Plants for very dry soil?

[Shinyandnew1]

Part of my garden is south-facing and very sheltered by bushes so the soil misses the rain and is very hard and dry.

Cordyline, euphorbia, mallow, buddleia and lavender grow well there, but when I try to put anything pretty that flowers or has a bit of colour, it just doesn’t seem to take (other than sorrel and purple geraniums). Can anyone think of anything else for me to try??

For a hot sunny place like you describe you could try bearded iris which have fabulous flowers. Salvias may to well too. Keep anything you plant watered regularly for the first year to help them establish if it is very dry.

Cistus grew well in my very dry front garden. Pink flowers. Aka rockrose

Gaura need very little water and flower for months on end. Choisya seems to cope well with lots of sun and not too much water as well. Maybe try looking at prairie plants as they are well suited to sunny dry conditions.

Cistus, salvia, and gaura all do well in my South facing garden.
Others you might like are helianthemum, (sun rose) which come in lots of colours, erigeron, I've got the Mexican daisy variety as edging as well as a larger pink one that's happy in dry soil. Scabious, anthemis, and phlomis also like dry sunny sites.
As other posters have said you'll need to water them for the first year to let them establish.

Gaura or lantana?