Growing Mediteranean Plants in UK

Hi Diana,
I am from a small village called Pampisford which is on the A505 about 10m south of Camrbdige. The soil is v chalky round there. My dad was a market gardener when I was little so I grew up around poly tunnels and hose pipes.

I definitely recommend growing olive trees - they don't take much looking after and they're really sculptural and the foliage is a great colour that goes with everything. Mine was clipped as a half standard, but I'm letting it go wild because I prefer it.

 

The geraniums are one of the few success stories in my garden this year, they love to struggle with the weather a bit. It's the first time I've grown them, future years will be interesting.

 

Hi Sparkle

I live near Wisbech in North Cambridgeshire! It's very flat, so VERY windy in the winter....not enough to stop the wind!!! You can see for MILES in clear weather. It's very like Holland up here.

I do fancy trying the Olive trees...but can't remember how tall they grow. Are you going to try more??? How tall will your tree get?

Diana

 

Here in the east, methinks the cold winds of spring will be the biggest problem. Plants can survive winter frosts when they are dormant, but just when they start to put out fresh green shoots - we get a blast from the Arctic or the Urals. Good hedging and other windbreaks will be key, plus good drainage. The other thing to remember is that many, if not most, Mediterranean plants flower in the spring and then die down during the hot searing summers. That could leave our gardens bare in the summer. I agree with Novocastrio - lavenders, hyssops and geraniums for me with any succulents that can take the cold winters.

 

Hi Novocastria, I have grown bougainvilleas (in pots)for about 12 years sometimes twenty or thirty a year but only in the last six have I tried to grow them outside, with varying success . They seem to be hardy to -2/3c but then only if two or three years old with some mature bark on the trunk and stems, I have had them die completely in winter at -5c. Depending on the winter I usually take mine in in dec and out in mid april . Unless they have had a good start they do not move untill july but if the summer is hot(as is this one) they can flower untill nov.
The best one outside is the common purple bougainvillea glabra which has small glossy dark green leaves, the others particularly the oranges,whites,reds and doubles do not grow as well and flower less.

 

I think Hornbeam has hit on a very interesting point, I've been experimenting over the years with quite a few tender plants, some do well others dont.
But the point about subtropicals going dormant in the hot spells is I think becoming a problem. Its OK to say they grow in dry climates but they dont grow when its dry, our summers WERE similar to their growing seasons, warm and moist, and they grow well, hot and dry, like now, and they stop.
So just because they come from hot dry countries doesn't mean they wont want watering to do well, they will survive but possibly not have a growing season at all, as spring can be too cold and autumn growth is not good with frost just around the corner.

 

A good plant to try for dry conditions, and is apparantly pretty hardy - coping with our frost and snow - is the Agave, so long as its planted in plenty of grit, it can survive without being watered.

Do you have a greenhouse? If so, you can over-winter loads of plants in there too.

 

Undoubtedly B. glabra is the one to try. It has some potential along the south coast, but needs to be dry-ish in winter and it's fingers 'n legs crossed for an early start to spring with no hiccups.

I had 'Scarlet O'Hara' do reasonably well here for a couple of years, but decided I didn't want it to clamber through a young Phoenix, which it threatened to swamp. So, with the greatest of care I shifted it to a nice sunny, sheltered wall and it dithered for 6 months before dying. I should have left well alone :(

Bougainvillea 'Scarlet O'Hara' in August

 

I tend to think of "tropicals" as being hot and wet and "Mediterranean" as hot and dry. I'll never bother with the trops, but if we really are going to get summers like this one regularly, then aromatic shrubby things might be ideal. Apart from the aforementioned wind issue, how do we see things going with frosts? Remember the Percy Thrower type advice about digging and leaving lumpy clay exposed for frosts to break down? What frosts? We don't get any real frosts now. Now hot dry summers and frost free winters could be great for gardens, but some favourites may have to go.

 

We've Med' plants in SCOTLAND so you can do it down south!
Our two oleanders are blooming, one olive has fruit and the pomegranite looks great(though no fruit).

 

Sorry Hornbeam, I was probably wrong to call them Sub tropicals, I meant the tender types that are grown around the Med as quite a lot that originates there is hardy in the UK anyway.
I was thinking of S African or Califonian or Austrailian plants that flourish in a Med type climate.

 

I agree Pete. An awful lot of very familiar garden plants come from places like South Africa, North America and the Med. Very many more come from China and the Himalayas. Two fascinating books are "The Origins of Plants" by Maggie Campbell-Culver and "The Gardener's Atlas" by Johh Grimshaw - showing maps of plant originations.

For sheer guts, determination and high adventure - the stories told in "The Plant Hunters" by Musgrave, Gardner and Musgrave takes some beating. Some of the plant hunters's names are remembered in everyday names like Banksia, Forsythia, davidii, fortunii etc. The hardships and dangers they faced were incredible - volcanoes, earthquakes, starvation, hostile tribes, cannibalism, wars, bandits etc