Plants you have to get from France or Germany and actually my mail order experience so far has been good, and I’m hoping to get to Olivier Filippi in the spring. I want to try more of the fairly limited range of drought-tolerant perennials, such as Achillea, Nepeta and some Salvia, but these are only available as seed (from Jelitto) which precludes many cultivars. genistifolia is extraordinarily tough, flowering in late spring, never going completely dormant in summer and then repeat flowering in autumn, its grey foliage is lovely, and the flowers a nice shade of yellow. Trachelium caeruleum is not something I have ever seen in Britain, and in Portugal frequents shade or cracks in walls, but as an open border plant is superb for its clusters of tiny purple flowers and attractive glossy foliage. Amongst the latter are some amazingly indestructible species, not always immediately predictable. The Mediterranean flora is immensely rich, but mostly in sub-shrubs and annuals/biennials: it is very poor in trees and not great for truly perennial perennials. Many Mediterranean plants are hardy (enough) to they do well in northern Europe, and their winter growth is perhaps not adequately appreciated. It took me a long time to really understand why, and then I started flagging up to people in workshops that much British weather is very much like a Mediterranean winter – yes, that's a sort of joke, but only sort of, i.e.
Anyone in Britain or northern Europe is probably aware of the anomaly of globe artichokes ( Cynara cardunculus) and Euphorbia characias growing so strongly during the winter. The exceptions should flag up the greater complexity of growing anything from the Mediterranean climage region.
Coming from south-west England we are used to spring being the start of growth of almost everything, and autumn the cessation of almost everything. Different conjunctions of these factors cause plants to grow, but different plants at different rates and different times. The seasons, those cycles of events of temperature, light and water that define the lives, plans and concerns of gardeners and growers are here all different.
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