Hello rosaprimula, What kind of gravel are you using? Is it round like pea gravel or sharp like chicken grit? All Ive grown is Talinum/Phemeranthus calycinum. Mine is growing in fast draining soil that is about 70% ammended sand. I have no memory of how this fameflower came to me? It will bloom the first year from seed. I thought it was annual and then noticed that the tubers will overwinter. I don't get many because I think I disturb the surface soil too much with my constant weeding, transplanting and fidgiting. I really like it. It's a little jewel when it blooms. The bright flowers look like they are suspended in the air and are from another planet. It's growing amongst a couple different oramental Plantago, P. aristata and P. wrightiana, Eryngium yuccifolium, Anaphalis margaritaceae, Crotalaria sagitalis, Amorpha canescens, Baptisia alba, Asclepias, amplexicaulis, pumila, hirtella, engelmanniana, stenophylla, ovalifolia. Chamaecrista fasciculata, Monarda punctata, Helenium amarum, Viola saggitata, Dalea foliosa, Gentiana andrewsii, Palafoxia callosa, and Glandularia bipinnatifida. I've never grown calandrina or cistanthe. They are California species. Callirhoe species have similar flowers and there are several species. One species might be more drought resistant than another? I had a hanging ivy geranium with pea gravel below it, and vollunteers would ocasionally pop up in the gravel. I have no idea how you feel about ivy geraniums in your gravel beds Lol. Out of curiosity, what is your bed soil structure like down to 10 feet? Amorpha species have deep roots that can go down 30 feet. We have black soil on top of bedrock. I don't know if all of UK is on top of chalk or what?🤣 I've grown the 'fancier'😒 Portulaca in hanging pots, but there are so many of the weedy ones everywhere that I have lost my interest in them. The closest thing that I have to a double Portulaca is my Opuntia humifusa that's also in the sandy bed. Is your gravel going to be mixed with compost and soil?

Callirhoe involucrata. They have soft tubers like Geranium and Heuchera. That doesn't seem to stop ivy geraniums. The ones that are native here have soft tubers anyways. Firm but soft.

Yucca filamintosa never needs watering

Ruellia humilis can handle dry. 6 varieties. They love to grow in between the stones that border the beds. I like using stones, but they sink over time and need to be re-excavavated.

Phemeranthus/Talinum calycinum, Palafoxia callosa, Eryngium yuccifolium, Mimosa sensative briar, Cosmos tinctoria. The flower stems are barely visible to the right. It looks like the flowers are blooming out of the Palafoxia leaves. Not a great picture, can't see the foliage.

Glandularia bipinnatifida, Anaphalis margaritacea, Dalea foliosa

My current goal is to build up a nice colony of fame flowers. I should order more seeds? How do you feel about Gazania?🤣 It's funny you have such strong feelings towards plants you probably loathe them Lol. They do better in pots than in the sandy bed, so they must like it very dry. I won't be hurt if you hate Gazania.

Our native fameflowers are all 'flower of an hour' type (as far as I know) and thus hardly worthy except as a curiosity. They're also very small and grow in glade environments where they have no competition.

Look elsewhere unless you just like the curiosity.

Danny is right about the Talinum not liking competition. They don't have the ability to grow taller above nearby plants, and I had to weed around them so they wouldn't get shaded to death. However, as fussy as they are, they are still little jewels that are a rare surprise. I like the pink Gazania. I only have the 1 Yucca. I used to have 3. They are indestructable, and they bloom annually, so it slightly makes up for not having luck, with the more beautiful liloids like Stenanthium and Melanthium. Maybe I can get Melanthium bare root? Yucca are a lot of work tidying up the dead stalks and leaves. Removing them comepletely isn't easy either. It's a good arm work out. Maybe those yucca fibers can be made into fabric and crafted? I use them with sticks to mend broken stems in triage situations, (when a table collapses or some such thing). I have a few Agave americana. They can handle extreme cold. I wish the flowers were more coloful. Why would your Agave die? Couldn't have been drought right? I want to grow American pennyroyal. It likes part shade, and gravely soil. You can use the leaves as a bug repellent. Are their any biting insects in the UK? I hear there are some horrible midges in Ireland?

Oh aye - we get our share of biting, stinging beasties...but nothing like Australia, for example...or South America.

The agave had been in a huge pot and had blocked the drainage holes (as they do) with questing roots. Consequently, the month of endless rain, followed by a really unusual winter freeze (for the UK), did for it in 2 weeks what a whole decade of neglect had somehow avoided. Might be hardy regarding cold...but sitting around in wet cold - nope.

