Succulents, aromatic plants, succulents… Faced with high temperatures, garden centers and nurseries are adapting their offer.
With the return of spring, budding gardeners have been flocking for a few days to garden centers and other nurseries to decorate their garden or balcony. However, a shadow is added to this bucolic picture: drought. At the end of March, Emmanuel Macron presented his “water plan” to better manage this resource while France went through a particularly dry winter and the groundwater levels are at worrying levels. Citizens are invited to be more responsible. In this context, more and more French people have therefore chosen plants that are more resistant to heat and require less water.
«We had been sensing it since last year: customers turned to the shelves of succulents and other succulents”, observes Ann-Sophie Fourneret, head of the flower market at the garden centre. Nova, located in the Alpes-Maritimes. Usually, individuals buy these plants during the summer, but the garden center has seen a strong start in the late autumn. For his part, Dominique Boyenval, horticulturist in Hauts-de-France, observes above all an increase in demand for this type of plant from the municipalities. “They are recommended to bégonias dragons, of the geranium…“, he lists. And to add:there is also Angelonia, a very solid plant from Mexico, which can withstand 35 or even 40 degrees».
How have garden centers adapted their offer?
Garden centres, horticulturists and nurseries have adapted their supply of flowers to demand and to the challenge of drought. “We started very slowly a few years agosays Ann-Sophie. Today, garden centers in the Alpes-Maritimes offer this type of plant at the entrance to the store and indicate them using small signs. In his horticultural business Boyenval Flowers, the horticulturist had to adapt: ”We grow other crops, we find plants that need less water and love the heat“, he adds.
In two years, Mediterranean plants have seen an increase in sales of more than 140% in the Nova garden centre. Same observation for Dipladénia, a species that requires little water, which saw its demand increase by 50%. This phenomenon, however, is not new. “Customers have always been fond of plants they don’t need to tend to, but that’s gotten worse since water restrictions last year“says Ann-Sophie Fourneret.
Read alsoWhat wild flowers are found in French forests?
Which plants to choose?
To preserve the flowers from heat and lack of water, “you have to put a mulch and plant perennialsrecommends the horticulturist. Mulch, shavings, or straw are effective in preserving plants from drought. “This trick will help to avoid overwatering and keep the freshness, because the sun will heat the soil lesshe explains. “Customers make associations between the vegetable and the mineral, by adding pebbles or gravel to cover the ground», adds Ann-Sophie Fourneret.
Plants that generally require little water are Dipladenia, Lewisia, grasses, but also aromatic plants such as lavender, rosemary, santolina… Olive trees and Dasylirions also require little water, except when of the plantation, explains Ann-Sophie Fourneret. Dominique Boyenval recommends heat-resistant plants such as Madagascar periwinkle, dahlia, risidane, geranium rozanne, marigold, marigold. He also advises geranium: “it is an old flower, which can also withstand 35 degrees».
For those who have a balcony, small plants that require little water such as begonias, bonariensis, rice grain Ficoide, as well as the famous bougainvillea do the trick. Despite the drought, gardens and balconies will therefore be able to continue to show off their beautiful colors.