Episode: 5
Title: Tough Plants for Tough Backyards
Broadcast: Mar 31st 2018
Presenter: Melissa King

Does your garden put up with a hot dry Summer? Here are Melissa’s tips for some tough beautiful plants that will thrive almost anywhere.

1. Agastache will flower for months on end, with spikes of showy flowers of pink, white and apricot forms. It will make a beautiful feature in your garden, whilst being tolerant of low water and poor soils.
2. Gaillardia (otherwise known as ‘Blanket Flowers) is your lovely plant and forget flower. Once established it tolerates poor soils and produces masses of stunning sunset shaded flowers, whilst being a magnet for butterflies.
3. A generous long season flowerer is the Verbena, smothered in blooms of pink, purple, red and white, giving long lasting colour through Spring, Summer and Autumn. New compact forms are now available and are a perfect plant for coastal gardens and rockeries.
4. Part of the daisy family, the Coreopsis provides colour from Summer to Autumn, thriving in a sunny spot with good drainage whilst being remarkably tolerant of dry conditions. To keep the flowers coming, ensure you remove dead heads to keep them blooming.
5. Bursting into bloom in the Summer time are Sedums which continue to bloom right through to Autumn, just when the garden needs that lift of colour. With clusters of fleshy star shaped flowers changing colour as the season progresses and becoming a real haven for bees and butterflies.

The Garden Gurus
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