Mediterranean plants – the 10 best to grow in your backyard
Sun-loving Mediterranean plants are tough and drought-tolerant yet beautiful. The natural planting scheme combines a tapestry of different colors and textures using perennial plants that like to bake in the sun.
Colors tend to be from a muted palette of soft gray-greens and mauve-blues that creates a painterly effect, but bright splashes of color are welcome, too.
Mediterranean plants like a sunny south-facing position if they’re going to thrive and they do well in poor soil, with many happy even to settle their roots straight into gravel, which, of course, makes them the perfect complement to your Mediterranean garden.
The mild winters and hot dry summers of the Mediterranean lends itself to drifts of hardy and low-growing plants that like these conditions including lavender, herbs, succulents and grasses. So if your garden faces south and you have mild winters, these Mediterranean plants will suit your space.
The planting most commonly associated with Mediterranean garden design are naturalistic and wild, inspired by the landscape of Provence but also feature more formal schemes in the style of colorful Andalusian courtyards with terracotta pots filled with bright blooms.
Our pick of the best Mediterranean plants will suit whichever style of Mediterranean garden or flower beds you end up choosing.
By Sarah Wilson
(Miriam Heppell/Alamy)
With clusters of pink, red or white flowers in summer on evergreen foliage, oleander is a highly prized ornamental shrub seen everywhere in the Mediterranean. It’s ideal in a container in a sunny spot on the patio, especially as some oleander shrubs are scented too for you to enjoy up close.
Height: 5 to 8ft (1.5 to 2.5m)
Spread: 3 to 5ft (1 to 1.5m)
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Showy architectural perennial with spires of frothy lime green-yellow flowers that thrives in any gravel garden or sunny border where poor soil is not a problem. It loves baking in a sun-drenched spot where it will happily spread around to fill the space
Height: 2ft 9in (90cm)
Spread: 2ft 9in (90cm)
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The large magenta flowers of this pretty evergreen perennial bloom reliably from June to September and are a showy addition to the summer garden. The foliage is flushed with red in winter, too, for an ornamental addition to the garden. It thrives in milder regions and sheltered spots.
Height: 3 to 5ft (1 to 1.5m)
Spread: 1 to 3ft (0.5 to 1m).
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This is a true sun lover with its preferred location one of baking heat in a southern climate. It has giant ornamental spikes of either rose-pink, purple-blue or white flowers that bees and butterflies love. Once the flowers have faded, shake the seeds around the garden to get more plants.
Height: 5ft 9in (1.8m)
Spread: 2ft 9in (90cm)
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If you love Mediterranean blues you’ll love exotic agapanthus, which come in every shade from pale powder blue to dark inky midnight hues. They need full sun and well-drained soil. Grow them in tall pots and overwinter under cover or protect crowns from frost in the garden.
Height: 1 to 3ft (30 to 90cm)
Spread: 1ft (30cm)
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Also known by the charming name of rosemary-leaved lavender cotton, this aromatic dwarf evergreen shrub with feathery foliage is covered with cool lemon button-shaped flowers all summer long. It’s easy to grow in containers, gravel gardens and borders.
Height: 4 to 19in (10 to 50cm)
Spread: 19 to 38in (50 to 100cm)
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A favorite with bees and butterflies, this architecturally striking plant works best in a gravel garden or sunny border among other Mediterranean plants that also love parched conditions. It has globes of dark blue flowers in summer and the spiny gray leaves add interest, too.
Height: 3ft (90cm)
Spread: 18in (45cm)
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Clusters of large, pale lemon flat flowerheads appear on gently branching stems above grayish-green leaves in summer and autumn. These long-flowering perennials are the star of natural planting schemes, a magnet for attracting butterflies and attracting bees, and love a hot dry spot in the yard.
Height: 24in (60cm)
Spread: 18in (45cm)
(Martin Hughes Jones/Alamy Stock Photo)
The feathery panicles of this easy-to-grow shrub add a hazy veil of color to summer borders as well as spectacular fiery shades in fall when the leaves turn sunset yellow, orange and red. The poorer the soil, the more this will thrive.
Height: 13 to 26ft (4 to 8m)
Spread: 13 to 26ft (4 to 8m)
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The tall, dark upright stems of this robust perennial bear many lilac-pink flowers that look like frilled chandeliers. Once the flowers fade, phlomis retains a dramatic presence in the border with its architectural seed heads that look striking among late-flowering perennials and grasses.
Height: 4ft (1.2m)
Spread: 3ft (90cm)
(Nick Kurzenko/GettyImages)This combination of Mediterranean plants and blooms will thrive in a sunny garden