What about lavender & Russian Sage? I put in 4 small potentilla 2 years ago & this will be 3rd summer. They came with orange flowers but had none last year. They all survived & have nice little leaves now but zero flower buds that I can see.

There are so many gorgeous plants for dry gardens. I had thought my new place would be dry--until I discovered it was heavy clay that held moisture and collected water at the base of the berm during downpours, though it did drain quite fast after rain ended. So, for dry gardens, there are endless Salvias and Agastaches as well as Perovskia, Coreopsis cvs, Rudbeckia maxima (one of my favorite plants), perhaps Silene regia, and Panicums which seem to do great in both wet soil and drought. Lots more besides, but my brain is still only slowly waking up.

Great opportunity there, Rosaprimula.

wine cups

What about tall sedums/hylotelephium? Late season bloomers that can provide that kick of magenta or scarlet (and yellows, cream and whites) and IME, do far better in a lean soil, dry condition than they do in a well-irrigated enriched soil.

Euphorbias? Eryngiums?

I grow P. 'Monarch' Velvet' in a dry situation and I love it! It has seeded a bit. Daylillies? https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/conditions/plants-for-scree-gardens/?page=1-4490 ... https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/conditions/plants-for-dry-conditions/

mmm, I have put in quite a few eryngoes but aftyer the death toll of euphorbias, I only really have the standard characias and oblongata. Good to hear someone else is growing potentillas, Cadence, though. I remember reading some quite snotty comments from Christopher Lloyd regarding these cottage garden favourites...and because I was more of a horticultural snob than I am now (cos its been beaten out of me), I also relegated them to the 'has been' list.

For years and years, I had a thing for stately perennials...which really are not great in my thin soil. Obvs, I do have a coupla sedums (who doesn't, they are almost immortal) but I am really only just getting round to doing ground covering. and growing more nepetas and lavenders.

Ah yes, winecups. I finally have half a dozen of these from seed starting last year but they won't be doing much till next year. I love them so much but treated my originals as though I could get them any time and pulled them out in one of my mad change-overs. Turned out I couldn't with NO suppliers in the UK at all. I did start planning for new dry gardens but it does take time, growing from seed. Thankfully, I do have some gaillardias and verbenas coming on...not to mention vast swathes of anthemis. The paucity of my plot is disguised somewhat at the moment but we are getting to that depressing time when all the easy early summer flowers are over and I am facing the losing weed battles and general stressed out drought. I know I need to hold my nerve...next year will be better, but...you know how it goes.

I am afraid to say that I have, in the past, scoffed at gazanias and osteos but am thinking I NEED those screaming oranges...a colour I have been missing since giving up on calendulas and tagetes as being too dead-heady and demanding.

Hey @rosaprimula, a bit of left field suggestion but what about Ipomopsis rubra...it for sure doesnt mind dry.

Helenium amarum, Rhodeola rosea, Rhodeola integrifolia, Scutellaria hirta, Puya spathacea,Salvia 'Elk Creme Anglause', Salvia involucrata, Veronica prostrata 'Joan', Ajuga laxmannii, Stevia viscida, Stachys parolinii, Phlomus hissolii, Convolvulus boisserii, Tulbaghia 'Enya', Lophospermum erubescens, Salvia taraxifolia, Salvia guarentica, Lobelia aguana, Pterocephalus perennis, Salvia dichlamys, Teucrium subspinosum, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Scutellaria suffratescens, Thymbra spicata, Lomelosia crenata, Lomelosia hymettpia, Origanum microphyllum, Salvia lanceolata, Kennedia nigricans, Hermannia pinnata, Teucrium heterophyllum, Heuchera pulchella, Globularia incanescens, Aquilegia buergeriana, Salvia 'Golden Girl', Ixia paniculata, Convolvulus floridus, Plocama calabrica, Centaurea redempta, Sphaeralcea bonariensis, Sphaeralcea Orange Globe Mallow, Verbascum propontideum, Dianthus 'Doris', Galium reiseri, Ebenus cretica, Salvia pomifera, Hypericum jovis, Salvia 'Clotted Cream', Geum triflorum. All these species do well in Greece. A few orange things

Phew, quite a list, Jay. Have grown a number of them too. Most appealing is geum triflorum as I have tried this from seed once and failed, then gave up because, well, geums. I had a massive dianthus thing going on but mostly grow them in my 'meadow' area - carthusianorum, cruentas, pinifolius etc. And yep, sphaeralceas...but they do tend to run. I have a coupla hedysarums waiting for autumn planting too (tauricum and borealis).. Still, a few I have only vaguely heard of (lomelosia...are they scabious-like? I have a few scabious and jasione types growing on. And quite a few which are totally new to me.

