Serge Hill - Joy in Perennials!

I had the joy of making my first visit to The Plant Library today - part of the amazing Serge Hill Project, the brainchild of Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith. Set out in a grid system and including more than 2000 varieties of herbaceous plants and low shrubs plus 500 different bulbs, I was specifically looking for perennials doing well in the dry planting substrate here. Like us all it seems, I want to learn more about how we could adapt our rain starved gardens to cope with the hotter temperatures and dry conditions we're experiencing in summers like this one. The plants here are rooted into sand 15cm deep, and other than for initially establishing them, they aren't watered to encourage strong root growth and greater tolerance of drought and cold. Perhaps this free-draining environment maybe part of the answer to creating a perennial border which can also cope with potentially very wet winters too. But does it look good? Under the guidance of Head Gardener Millie Souter the plots are constantly edited, with the intention of forming a collection of plants that are both beautiful and useful to gardeners and designers - and it really does look good! This is a garden to visit with the changing seasons. You can track the progress of each and every plant to consider it's growth habits throughout the year, so making a reliable assessment of it's merits for a place in a border or planting scheme. I suspect some varieties maybe hard to track down. I've already struggled to find the tall and airy Eupatorium hyssopifolium and the sprawly Geranium 'Rambling Robin' which looked so bright flowering away as it covered the sandy surface. But I did come away with the last cutting of Salvia 'Allen Chickering' with it's beautiful seed-heads in candelabra whorls on rigid, upright stems of glaucus blue-green foliage. I'll need to carefully overwinter and propagate to be sure I don't lose it - but if I did, perhaps I'll have the perfect excuse for a return visit? I'd jump at the chance - and you should visit too.