The best drought-tolerant natives for a hot, dry Central Otago garden

It's February in Central Otago. The schist is throwing heat back at you, the hills have gone that dry gold, and somewhere a cicada is going flat out. And there's a garden that doesn't seem to care. Silver tussock catching the light, a low mat of bronze foliage crawling over gravel, a wiry shrub holding its shape while everything around it has crisped off. No sprinkler ticking away. It just sits there looking good.

That garden isn't lucky. It's chosen.

Central Otago is one of the hardest places in the country to get a plant established. Bakes over summer, bites hard in winter. Get the plant right and it looks after itself. Get it wrong and you're on the end of a hose all January, watching it sulk anyway.

Why does Central Otago chew through plants?

Because it hits them from both ends.

Summers are hot and dry – properly dry, not Southland damp. Young plants with little roots run out of water fast and cook. Then winter swings the other way with hard, deep frosts.

So a plant that survives Central Otago has to do two jobs: shrug off a dry summer and take a proper frost. Plenty of natives can. The trick is picking the ones that do both, and getting them in the ground while they've still got time to root down.

That's where “grow south, plant north” earns its keep. Stock raised in cold Southland ground comes up the road already hardened off, not soft and sappy from a warm tunnel somewhere.

So which natives actually handle it?

Here's the range I'd reach for. Every one of these takes dry feet and a proper frost once it's away.

Dwarf kowhai (Sophora prostrata)

This one's a local, near enough. Prostrate kowhai grows wild on the dry, rocky country of the eastern South Island, right up through to the Waitaki. A tough, tangled, wiry little shrub that flowers orange-yellow in late winter and pulls in tui and bellbirds when not much else is going. Full sun, free-draining ground, and it's in its element.

Shrubby tororaro (Muehlenbeckia astonii)

If you want structure, this is your plant. A dense tangle of dark wiry stems, small heart-shaped leaves in summer, bare and sculptural in winter. Very drought tolerant once established, takes frost and wind, and clips up into a good informal hedge. Give it well-drained ground and full sun.

Scented tree daisy (Olearia odorata)

A reliable performer in Central, and an honest one – it's a bit of a scruffy divaricating shrub for most of the year, then covers itself in small white flowers that smell fantastic on a still evening. Takes frost, drought and wind. Good for a loose hedge or screen where you want habitat for the little native birds.

Silver tussock (Poa cita)

For movement and mass. Fine silvery blades that go gold as they age and sway with every bit of wind Central Otago sends through. Drought tolerant, frost hardy, and it actually looks better in poor dry ground than in anything rich. Plant it in a run rather than dotted about, tussocks earn their keep in numbers.

Purple bidibid (Acaena inermis 'Purpurea')

Your groundcover. A low mat of smoky purple, fern-like foliage that crawls over gravel and stone and holds a dry bank together. This is the spineless one, so you're not picking burrs off the dog. Drought tolerant once established, happy in full sun, tough as. Good between pavers or spilling down a rock wall.

But “drought-tolerant” doesn't mean “plant it and walk away”

This is where people come unstuck. Drought-tolerant means the plant will handle a dry summer once it's got roots down. It does not mean a plant you shoved in last month can go without water through its first January. A new plant hasn't grown the roots yet to find its own water. That first summer, it's on you.

So three things make the difference in Central Otago:

• Plant in autumn if you can. Roots get moving into cool, moist ground and push down before the dry hits. A plant that goes in during autumn heads into its first summer with a head start a spring one just hasn't had.

• Water deep, not often, through that first summer. A good soak that wets the whole root zone beats a daily splash that only dampens the surface and trains roots to stay shallow.

• Mulch. A good layer keeps the moisture in the ground instead of steaming off, and knocks back the weeds fighting your plant for that water.

Get those three right and a hardy native will establish, then quietly get on with it. The watering can go away. That's the whole point.

Right plant, right place, and a hand through that first summer. Do that and a Central Otago garden stops being a fight with the hose and starts looking after itself.

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