CLIMBING PLANTS

Bougainvillea

Everyone who has visited the Mediterranean coast or indeed any other region of the world which is hot or subtropical will remember the dramatic sight of a wall or a pergola covered in bougainvillea. We tried to grow it in our south-facing garden in London on several occasions but every time we tried it died in the winter. Basically it cannot take temperatures lower than 50° in the winter.

Whatever your gardening aspirations are, in Spain you must grow bougainvillea, either against a warm, sunny wall or in a large container on the terrace. The most common variety is the deep purple colour but there are other varieties with colors ranging from white through to orange and salmon.

This wonderful climber grows rapidly and needs to be well tethered to its support. It flowers for a very long period but it does respond well to serious pruning. Most importantly it should not be overfed or over-watered. Follow these simple rules and you will be rewarded with a riot of color in true Mediterranean style.

Clematis

Clematis grows well in Spain but it does need a bit more care since the roots need to be in the shade and the flowering branches prefer the sun. As a result it is not so well suited to planters or pots in Spain, since they can get quite warm in the summer, but it will grow well against a sunny wall if the roots are well protected by thick planting around the base. I should point out that your chosen sunny wall should not be subject to midday sun.

Grape vine

The grape vine is obviously one of the main commercial plants in Spain both for fruit and for wine production but it is also a wonderful climber to grow over a pergola so that it provides you with shade in the summer. You need to make sure that you look for a climbing vine in the garden centre since the vines intended purely for fruit production are kept low to the ground and pruned hard every year. Vines need to be watered well in the spring and summer but need very little water at other times of the year.

If your vine is intended mainly for shade you only need to prune lightly in the autumn, cutting off the shoots which are hanging downwards from your pergola or arbor.

Jasmine

Space permitting this is one climber which you cannot ignore in your Spanish garden. The common jasmine bears a huge number of highly scented flowers and is indispensable for scent in the garden during the warm summer evenings.

Passion flower

This is a very vigourous climber which grows extremely well in the Spanish climate. It has the advantage of being self-clinging by means of tendrils so you should provide it with the necessary framework to cling to as it grows. The well-known purple flowers are produced constantly from the new growth throughout a very long period. There are also white and red varieties.

So far I have been talking about all these plants as climbers but there are some which can also be regarded as trailing plants. We grew a passion flower very successfully in full sun from a raised planter at the edge of the staircase to our first apartment in Spain and I have to say that it looked wonderful spilling down the white walls of the staircase.

Wisteria

This is yet another climbing plant which would seem to be inextricably linked with an English country garden. The sight of a wisteria-clad cottage is quintessentially English and yet it is also a climber which grows remarkably well in southern Spain. In fact it grows so well here that it can flower twice in the season, in spring and then again in late summer.

Wisteria does need a good strong support since a fully grown plant can be very heavy, such is the profusion of leaves and flowers. It is ideal for pergolas but an established wisteria will also twine its way up the trunk of an old tree to dramatic effect. The plant will grow in fairly ordinary soil but it does welcome a fair amount of watering.

BUSHES

There is such a large choice of bushes and shrubs that grow well in Spain it is almost impossible to make a limited choice to describe here. If bushes are what really interest you it would be worthwhile buying a specialist book on Spanish gardening. I propose to list only the most common or those which are very easy to grow.

Oleander

The oleander is one of the wild bushes of Spain. As you drive along the roads there are often huge clumps of oleander at the roadside and this immediately tells you something about the plant. It needs very little maintenance once established. Oleander has waxy leaves which are very drought resistant so it needs very little watering. The only thing you need to be careful about with this plant is the fact that it can grow very large if it is not pruned on a regular basis. Six metres high and four metres wide is not uncommon for one plant. The most common colour is pink but there are also white, coral, blood red, salmon and yellow varieties and a mixed colour planting of oleander can look very dramatic if you have the space. It is extremely hardy and very easy to grow. In our communal gardens we have several very large oleander bushes which were offered to the community by a former resident who moved to a new property where he inherited several well-established large bushes. Our gardeners went along and dug them up (not easy to do!), brought them back and replanted them. For the first season they looked a little bit sad but by the second season they had taken off and they are now growing very well indeed.

