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OT: perennials in hot, dry climate? Your opinions ,please!

User
7 years ago

I'm posting here because I know that there are fellow members on THIS forum who know a bit about me and my garden: we are in Tuscany, Italy,with horribly hot and dry summers and short and damp (when we're lucky) winters. You also may know that I have no running water out at my land, which is far from my home,so watering MUST be kept to a minimum. This is, in fact one of the reasons why I've focused so much on roses, because they can deal with this sort of environment,and really can, for the most part,do well in spite of only recieving "artificial" watering in their first year. I've been branching out to trees and shrubs,but want to get started on perennials as well. Last early spring I ordered quite a few from a company,and now I look back,trying to evaluate.

I was more than surprised to find that NONE of the creeping thymes that I planted survived; not a one! Would've thought that they's be a sure bet,easy-peasy, but no! Instead ,ajugas did well, in spite of the fact that ,on an Italian site, they are listed as requiring humid, cool, well-drained soil!!!!!!! Likewise campanulas of the ground-covering, perennial sort seem to have made it, for the most part. I don't think any saponarias survived,maybe one phlox subulata made it. I'm not sure what exactly made the difference among these types of plants,since they all got more or less the same treatment (very little watering, mainly, lol) Any thoughts? Also, I planted these out in very early spring; would autumn have been better, do you think? Just how long does it take an average perennial to establish?

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