Postage : Seeds only $4 / Plants $20
Undoubtedly one of the greatest and hardiest of the genus. The dome like crown of branches atop the central trunk becomes denser and more magnificent with time. During spring each branch bears a cluster of small green flowers, each held in showy, bright chartreuse bracts, then with rising summer temperature the narrow, soft green, glaucous leaves flare yellow, orange and red before being shed to conserve moisture over summer when its structural form can be most admired.
At home in limestone soil around the Mediterranean Sea it will happily tolerate all but poor drainage and heavy shade though lean soil, drought and exposure yield the finest form and colour.
Prune not. It is properly shrubby with persistent branches, unlike herbaceous types (e.g. E. wulfenii).
An exceptional Iris, performing reliably in all but the shadiest of gardens, and having both beautiful flowers and valuable foliage.
The sturdy stems of strongly scented, regal purple, flag iris flowers are are held above compact clumps of sword-like, grey-green leaves.
Under favourable conditions it will repeat bloom several times throughout the year.
As with all Iris feed well and avoid high nitrogen fertilizers.
Prefers a well drained, alkaline soil and thrives in coastal conditions.
Used to great effect in large drifts, mass plantings or as edgings, due to the neat foliage, and is often combined with Iris albicans for a stunning combination.
Extensively used by the landscaping industry, it is available bare rooted in any quantity.
Trade enquiries welcome.
Highly pettable, rounded, stem hugging, grey leaves are covered in soft cobwebby fur, more like a friendly garden pet than a plant. All summer long, stiff stems of gracefully pendant, tawny pink bracts disclose small, tubular, soft pink flowers above the low mounds of foliage.
If I was going to be stranded on a desert island this would be the oregano I would take, it would also probably be the most likely to succeed.
Summer drought, exposure and well drained alkaline soil preferred but will grow happily, if somewhat more slowly, in clay soils that aren't too wet.
Slow growing and hence almost maintenance free with removal of spent stems all that is necessary.
Can be used in the kitchen but the flavour is very similar to other much faster growing and less attractive oreganos. It otherwise has been used historically for healing, enhancing astral projection and as an aphrodisiac.
The Dittany of both Aristotle and Harry Potter.
An outstanding annual replacement for the grossly more demanding garden Delphinium. Native to the Mediterranean it's most at home in sunny, well drained, alkaline soil where it produces handsome spires of densely crowded five petalled flowers in glorious shades of blue, purple, pink and white over feathery, soft green foliage.
Self sows freely if you can resist cutting the flowers for the vase, for which they are eminently suited.
Scratch seeds into bare soil where they are to grow in autumn or early winter.
Each pack contains 50+ seeds at the bare minimum.
A biennial poppy of poor dry soils around the Mediterranean Sea eastwards into Iran. Producing 5cm, burnt orange, saucer shaped flowers throughout the baking summer on sprawling, branching stems from appealing rosettes of hairy, blue-grey, pinnate leaves. Valuable summer colour with sumptuous mediterranen foliaged shrubs Euphorbia, Cistus, Santolina etc.
Exposure, excellent drainage and summer dryness are essential for best performance with alkaline coastal sands being ideal, though it's more tolerant of heavier soil and interior conditions than the yellow flowered G. flavum.
Rich soil will inevitably yield a leafy vegetable that flowers poorly and lives but briefly. If it persists for more than two years and self seeds then congratulations at having far greater garden potential than copious irrigation and soil improvers can ever provide.
Very much unlike most other other Lilium, L. candidum requires shallow planting, prefers limy soil and grows primarily during winter, forming a basal rosette of glossy, slightly wavy, bluntly lance shaped leaves. With longer days the stem lengthens and by late spring terminates in an elegant bunch of outward facing, 10cm, virgin white, classically shaped Lilium flowers, for which it has been cultivated for millennia.
The entire plant sensibly retreats to a scaly underground bulb with the onset of summer heat, usually not before shedding it's flat papery seeds which will germinate in unlikely but apparently suitable locations the following winter.
From Greece, Eastwards into Asia it is ideally suited to our Mediterranean climate, not suffering malaise and early demise as in the East, requiring little if any summer irrigation and is one of the few Lilies that will thrive in the alkaline soil close to the coast.
For a sunny but sheltered position, possibly amongst low shrubs or other plants, with good drainage, though tolerant of clay if not kept moist in summer.
A stunning Spanish species with furry, slightly sticky, bluntly lance shaped leaves that stiffly clothe vertical stems giving a mounding shrub that appears soft, yet unyielding. As if its form alone was not enough it sends up tall airy scapes of showy, tubular, two lipped, rich purple, white throated flowers, large for a Salvia, in late spring and which continue well into summer.
A unique addition to the gardeners palette of textural mediterranean plants. Easily grown in any sunny, well drained, unirrigated soil, typically the leaner, dryer and more exposed the better, and where it will usually self sow.
Dogmatic adherence to rich, moist soil and summer watering will invariably lead to premature death.
A small and elegant shrub from stony hillsides in southern Greece with felty, soft grey, broadly lance shaped leaves. Slender branching stems bear soft blue, two lipped flowers emerging from clusters of long lasting rosy bracts, delightfully full of promise in bud.
Easily among the most beautiful in the genus and the envy of gardeners in damper climates, being intolerant of much summer humidity and water, probably short lived on the eastern seaboard. Claire Woods reinforces the point nicely in this post. Fond of limestone but easily grown in any very well drained sunny soil, the leaner the better.
Gall wasps parasitize the plant in its natural home and the resultant galls, or apples as the common name suggests, are apparently quite a delicacy. The gall wasps here have yet to provide me with these tasty treats.