Hibiscus

This is not a native plant in Spain and in fact originates from eastern Asia and China, the south east of the USA and Hawaii, but it has acclimatised to the sub-tropical areas of Spain like a native. Hibiscus grows quickly and can grow to a very large size indeed but if it gets too big just cut it back to the size you want and it will take off again. No Spanish garden should be without this spectacular bush, grown for its dramatic flowers which are either single or double and can be up to five inches across. It almost seems a waste that each flower only lasts for a day either on the plant or when cut, but the flowers are so profuse that every day the bush is covered in blooms. In the right environment it flowers all year round.

Hibiscus does need to be pruned to keep it flowering properly and long stems should be cut back early in the year so that you avoid having fewer flowers just at the end of these long stems.

Angel’s trumpet (datura)

This is a really spectacular bush which produces long, hanging, tubular flowers which are fragrant in some varieties. Datura will grow well in a sunny, sheltered position out of direct, strong winds. It should be pruned once a year and it does need a fair amount of water. It will grow in a container but you do need to remember that it is potentially quite a large bush so even when container grown it needs space.

Lantana

Lantana is another common bush in this part of Spain. It is often referred to as la bandera since the colours of the flowers of the most common variety are the same as the colours of the Spanish flag. In the UK lantana is often grown as a bedding plant and as soon as the winter arrives it dies. In Spain it can grow to great heights as a hedge or as a bush and is virtually indestructible. It is possible to cut it almost down to ground level and up it grows again to reach the same height as before. It seems to grow with very little help from the gardener; in fact if it is given too much fertiliser it will actually stop flowering. It is also very undemanding with respect to watering.

Apart from the common variety with its orange, yellow and red flowers there are also other hybrids of different colours, blue, purple and yellow being the next most common. It needs to be pruned occasionally to remove dead wood but given a reasonable amount of care, lantana is another of the Spanish bushes which will offer you a very long flowering season.

Cistus or rock-rose

Cistus is yet another of the wild bushes of Spain which can be seen at the roadside or in the countryside. Cistus grows very well in hot, dry areas and once established it survives with very little attention. It is invaluable for stabilising dry banks since the roots will bind the soil together and help prevent soil erosion during periods of heavy rain.

Broom

Spanish broom is often grown in British gardens but in Spain it tends to grow much better. Spain is its natural habitat in fact. In the spring the mass of yellow flowers which appear on this plant is truly amazing.

Fuchsia

In your Spanish garden or terrace you will be able to grow fuchsias very well and here they are really a shrub rather than just a pot plant or terrace plant. Once established in a spot which has some protection from the midday sun you will find that the flowering season can be very long and it is not unusual to see fuchsias flowering in Spain in January.

Fuchsias flower on young wood so if you want to have the maximum number of flowers it is necessary to pluck out the growing tip of the plant on a regular basis to encourage new growth at a lower level. Plants can be grown very easily from cuttings. Since the fuchsia in Spain flowers almost constantly, to keep your fuchsias growing you need to take cuttings on a regular basis because the parent plant will ultimately exhaust itself and stop flowering, then your cuttings can take over.

Other bushes

There are many other bushes and shrubs which will grow well in Spain in containers or in the garden. Among these are hydrangeas, tamarisk, spiraea, the bottle brush plant, philadelphus and ceanothus.

SCULPTURAL PLANTS

One of the true delights about gardening in Spain, even if you are restricted to container gardening on the terrace, is the large number of dramatic foliage plants, often familiar as pot plants in Britain, which will grow quite happily outside. Some of these plants do have flowers but they are usually grown for the dramatic effect of their foliage which will remain the same throughout the year. Many of the following plants have been included in this section as plants but in reality some could also be classed as trees.

