Drought-resistant perennials for sandy soil

[CherryMaple]

We have sandy soil, and have found it difficult to get plants to thrive. Nearly everything really struggled in the drought despite watering. Even drought-resistant plants like lavender have died. We have added manure and feed, etc, and done our best to improve the soil.

Can anyone recommend flowering perennials that are drought-resistant and thrive in poor, sandy soil? Like I say, we have tried lots of things without much success…

TIA

Take a look at Beth Chatto's nursery - they specialise in exactly this

We used to have very sandy soil (south coast so mild climate) - genista, artemisia, aubrietia, sedums always did well.

Armeria maritima, lupins, sedum, alchemilla mollis, achillea and verbena bonariensis all thrive in our fairly poor, sandy soil. It's a pretty exposed site too. We do dig in a lot of compost and manure, though. We also water for the first year, using collected rainwater. After the first year, it's on its own!

Have been improving the soil for years and we are having some luck with a Viburnum - snowball tree 😁Various geraniums work, depending where they are planted.

The best thing we did was take out the leylandii planted by the previous owner. They suck the soil beyond dry.

Thank you so much everyone. Lots here that we haven’t tried yet, and will look at Beth Chatto.

Much appreciated 😊

I believe “lamb’s ear” is drought tolerant.

Lavender is surprisingly greedy for a mediterranean plant - it doesn't like to be really dry so don't be disheartened. Beth Chatty is definitely your go-to, if you can manage a trip there do it's lovely!

I have found Creeping Thymes very successful, especially if you give them a gravel mulch.

Echinops

Do you read French? If you do there's a brilliant website where you can sort plants by their level of drought resistance. Things like lavender and rosemary are a 4, it goes all the way to 5. I've just looked up 5 and there's around 200 plants on there...

https://jardin-sec.com/jardin-sec_web/fr/Database.awp

Ones I've personally grown from the list are cistus, ballota, euphorbia, phlomis, pistacia, grenadines, holm oaks, some salvias, santolinas, sedums, stipas, thyme, thulbagia violacea. All survived 5 summer months with no rain and almost no watering on thin chalk soil in southern France (hot, hot summers).

Oh and irises as well.

Thanks so much everyone. We have done well with thyme, irises and echinops. I have had a look at Beth Chatto this evening, and lots of ideas there. I will have a look at all the suggestions on this thread. I have clicked the link to the French website, and I think my French is good enough 😊 We had to water so much last year just to keep things alive - lupins, I’m looking at you - and the drought-resistance rating looks very helpful. Keen to avoid lugging bath water around like last summer, feeling guilty about using the hose so much …

Thanks All.

I forgot my favourite! I have a huge clump of eryngium agavifolium and it thrives. It's a bit spiky, so can be tricky to weed around, but I love it.

Not technically a perennial, but tree lupins are good too. They have very deep roots so can take care of themselves in a drought. They don't live long (about 4 or 5 years in my garden) but they are easy to raise from seed.

My previous sandy garden in the SE had the following, which all did very well.
Japanese anemone
Oregano
Mexican fleabane
Hardy geraniums
Irises
Aquilegia
Forget me nots
Feverfew
Solomon's seal
Yellow loosestrife
Hellebores
Bluebells
Honeysuckle
Camelia
Wisteria

Try Russian Sage .... it's drought and frost proof. Lychnis coronaria is also good and will self seed everywhere after a while. Basically, your silver leafed plants that require little water.

Thank you so much All. Really useful - lots for me to choose from here.

Besides the other things on the list we do well with broom, rosemary, roses, hebes, verbena, grapes and alliums. We also have sandy soil and next door's leylandii

Geums can cope with my sandy, dry bank and they are beautiful.