Plants for exposed sites

To begin with, save yourself an awful lot of grief and winter work by concentrating on plants that die back in the winter and thus avoid the worst of the storms: these are herbaceous perennials such as peonies, fennel, giant knapweeds and lobelias – they are tall and elegant but their winter behaviour means you won’t be dashing around with stakes and twine in every gale. If you under plant with lots of bulbs that have the same habits - lilies, sternbergias, nerines fritillaries and so on, you can relax through the winter, knowing your plants are quietly dormant and waiting for the spring.

All the alpines are ideally designed to cope with exposed conditions. They are low to the ground, they tend to form mats or cushions which helps them to keep their internal temperature high and they tend to be silvery, pink or white flowered and to have narrow leaves that don’t move around in high winds or collect moisture that then freezes to damage the plant’s structure. Remember that alpines like light, rather than sun, and the soil they are used to is light and gritty not heavy and damp, so you might need to do a little work on your soil to get their alpines to their best.

If you live on the coast, you can think about planting native species that occur naturally along our shoreline such as sea kale, or crambe maritime (a herbaceous perennial with edible leaves). Fatshedera lizei is a cross between ivy and fatsia which will survive a windy seaside site and looks good throughout the year.

Tamarix tetrandra, a large tree-like shrub with feathery foliage, makes a good windbreak hedge, and is a pretty spring garden ornament with its pink fronds that become green as they year wears on.

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