Bob Flowerdew
Bob is the author of dozens of gardening books, as well as a radio presenter and organic gardener.
Anne Swithinbank
A keen fruit, vegetable and house-plant grower, Anne was formerly the glasshouse supervisor at RHS Garden Wisley.
Matt Biggs
Matt trained at Kew and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years.
Q Drought-tolerant plants for my hot balcony. Ideas?
Leuan Williams
A MATT SAYS Choose plants with grey or silver foliage – and herbs, which can be harvested for cooking and shared with wildlife. Lavenders such as mauve-flowered Miss Muffet, with a height and spread of 35cm, are bee magnets. Also try variegated Salvia officinalis ‘Icterina’, which has gold and green leaves and blue flowers, bay (Laurus nobilis) with early yellow flowers, and orange-scented, low-growing Thymus ‘Fragrantissimus’, whose white flowers are loved by bees. Sea thrift, Armeria maritima, is a compact, early flowering, drought-tolerant evergreen.
Grow small bulbs around the edge of pots and containers such as pink, autumn-flowering Cyclamen hederifolium, which also has a winter display of delicately marked dark green leaves. The flowers of Anemone pavonina are vivid, almost iridescent, scarlet, pink or purple in spring. Also consider small species tulips such as Tulipa clusiana, with striking two-toned flowers.
A Among suitable heat- and drought-tolerant plants, the purple-black rosettes of succulent ‘Zwartkop’ spring to mind. These colour well in the sun and make tree-like shapes to around 1m, but need to be overwintered in a cool,. Mediterranean plants with silvery leaves are well adapted to sunny balconies. I like evergreen Balearic Island sage, , a hardy shrub of about 60cm whose soft, downy shoots are decorated in summer by whorls of hooded lilac-pink flowers. Of similar height, the curry plant () makes a dense mass of stems bearing aromatic, silvery leaves, and small yellow flowers. Mediterranean herbs such as sage, thyme, rosemary and lavender will work well, too.