I have been making a couple.of hypertufa troughs (despite my efforts to get rid of containerised plants) so I will probably try the talinums in one of the troughs...not least because I can raise them up to waist level by placing them on the wall copings. Should provide an environment suited for teeny jewels, without rampant competitive thuggery, and I won't have to grovel about on the floor in order to see the wee blooms. I had to do the same with the dainty centaury erthraea which were also getting lost underneath an enthusiastic hyssop. Not that there has been a sniff of germination yet. This next month will be busy with pricking out, potting on, potting up and so on - pleasures rather than toil although there will, inevitably be space issues. Even assuming only half the seeds germinate, there is going to be a squash.

I am about to repurpose my old 'Free Library' board with signwriter's enamel - 'Plants For Sale'. I am very nervous about this. Does anyone else do kerb sales, market stalls, table outside the gate sort of thing? Maybe I should make another thread?

Well then I can say that Phemeranthus calcaricus is quite easy (and relatively fast) from seed. I think it flowers in it's second season.

I just now saw the comment you made on my thread rosa. It's 2 months old. I apoligize for missing it. I think I was having a rough patch for a few days around then. I had lost my wallet and whoever found it was using my credit card and I was upset and possibly over medicating Lol. The fact that it was New Years made it all that much worse. To answer your question by all means you are welcome to participate. You can learn about our natives which you do use. I can learn about your plants. I also like to talk about botanical names and their meanings. Botanical and taxonomic history, English botanical history, plant provenence, invasive plants, etc. Linnaeus and his aposles. All the stories of sea merchants discovering and introducing plants for the first time... Growing natives and exotics, can lead to a lot of experimentation, in order to achieve the perfect conditions, that some fussy plants need, and there are paralells to be drawn.

My crazy plantings and things are always escaping and migrating. A mish-mash of colors and textures.

Callihoe bushii grows taller than C. involucrata

Callirhoe bushii and our native Ceanothus americana.

Anise hyssup, Royal catchfly, Purple coneflower, Partridge pea.

Carolina Elephant's foot walking across the flagstone path.

Trillium grandiflorum

Clematis pitcheri

My favorite umellifer, Harbinger of Spring, Erigenia bulbosa. An ephemeral.

Stealth guerilla gardening.

Not surprised you didn't see my post, Jay - that thread is an absolute swine to find...I think I had to follow some obscure link on someone else's post...and I can't find it again. I really dislike Houzz. Another thing, I can't seem to turn off notifications so my inbox is stuffed with rubbish from Houzz, every time anyone posts anything at all, on any thread, as far as I can tell.

Obviously, I am also more than happy to chat sh*t about pretty much anything plant related. Tell me how to get to the native plants thread and I won't have to filthy up the threads on here (perennials) with the contents of my brain. You know when you get the feeling you are annoying people, but are not sure why and anyway, can't really help yourself? Forums often do that, I find...probably cos I am antisocial and have bored my family beyond endurance...but you know...thoughts and that.

I had a rubbish new year too. Youngest and partner were about to be evicted cos landlord was selling up and we are in the middle of an absolute housing crisis - artificially suppressed supply, gouging landlords, and a huge transient, well-paid influx of tech workers (silicon fen FFS!).

Andmedication (ahem) was in short supply too. Did you get your $$$ back at all? Feels like an especially harsh world, these days.

Misery loves company. I feel closer to you now that I know we both had s*^#y new years. Your current national problems seem to be mirroring ours more and more. Royal scandels and corrupt politicians. I have a samsung galaxy s21 ultra phone, and I do all my internet on it. It's much easier to access, than my desk and laptop computers were. In the past I've had a dell desktop and an apple macbook. My macbook isn't working. I don't want to spend a lot fixing it when I'd rather use my phone anyway. I've been a citibank cardholder for decades, so I didn't get charged for the $400 in charges the low-life rang up. Luckilly that's all the amount I was allowed to charge. Still have to pay a lot off on cumpulsive ordering of absolutely necessary plants. I've had my credit card electronically hacked a couple/few times. There are so many scammers and scams these days. Anyway, if I want to visit a forum at gw, I google the forum name with the word gardenweb after it and the link pops up. I get buttons to click on, in my browser with shortcuts to the forums that I visit the most. Once I reach the forum, I want, I can add it to my home screen, and use it as a shortcut. In the past, I've had an issue, with the houzz side of gardenweb, and the gardenweb side of gardenweb. I can see now, that I'm able to comment, and I see that I'm currently on houzz, so they may have resolved that issue, but I can only comment, if I have my predictive text turned off. Unfortunately my autocorrect is the thing that remembers all the plant names, which saves time. Link here.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6213925/growing-native-plants-for-wildlife#n=914