Ficus

Back in the sixties no British household was complete without a rubber plant. For those whose fingers were not particularly green this plant often ended up as a stalk with a couple of glossy green leaves at the top. You will not have this problem in Spain. The rubber plant, ficus elasticus, grows vigourously in the open air and in fact it will branch readily and ultimately could end up as a very large tree. All varieties including the variegated types grow equally well.

We never had any success in London when we tried to grow the weeping fig, ficus pendulus, which always ended up losing all its leaves and looking very sorry for itself. Basically it had to be grown as a house plant and it does not like central heating. On our terrace in Spain we have container grown weeping figs which are flourishing and have not lost any leaves at all. Given time and the right conditions the weeping fig will grow into a sizeable tree, but if you want to keep it in trim it can be pruned quite radically to keep the height down.

The other members of the ficus family such as the creeping fig, ficus pumilis, also thrive in this climate. It can actually be very effective to plant a weeping fig in a large container and surround it with creeping figs which will trail down the side of the container.

Philodendron

There are many plants that, although listed as house plants in Spanish gardening guides, we have found will grow happily on a terrace in containers. A terrace, especially a covered terrace, could be thought of as half-way between outside and inside. One such plant is philodendron. The dramatic large leaves are particularly effective in the corner of a terrace and if the terrace is sheltered you could try growing philodendron alongside monstera deliciosa, the cheese plant for a particularly dramatic effect.

Sanseveria

Mother-in-laws tongue, that well-known house plant in more northern regions, will grow very happily on a sheltered terrace in Spain. It is especially effective as part of a group of containers with its striking variegated, striped leaves.

Clorophytum

The spider plant is another common indoor plant in northern Europe but once more it can be grown on a sheltered terrace in the south of Spain. It is particularly effective in a hanging basket or supported by a wrought iron plant stand so that the cascade of new plants which are formed on long arching stems can be seen to full effect.

Poinsettia

I have included this well-known plant in this section rather than in the flowering section since the familiar red ‘flowers’ are in fact bracts, a type of leaf, so strictly speaking the poinsettia is a foliage plant. It grows very happily outside in Spain and in many towns the local authorities fill their public flower beds with them at Christmas. Spain is the only place where we have been successful in keeping poinsettias alive so that they flower the following year. All that is necessary is to take the potted plants and plant them in a flower bed or a planter. When the last bracts have dropped off, cut the plant down to almost ground level. You can surround the cut back plants with other plants to provide summer interest so long as the surrounding plants do not need too much water: geraniums are ideal. When new growth starts to appear, water more frequently and you will be rewarded with possibly even better poinsettias than you had the first time round. The bracts will not be so large because they have not been forced for the Christmas season but the colour will be richer and the plants stronger.

In Spain the poinsettia has the ideal conditions to produce its coloured bracts since their successful production requires a period when there is almost an equal period of dark and light during the course of a day and this is exactly what we have in Spain during the winter months.

Schefflera

This very well-known foliage house plant for colder climates will grow very happily on the terrace or in the garden in Spain. In the garden it will ultimately grow into a tree and can grow up to 40 feet high. However, if it is kept in a container the growth will be restricted. It is absolutely ideal for an area of dappled sunlight and will also grow in shade. The one thing it does not like is full sunlight in the height of the summer.

This is one of the benefits of container gardening. In summer you can move the shade loving plants out of direct sunlight to somewhere more sheltered and bring the sun lovers to the forefront.

Strelitzia

I have included this dramatic plant in the sculptural section although it would be equally at home in the flower section. Its common name is the bird of paradise flower. The very dramatic flowers, which really do look as if an exotic bird has landed on the plant, are very sculptural indeed and it makes a wonderful specimen plant in the middle of a mixed border or in a container. The long leaves are also very attractive even when there are no flowers.

There is also a giant form of strelitzia which has black and grey flowers. Although the flowers are less striking the plants themselves grow to 15 or 20 feet high with long cut leaves. This species really gives a tropical feel to the garden if you have the space to accommodate it.

