A Strikingly Colorful and Low-Care Mediterranean Border

Succulents of various sizes and textures combine beautifully to create a lush, colorful, and drought-tolerant garden. In the foreground, the brilliant red flowers of Aloe x principis and yellow spires of Aloe vera contrast with the almost black rosettes of Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ and the shining silver leaves of Crassula arborescens (Silver Jade Plant).

They are underplanted with a colorful carpet of rosy-gold Sedum nussbaumerianum (Coppertone Stonecrop) and x Graptophytum ‘Amphitryon’ (a durable hybrid between Graptopetalum amethystinum and Pachyphytum glutinicaule) with profuse pink-petaled flowers rising above its elongated rosettes. While this hybrid has long been in cultivation, it is hard to find. Therefore, we suggest as an alternative the award-winning Echeveria elegans (Mexican Snowball), an evergreen succulent with tight rosettes of fleshy, spoon-shaped, pale silvery-green leaves and lantern-shaped pink flowers, tipped with yellow.

An exclamation point in the planting, Beaucarnea recurvata (Ponytail Palm) adds drama with its trunk resembling an elephant’s foot and its dense rosette of long, downward-curving, bright green, grassy leaves.

Terrific at adding texture, color, and shape to the landscape, all these plants look good year-round, are deer resistant, and drought tolerant and most have even won the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society.