The desert blooms

Finally the weather has broken and we have had rain. The drought lasted for over 3 months with record temperatures, high 30s, from early June onwards, plus hot dry winds to blow away any last remaining moisture. But the worst event is one that is easily overlooked: the winter drought. There was no rain to speak of from October to February, the time when the plants expect to regenerate and the aquifers refill. Then there was the snow and record cold, down to minus 12C, and the garden approached spring in a state of shock and distress.
I have not had the heart to post photos of the garden during the height of the drought because it looks so dreadful and burned out, but two days ago the heavens opened and we had a decent rainstorm and temperatures fell by 10C. The plants have immediately showed signs of responding to the rain and it is interesting log which plants did well and which disappointed during this extreme period of hot weather.

Plants that I have never watered at all but seem to have survived (unless planted this year, in which case they did get the occasional water):

Abelia

Ballota

Buplerum

Cistus

Coronilla

Cotinus

Escallonia

Eurphorbia

Lavender

Medicago

Nerium oleander

Perovskia

Phlomis

Phillyrea

Pistacia

Rosa Banksiae

Rosmarinus

Santolina

Teuchrium

Thymus

Of course these plants each have their own survival mechanism and some looked pretty dreadful - e.g. the phlomis turned into a bundle of dry twigs; cistus went brown and curled up their leaves and looked almost dead, the medicago dropped all its leaves. But already there are new shoots on the phlomis, the cistus has become green again and small points of new green growh on the medicago.

 

Some plants showed stress in certain locations in the garden but in other places needed no water at all:

Achillea

Buddleja

Ceanothus

Cotoneaster

Pittosporum

Punica

Senecio

Viburnum

Location differences were affected by the amount of sun/shade and soil type: where the soil is heavy clay  after a period of drought the ground became so dessicated that great fissures opened up and exposed the roots of nearby plants - instant disaster. Gravel mulch helped quite a lot but not completely.

The China roses have survived but look terrible having shed most of their leaves and gone into a state of 'estivation' despite my watering them once every 10-15 days. I can see some new red shoots springing from the base of Louis XIV already after such a short time but we will have to wait until spring to know what the real damage has been.
Now hoping for a wet winter.
Y.