Mediterranean plants – the 10 best to grow in your backyard

Sun-loving Mediterranean plants are tough and drought-tolerant yet beautiful. The natural planting scheme combines a tapestry of different colors and textures using perennial plants that like to bake in the sun. 

Colors tend to be from a muted palette of soft gray-greens and mauve-blues that creates a painterly effect, but bright splashes of color are welcome, too. 

Mediterranean plants like a sunny south-facing position if they’re going to thrive and they do well in poor soil, with many happy even to settle their roots straight into gravel, which, of course, makes them the perfect complement to your Mediterranean garden.

The mild winters and hot dry summers of the Mediterranean lends itself to drifts of hardy and low-growing plants that like these conditions including lavender, herbs, succulents and grasses. So if your garden faces south and you have mild winters, these Mediterranean plants will suit your space. 

The planting most commonly associated with Mediterranean garden design are naturalistic and wild, inspired by the landscape of Provence but also feature more formal schemes in the style of colorful Andalusian courtyards with terracotta pots filled with bright blooms. 

Our pick of the best Mediterranean plants will suit whichever style of Mediterranean garden or flower beds you end up choosing.  

By Sarah Wilson