12 drought tolerant plants that will also be happy if it rains!

I garden in Madrid, and our climate is continental Mediterranean. Stipa tenuisima, achillea filipendula, crepe myrtle, catanache, coreopsis and gaillardia are all pretty drought tolerant. I planted a choisya this year and I'm amazed at how well it looks after one of the hottest summers on record. Loquats are also great trees, as are koelreuteria, celtis australis/ honeyberry, and the catalpa

Just a suggestion, would love to have you add links to the plants that you talk about. It would make it so much easier for viewers to find the plants to do more research on.

I find roses surprisingly drought-tolerant; I have over 140 roses and I water only the youngest ones but really thoroughly. I use only rainwater (on a rainy day I can harvest about 1600 litres from the roof of the house) and I water with a watering can. I tend not to leave any bare soil, my lawn is getting smaller by the minute and looks terrible at times, but I do not mind it at all. At this very moment the garden is full of flowers. The best plant for pollinators right now is mildew-resistant Aster ageratoides, in my humble opinion.

Zone 10a in Perth Western Australia. Our last summer was a scorcher with days on end of 44°c. I thought providing pots with saucers to help them through the day would be a good idea, but I ended up losing those plants due to their roots essentially being steam cooked. I'm prepared for this coming summer with 50% shade cloth and better plant choices like geraniums and salvias.

I love my serviceberry bushes- easy, fast growers and the birds and chipmunks love the berries.

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I, too, use sage as a decorative plant and it really thrived during this summer without any watering. I would add that it has lovely blue flowers in summer which the bees absolutely love.

In sunny dry Johannesburg. Just coming into our rainy season. Agapanthus. Margaret Roberts's lavender.l

Callistemon species, from Australia are a group of plants which love drought and rain

My purple salvia has gotten huge this year. The roses have survived their first summer surprisingly well. I'd like to remove the ninebarks but I'm afraid of the project.

Blue Gramma grass is pretty. It's native to Colorado. Catmint is planted in parking lot gardens in zone 5 because it's tough. Chives seem pretty tough in pots too.

I'm 60 and have never seen a summer as dry as this one in Southern New England. I have a small weather station and we received a half inch in almost 2 months from a usual 4.5" per month. My rudbekia, echinachea, budellia all looked perfect. My clematis, hosta, hibiscus and hydrangea all look awful in spite of me watering. I feel bad for several David Austins I put in last fall. They looked like they struggled. My advice for tree planting is to plant after a good rain or even in the rain! I put in a row of green giant arborvitae a 2 years ago and watered them well every week until the frost. This year they've topped out at over 15 feet without a single extra drop from me! It's all in the soil preparation and vigilant regular deep watering the first growing season for these. You won't be disappointed if you support them all during the first year. I see dead ones all over this region. Too bad.

That garlic plant looks exactly like Agapanthus which is also great in pots. Mine are blue.

Tulbaghias are from southern Africa, violacea is from South Africa. Yours look gorgeous. Lovely program. Thanks.

Great video and great suggestions for plants in the comments here! I'll recommend one of our native shrubs here in Oklahoma: ninebark. They grow to be about 6 feet tall and wide. They come in several colors -- the wine-colored ones with their pale pink flowers in spring are my favorite. They take the worst of heat and drought and easily survive our winters that get down to -20 F.

I live in Texas. In need of other types of drought resistant plants thanks for sharing.

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this video/interview. An amazing garden and lots of really useful information. Thank you so much for posting.

Very interesting, thank you

Tulbaghia is from the cape named after a cape Governor

So useful, thank you! Rather consoling to hear it isn't just my dahlias which have completely failed.

Loved this interview and the beautiful garden. Thanks for the inspiration.

I’m near Niagara Falls Canada, our summers are hot & humid as a result I’ve been planting more natives who will tolerate drought conditions (once established). I don’t water leaving them to Mother Nature, unless they appear to be suffering during longer drought periods. My garden includes native shrubs & trees (including Sumacs) that attract butterflies, humming birds, various birds who are here year round. I no longer use bird feeders as the plants/shrubs I plant feeds them & provides shelter. Love watching your program & watching other gardeners, thank you for sharing with us.

I know this is a bit late to comment, but I wanted to add to the list. I live in the Dandenong Ranges in Australia where our winters and springs are very wet, however from midsummer to autumn it is very dry and quite hot. The hardest part of the garden faces west and has spots under giant cedars getting both shade and hot afternoon sun, where its particularly difficult to grow things. What has worked in these spots are: prostanthera (standard and variegated forms), indigofera australis, euphorbia Stygiana, echiums, cistus/rock rose (in the sunnier spots), plectranthus ecklonii. All very forgiving and adaptable plants for our changeable hills weather.

у нас была жара 3 месяца без дождей в 21 году, около 40 градусов цельсия

а зимой было -30 градусов цельсия, зато еще высокие сугробы. что не может не радовать

So nice to see Jane again, one of my favorite Bake Off contestants and a fabulous gardener ❤️

Garrya (silktassel), Ferns like sword fern (Polystichum), Deer fern (Struthiopteris formerly Blechnum spicant), Leather fern (Polypodium scouleri) -which you can grow as an epiphyte if you have a tree or wall and summer fog. Look up if a plant's native range is coastal California, Oregon or better yet the western slopes of the nearby coastal mountain ranges, and it will be adapted to be drenched in winter, and get almost no rain from May to October. Some bog plants or coastal-fog dependent plants (like Azalea Occidentale), are exceptions. I think British plant breeders are way ahead of me on this one, but generally PNW species are a good group of plants to for adapting to rain/drought.