Time to get my Oleg Polunin mediterranean field guide out, I think. Asphodels?

I do grow ipomopsis, Rouge...but cannot seem to find mine at the moment I actually hate the placing and planting thing most of all ...and often, once 'in the wild', they often get forgotten about.

I found some old posts where I was rambling on about 'plans' and 'coherent schemes' FFS. I can barely recall things from one week to the next so sustaining a plan over 3 years or so often seems beyond me. Still, I had a big push to get everything in the ground this week...or at least in bigger pots, so all those spur of the moment annuals (sweet sultan, platystemon, gillia and red flax) might have a chance to flower...somewhere in the chaos.

l suspected you were probably familiar with most of those plants, I surely am not. My friend Liberto grows many dry loving plants in the Greek isles. There are more, including a Ferula.😲 I'm sure it's not the legendary Silphion species of lore. I have not had any luck with starting Geum triflorum from seed either. I planted 3 plugs of them last year, and 2 of them didn't last long. They are difficult to establish, and they suffer worse transplant shock than any other plant I can think of, though Lupinus perenne comes in a close 2nd. Once transplanted they get easily scorched by the sun, because they can't hydrate themselves. They need helicopter care and should be shaded, until they come round.🚁 The only reason the 3rd Geum survived was because it was being shaded by a huge Prairie Dropseed grass clump next to it. Once they are established they can handle dry soil, but they cannot have any taller competition close by. I've lost them twice in the past because they were surrounded by taller plants, and I procrastinated and didn't intervene in time. I'm getting better though. I'll give any tall plants closing in on them, the Chelsea chop if I have to. Lomelosia is closely related to Scabiosa. They look so similar, that I don't understand why they both aren't in the same genus? Us in the states have our north American version of pincusion flower with the Barbara's Buttons, Marshallia. I think they like dry, but I was under the impression they liked wet feet, so I basically murdered my Barbara's Buttons by drowning. The Palafoxia callosa does great for me, in spite of the fact that their native range doesn't extend this far north. They are even weedy here. They are still currently small, but when they start bolting I'll probably need to thin them out. I've grown Dianthus in the past. At some point I became bored with them. Barbatos became invasive in my garden for a couple years. Ironically I'm smitten with the Depford Pinks. They are so darn cute. They aren't invasive at all. They are perfect fillers for meadows, playing the same role as Linums. I've tried germinating Linum sulcatum twice with no success, yet the blue Linum in my birdseed mix has taken over my garden in the past. The birds like to fling the seeds everywhere, probably so they make more seed bearing plants. Do you grow any dry loving, species tulips? Pics of your favorites, roses and carrots.

A native rose. I think I'm up for rooting some cuttings, but I can't let it reach this beastly size. I've heard stories about roses gone wild, sufficating everything in their path.

Water Hemlock, Cicuta virosa. Water Hemlock is more lethal than Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum, and much rarer here. Another case of poor choices of common names.

Rosa, you are the only member here,(besides 3 others) that I feel I'm a kindred spirit with. Things are opening up for me at the other site, because I'm rewarded for my knowledge, and not humiliated like I have been here. I'd rather be with kind people that I love, and who help me reach for even better. I'm leaving this sight, but unfortunately I will miss you most of all. I'm always in contact with my 3 other kindred spirits. ❤️

Asclepias speciosa is a nod to those starfish flowers in the Ceropegia tribe of subfamily Asclepiadoideae in family Apocynaceae in the order Gentianales

This Viper's Bugloss hid itself as a small rosette, growing it's enormous taproot, and then, this year, it exploded into view with these lovely blue flowers. I believe the flowers release a pheremone that makes humans fall in love with them, and want to protect them.😵‍💫 I'm primarilly a strict native plant gardener, but I'm keeping this plant until it's done blooming, and then I'll pull it out, but it's a sure thing that there will be more Echium vulgare vollunteers in the future. Who is Viper and what is Bugloss?

It would be a great pity if you left, Jay. You are the go-to for N. American native species ids.

re geum triflorum. I grew it in my previous garden in dry, very sandy, poor soil. I moved starts to my new garden--very wet heavy clay. It's doing fine here as well. Doesn't seem fussy to me at all.

Jay don’t go!

Yes do try Geum triflorum again. Achillea filipendulina (I have Coronation Gold) is terrific. How about Echinops, A shorter one like E. Veitch's Blue? My brain seems to be asleep this morning too.