Anthurium

This beautiful plant is usually referred to as the flamingo flower in the UK, where it is sold extensively as a house plant. It is very beautiful in leaf but when it flowers and throws up bright red ‘flowers’ which are actually spathes with a central flower element, it is a truly dramatic plant. Even in Spain it may be categorised as a house plant but we have successfully grown it for a long time on the terrace even during the winter months, when it continues to flower almost constantly. It is worth trying as a terrace plant but not as a garden plant where it might be too exposed in the winter.

Aloes and agaves

These beautiful, sculptural plants will grow very happily in the strong sun of Andalucia and produce a really tropical effect, whether in the garden or container-grown on the terrace. Since they are succulents they need very little water but they will reward you with spectacular spikes of flowers at various times during the year. Some throw up striking red spikes in December and January while others have yellow inflorescences in the spring or summer. The Spanish often grow an aloe vera close to the kitchen door so that in the event of a cut or a burn they can rapidly cut off a slice of the leaves to treat the wound with aloe vera juice.

Agaves are very similar in appearance to aloes but many species are considerably larger. There are agaves with leaves up to six feet long and these are truly spectacular plants. The one major difference between the aloe and the agave is that agaves do not flower every year and when they do flower the rosette of leaves of most species dies soon after leaving the plant to propagate by means of the offshoots which have already formed around the base of the parent plant. To propagate the plant it is very easy to pull out these offshoots and plant them in another part of your garden.

Kentia and other species of palm suitable for terraces

The Kentia palm, which is used so much by interior designers as a strong focal point in a room, will actually grow very happily on a terrace in Spain so long as it is sheltered from direct sunlight. This plant can really make a bold statement on your terrace or in your courtyard and help to create a truly sub-tropical atmosphere. It is long lived and can grow to great height. It is also helped by the fact that it does not grow too quickly.

When we were having our London garden landscaped we did try to include hardy palms into the terrace planting and we also had palms in the living room (the Kentia was one of them). Our outdoor palms survived the winter but they did not grow terribly quickly in the British climate. We had them transported to Spain and they are now on our terrace, where they have really taken off in terms of growth. In fact during the growing season you can almost measure the growth of new leaves on a daily basis. The following palms can be recommended strongly should you be able to find them in a Spanish garden centre.

They include the lady palm, rhapis sp., which we grew as a houseplant in England but which is thriving in a shady corner of the terrace. This palm does not like sun since it came originally from the shady forests of China, but if you have the right location it is a very dramatic plant with its long stems and flat tufts of shiny leaves at the top of each stem. In a container it does not grow too quickly but it can potentially reach a height of 5–15 feet.

We have also had great success with the jelly palm, butia capitata, a slow growing palm from the cool areas of South America. It is slow growing in terms of height but it does produce new leaves very readily and these are wonderfully long and arched. Altogether a very elegant plant.

The final palm which is thriving on our terrace is chamaedorea microspadix, a very attractive palm related to the well-known parlour palm and which originated in the Mexican rain forest. It has long bamboo-like stems with large arching leaves and will grow very well in a sheltered courtyard or on a terrace if protected from strong sunlight. Once again you have to remember that ultimately this plant could reach a height of 10 feet.

One more plant which many would consider to be a palm but is actually a totally different species is cycas, the sago palm. It is actually one of the most primitive plants still to be found in the garden. It dates back to the age of the dinosaurs and later evolved into the conifer family. The sago palm is a very dramatic plant with its thick stem and crown of leathery, palm-like leaves. It will grow quite happily in full sun and needs average watering. If you have the space you should certainly consider buying one of these spectacular plants but I should warn you that they are among the most expensive plants you will buy in Spain.

Space only permits me to mention a few of the palms which we have found to grow successfully on our terrace but there are many more, and since most palms originated in sub tropical or tropical areas of the world it is worth trying out any palms which you find attractive when you visit the garden centre. I will deal with the tree sized palms in the next section.