What a lovely garden...thank you for showing us.

At 15.43 where Jane starts talking about her theory on covering the ground by close planting as an alternative to mulching. Brilliant concept because you only have to walk under the green leaves of a shade tree to feel how much cooler the ground and general atmosphere is underneath. We've been experiencing record breaking summer heatwaves in Perth WA in recent years with a week's worth of temperatures in the high 30's to mid 40's. I've seen plants that normally cope quite well with our hot weather burnt to a crisp including Agonis flexuosa and my Bay tree. A plant that works quite well in my dry, hot conditions is Cineraria maritima - yellow flowers (Dusty Miller/Silver Ragwort) and I'm going to try Centaurea cineraria pink flowers. We might get a shower or two, if lucky, between November and March otherwise they may get a little bit of hand watering here and there.

I garden in 8a, coastal NC in the US. I adore Society Garlic. It blooms for me from the beginning of April (it's already started) to the beginning of November. I get 7 straight months of bloom and it is good in drought or rainy conditions.

Jane's Garden is packed so full it creates its own micro-climate.

Very helpful advice once again, I'm in New Mexico USA, We have been getting hotter and dryer too. Some advice, yes pay attention to Zones but what is more important now is the Heat Index for plants. I don't care how much water you give to a plant when your over 90-100 degrees, the plant can't handle the heat and if the wind is blow at that temperature it will dry out the leaves like your tea. I plant tender plants on the east side of my house and more heat tolerant plant in the back that get western sun. Pots are tough here as well. I might try more sedums and grasses in them this year. Thanks again for all these great shows.

Gaura, oleander, rosemary bouganville, dipladenia, creeping geranium, cactus, allium, mimosa, daisies,plumbago, lavenders, poppy,

Jane weighing in on watering debate wonderfully undiplomatic!

Kent and Canberra are basically the same climate now 😅 Never fear, Canberra (and Bowral) are famous for their (cool-dry with blistering summer) gardens!! 🇦🇺

Very fun!

In Sydney, dahlias are the only flowers I can grow in summer to survive the heat. Even flowers under heavy shade with a lot of water absolutely fry on days that my dahlias only wilt a little at midday. If we haven’t had rain for a week and it’s going to be 40 degrees I do water the dahlias but with the harsh conditions we can get in Sydney I have to do that for the whole garden including the orchard.

I can vouch for the hardiness of star jasmine in both drought and flooding rains. It’s absolutely ubiquitous in NSW and is rather a thug plant here that will take over everything if left unpruned. We use it to climb up the brick columns to our verandah instead of ivy as it doesn’t have suckers and as a lovely sweet flower.

I would love for you to go back to some of these amazing gardens you’ve shown us over the years during their pruning times, so we can see what they are pruning, their techniques and how much they are removing.

As an American, I am always charmed by the British love of gardening. Oddly enough, I spend less time “tending” my gardens than I would in maintaining a green lawn. I’m delighted to see some of my favorite plants thriving in Kent! Here in North Carolina, we have very wet winter/spring weather followed by hot, humid summers with little rain. I don’t coddle my plants after the first few weeks! Great video….thank you!

Society Garlic has a garlic smell that is quite overpowering.

Tulbagia sometimes called Society Garlic Is a gem. Our local council planted it on the centre bed on a roundabout it flowered for months.

Don’t the berries of the nandina kill the birds..

❤

Some great sound advice from Jane about watering plants in their first season.

Beautiful garden! Lovely to see Jane in her natural surroundings and not rushing off her feet covered in butter creams and things 😂
FYI, the Tulbaghia Violacea is indigenous to South Africa. It’s from the Western Cape which has a Mediterranean climate.

I live in Southern California and I’ve noticed, since I moved here from the Midwest, that people don’t know how to water their plants properly and especially their trees. We lose a lot of trees here from being blown over by high winds due to their shallow roots. Most of that is caused by shallow watering practices. As the lady said, shallow watering causes the tree roots to grow upwards to get to the water supply. I’ve never had a problem with the trees I’ve planted because I plant them with a 3” PVC pipe inserted below the root zone and I deep water them through that pipe as well as on top. I never use a sprinkle nozzle either. I just let the water flow freely through the garden hose and flood the tree basin and the pipe once a week. Twice a week during a hot summer. Happy, healthy trees!

Tulbaghia violaceae is a South African plant. I agree with the theory that pack everything with plants and the soil will stay moist for much longer. I saw that with preparing a really weed-packed area for planting. The soil was still incredibly soft and moist in comparison with open, cleared areas. We found that the one part of our land where we planted many trees and shrubs already needs much less water than 5 years ago when there were very few plants. And the amazing thing is that everything we keep on adding now grows much faster and better than when we began.

Tulbachia / Wild or Society Garlic is indigenous to South / Southern Africa ...
Flowers and leaves are edible (garlicy) and it's also good edging for herbs etc to ward off insects who don't like garlic-y smell.

There are some really good plant suggestions from around the world in the comments below, thank you everyone - so do check them out. There are also some comments on invasive plants - almost any plant can be invasive if it's introduced to an environment where it does too well. It then out-competes the indigenous plants, which can affect the wildlife that live on those plants really badly. And yet the very same plant can be an asset to wildlife and the environment on its home territory. I've added some notes about which plants are invasive where, but they're not comprehensive, so I think it's really helpful to have reminders to check plants you buy for invasiveness where you are.