ETA: Oenothera macrocarpa.

I'm just in from town where there is a rather nice gravel garden alongside a car park. No irrigation afaik. There were some very pretty low growing Gaura/Oenotheras. Obvously it is damper here than East Anglia but we haven't had any appreciable rain for weeks and they looked very happy.

It would be a great pity if you left, Jay.

What makes us think @Jay 6a Chicago is 'leaving'. You can feel the love right Jay? :)

This ... " I'm leaving this sight (sic)..."

Ha, oenothera sinuata (I think, wavy leaved beeblossom) is on order for autumn planting because yes, all the gaura and oenothera seem to do very well indeed.

I would also be mortified if you permanently decamped to Facebook Jay...so don't.

What has been the tenor of the past few seasons has been a fabulous spring and early summer...because tulips absolutely adore the sunny sandy soil I have...a sort of mini Iran or Tashkent. I grow dozens of species tulips and have been collecting more cos they are easy from seed. It was a stellar year for anemone coronaria, early primulas and early flowering hardy annuals.It seems that anything with a huge taproot like winecups, baptisia, platycodons, some of the umbels) (but by no means all) do very well indeed whereas all those lush prairie type plants are utterly hopeless - I have neither depth nor richness.I am going to have a good look at summer bulbs such as habranthus, rhodohypoxis, triltieas, galtonia and homeria. Silver leaved or tormentose plants are also really good...as I have been struggling with keeping the colours going into July/August September (thank you, salvias).. Also, bindweed has exploded exponentially and is disastrous in perennial gardens so I am girding myself for a whole day of 'sock of death' to start the killing.

I have it in mind to turn the whole site into a dry garden...which does mean losing out on the many annuals I grow...and holding my nerve for another coupla years until plants are established but honestly, we are moving into an El Nino phase so hoping for mild winters and getting hardy cactus going. It is not going to get any wetter in East Anglia, that's for sure. Lots and lots of gravel and pea shingle

I was going to take pics but truly, the allotment is a mess as I am trying to consolidate the many, often ridiculously experimental beds and losing the weed battle. It looks NOTHING like the gardens we see on here - no mulch, no visible soil and, because I am hopeless about staking, lots of collapsed plants growing sideways.

I love viper's bugloss (or viper's bloodlust as my offspring call them) - along with evening primrose, they are naturalised in my area, growing all along the highways.

And yes, echinops - I grew this years ago but it got so huge, I chopped it down (mind, I had it in a bed with onopordum, eryngium pandanifolium, giant fennel and berkheya...a prickly seething chaos). If I can find a shorter, more mannerly variety, I really don't mind doing that silvery thistle thing again, with eryngiums and verbascums.

Again, I thank you all so much... I get sidetracked and go off into imaginary fantasies of bad collecting such as the recent, largely failed Chile obsession...one of so very many attempts to grow far too many (often inappropriate) plants.

Apols for long rambling but I had a brainstorm re.geums. I can and do grow pulsatilla...which do that lovely seedhead thing not terribl;y unlike geum triflorum. There are usually alternates we can pick from, with a little contemplation.

I hope you will reconsider @Jay 6a Chicago. As @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK alluded to, your expertise would be sorely missed. Many of us enjoy your detailed and well thought out posts.

Rosa, I expect you already have Conolvulus cneorum and mauritanicus? I just saw a lovely example of the latter which I had forgotten about. It's been growing out of a wall near me for at least ten years.

Wow, growing out of a wall! For 10 years!!! I have grown both of these, but not for ages so thank you, they are going on my (ever-growing) list. I especially love the little blue one. Ironically, it is a plant I have bought often because it will seemingly vanish without trace...unlike it's horridly persistent, yet weirdly beautiful bindweed cousins. I suspect they need to feel the sunlight on their face (which is why mine tend to shrivel away in dismay), so growing on a wall would provide warmth and light. I am currently trying my hands with another family member, ipomea leptophylla...and am on the lookout for c.altheoides, syn. c.elegantissima.

One of the 'mixed' potentillas is blooming away in a shade of pink not often encountered (by me) a rich pale red, shading into coral. I am enjoying this very much. The other potentillas are more ungainly...long sprawling stems with hefty panicles of flowers in a piercing yellow. Would look better in a meadow-y setting, amongst grasses and stiffly upright plants such as verbenas, I think. I am also keeping an eye open for seeds of p.tonguei - a soft apricot ground covering cinquefoil.