Do you too have a plant which doesn't conform to what the "book" says.

It would be interesting for me and maybe others if GC members could give examples of plants you grow that seem quite happy with your growing conditions which are far from ideal.
I'll start with Eryngium Agavifolium.
I bought this Sea Holly at a large plant sale which is held every year with the proceeds going to charity. It's a great sale where you can pick up big clumps of plants (just bare rooted in bags) for not much money.
I already grow various Sea Hollies but not this variety. Brought the plant home checked it's requirement and thought "well that was a waste of money"! as it is meant to be quite tender and dislikes wet. It will have been donated to the sale by someone living near the coast I imagine. I live up in the hills!
I kept the clump in my unheated greenhouse over the winter and then planted it out last Spring. It did really well and almost doubled in size despite the pretty grotty and wet summer here. I meant to dig it up and put in back in the greenhouse over winter and I forgot!
WELL today post it having been the wettest winter on record here I see it is absolutely fine, beginning to put on new grow already and not minded the wet or -8 degrees we had for about a week. Upshot as I have learnt over the years, don't always take as gospel what the book says. Give plants a go and see for yourself. Hopefully others will give their experiences of plants which survive despite where they live.

 

There are three plants that continue to amaze me here with my hot, dry summer conditions with no rain for four/five months in the summer and wet winters (although not so this past winter).

The first is Freesias, which I adore and could not grow for love nor money in Buckinghamshire ... but here they seed themselves freely ... in the ground, gravel, pots, you name it! They are just coming close to the end of their bloom period. I always pick the first ones for the kitchen to enjoy their heavenly scent. I get some odd colours as they cross pollinate. Here are self seeded ones ...



The second are Bilbergia nutans which multiply and bloom like crazy, now just tapering off, there are hundreds in clumps.



The third is Cyclamen which seed themselves everywhere also.



All of these live permanently outdoors under the Jacaranda trees.

 

Don't let my friend hear you say about no rain in Portugal this winter Victoria as she went to Portugal for a nine day holiday two weeks ago to visit her brother and they had lousy weather with 100 MPH winds when the jet stream altered course and she said it rained for the whole nine days but am not sure where in Portugal her brother lives

I had one of those Bilbergia Nutans which was a lovely plant but I lost it one hard winter because I forgot to bring it indoors.Love your Clyclamen and they look like the less hardy ones that get sold here in the winter months.

I have Cyclamen Coum growing like weeds here in seed trays as I experimented with saving some seeds and sowing them and now have a few hundred seedlings I am growing on in my greenhouse and when they get big enough will spread the corms round the garden

 

Hi @Kandy I would surmise your friend's brother lives on the West Coast, possibly The Silver Coast above Lisbon as I believe they have had some atrocious weather of late. Here in the southermost part of the country (Algarve) We have not had 9 continous days of rain in February (not even 9 days in the month spread out) and certainly not 100mph winds which equates to roughly 160kph. We have been windy on many days but nothing over 40kph which is just under 40kph/25mph. I live about 20 kilometers inland equidistant to Albufeira and Armaçáo de Pêra which are coastal towns. Out of curiosity, would you please ask your friend where her brother lives? Thank you.

Back to my B nutans, the one pictured is an offshoot of my original one which I purchased c1980 in Woolworth's in the old Friars Square, Aylesbury. When we moved house in 1984 my sister took it to Germany where it resided in her wintergarten (conservatory) until 2009 when she returned to me in Portugal as she was then spending 5/6 months of the year in Florida.. We have split it up unceremoniously with a spade and it is in various locations and at several friends' homes, all living outside. So mine is 36 years old! Also in 2009 I believe it was DaveP from Devon (an ex-GC member) sent me 3 pups which have multiplied liked crazy. I believe Dave's were living outdoors in Devon also.

I couldn't keep the Cyclamen coum alive here!

 

Hi @Victoria,I have just had a quick look on the net as I am not seeing my friend until tomorrow and am likely to forget to ask her and the place her brother retired to two years ago is Obidos(Portugal)but not sure where that is exactly. I think my friend said they and Spain was hit by storm Imogen when the Jet stream altered course and moved lower than normal.The strength of the winds snapped off a branch of what looks like a Scots Pine so he had to go out the next day to sort out the fallen branch I can't dispute the wind speed as I wasn't over there at the time,all I know is it was cold and sunny here in the UK

I bought my B Nutans from a post office plant sale up in the wilds of Scotland for the princely sum of 30p but it died the first year we moved here as we hadn't got a greenhouse then and I thought if it could survive in Scotland it would survive anywhere

Shame you can't get Coum to grow over there as I think it is a charming little plant but fear we will get a bit swamped with them soon

Will have to go and get some pics now it has dried up a bit outside

Sorry can't upload a photo as it comes up with the error message again about the file being too large but I managed to upload a photo yesterday of the Sparrowhawk visiting my garden so don't know what keeps going on there

 

Hi again @Kandy We went to Obidos in April of 2009 for my birthday/our anniversay. We stayed in a tower room in the castle. As you can see, the weather was lovely then ....



I had that problem yesterday and also again now posting this.

 

Wow @Victoria that looks a fantastic place and agree the weather does look good. My friend was boasting about how warm it was going to be over there in February so was shocked that they had all that rain.Her face was as long as my arm. Could do with living somewhere nice and hot as my Arthritis and SAD isn't getting any better but I can't even get Mr Kandy to move to Wight so anywhere abroad is out of the question I think the driest place in the UK is somewhere down in Essex so our last move will be have to be that way me thinks

I have just tried up,loading another photo but still having problems so shan't bother again