watering afterwards and there will be very little evaporation and hopefully I won’t really need to water them again before the rain comes. I have also put old broken clay pots and small upright bamboo poles in the gaps to hopefully keep the dogs from sitting on the plants which seems to be one of their favourite things to do in the hot weather. I have a clump of montbretia with a hole in the centre where they like to sit, as it must be a bit cooler in there for them in the shade.

Some larger containers of strawberries need quite a lot of attention too. We’re trying to save water so the butts are emptying fast and we are also putting the washing up water into the flower pots too to cut down the demand a little bit, they don’t seem to mind.  

I have a few tomato plants thriving in the tunnel. I also have a chilli pepper (f1 Apache) doing really well. I try and grow chillies every year but this is the best I have seen. I also have a sweet pepper plant (Redskin) doing really well with loads of peppers appearing. This year we got an aubergine plant to play with too (Black beauty) and that too is doing really well in the high humidity. The aubergines leaves are slightly hairy which helps retain moisture in hot dry weather.

Plants for Hot Weather

We are really grateful of plants that can tolerate dryness and the silver hairy varieties are perfect for this type of weather.  A lot of plants like this come from the Mediterranean where it might not rain for months. 

Aromatic silver-leafed plants, and those with pungent foliage, produce an oily film on their leaves that acts as a sunscreen while minimising water loss. Most develop deep root systems that penetrate metres into the ground allowing them to reach water reserves. Most flower in summer and their sugar-rich nectar pleases the bees.

Silver and grey leaves dominate this Mediterranean group because this colour absorbs less heat. Some silvery plants have finely divided leaves (like dianthus) and others develop a woolly surface like certain stachys. So if a plant has silver leaves that are either woolly or aromatic it will usually thrive in full sun. Lavender and rosemary are two examples. Most of their growing is done in winter so there’s no need to cut back until spring.

Other plants store water either in their leaves and stems. Succulents, house leeks (sempervivums) and sedums shrug off drought and never flag, thanks to their plump foliage. 

Some plants cope by developing long tap roots as a water-seeking device. Poppies, lupins, hollyhocks and lots of umbellifers rely on tapping into moisture underground.

If you are planting now add organic matter to the soil, water the hole and use mulches to retain moisture after planting. Hold off on any fertilizers to if possible as this can encourage too much lush growth which may flop in the summer sun, require extra watering, and be affected by frost in the winter.

Fruit

The warm weather has also produced an abundance of sweet peas. If you pick them regularly they produce even more, in much the same way that mange tout do, twice a day we’re getting a bowl full of the sweet pods.  It’s been an excellent few weeks for fruit production too with the strawberries, currants and raspberries all fully ladened ready for a daily pick.