Right, let’s have an honest chat about coastal gardening in Sussex.
The sea is gorgeous. Nobody’s arguing with that. But if you’ve ever planted something lovely from a garden centre trolley, tucked it in with pride, and watched it turn into a crispy brown husk within a month, you’ll know the sea has a mean streak too.
Wind, salt, drought, chalky soil that drains like a colander. That’s the Brighton and Hove coastal starter pack. Most “normal” planting advice just doesn’t apply here, because most planting advice was written for gardens that aren’t getting sandblasted by a Channel gale every other week.
The good news: plenty of plants don’t just cope with these conditions, they actively enjoy them. Get the plant list right and a coastal garden can be some of the most resilient, low-maintenance, wildlife-rich planting you’ll ever grow. Get it wrong, and you’ll be replacing the same sad shrub every spring forever.
Below are ten plants I come back to again and again for garden design work along the Sussex coast, what makes each one tough enough for the job, and how I like to combine them.
Why coastal gardens are their own beast
Quickly, before we get to the plants, three things are working against you at the coast, and it helps to understand each one.
Wind. Coastal wind isn’t just stronger, it’s relentless and constant, which dries plants out fast and can physically shred soft foliage. You want plants with small, tough, leathery or narrow leaves that don’t offer much resistance, or ones with a naturally low, dense habit that shrugs a gale off rather than fighting it.
Salt exposure. Salt-laden air (and, in really exposed spots, actual salt spray) scorches foliage and damages the fine root hairs that plants use to take up water. Native coastal species and Mediterranean-climate plants have generally evolved thick, waxy or hairy leaf surfaces specifically to cope with this, which is exactly why they turn up again and again on “coastal-friendly” plant lists.
Drought and poor soil. Sandy, chalky, free-draining soil plus wind equals a garden that dries out fast. Rather than fighting this with endless watering, the trick is choosing plants that are naturally drought-tolerant once established,often ones from Mediterranean or dune habitats that expect exactly this.
Design for those three things together, rather than one at a time, and you’re most of the way to a garden that thrives instead of just surviving.
1. Griselinia littoralis (New Zealand broadleaf)
If I had to pick one plant that just doesn’t care what the sea throws at it, it’s this one. Griselinia is a fast-growing, rounded evergreen shrub with glossy, light-green leaves that shrug off wind and salt without so much as a sulk, it’s one of the most reliable coastal windbreak and hedging plants going, which is exactly why you’ll spot it doing sterling service in front gardens all along the Hove seafront.
It’ll happily take full sun, isn’t fussy about soil (including chalk, which is handy round here), and grows briskly enough that a thin hedge fills out in a few seasons. The tiny yellow-green flowers are nothing to write home about, but that’s not the point, you’re growing this for structure and screening, not a flower show.
Planting combination: Use it as a backbone or informal hedge, then plant something with movement in front, Stipa tenuissima (below) works beautifully against that solid green wall, and the contrast between “still and glossy” and “wild and wispy” is one of my favourite coastal pairings. Full details on habit and soil preferences are on the RHS plant profile for Griselinia littoralis.
2. Elaeagnus × ebbingii
The other great unsung hero of coastal screening. Elaeagnus is a large, dense evergreen with leathery, dark green leaves that have a distinctive silvery underside,genuinely pretty when the wind catches them and flips them over, which, let’s be honest, happens a lot around here.
It’s properly tough: tolerant of dry soils and coastal winds, and it’ll grow in everything from chalk to sand. In autumn it produces small, wonderfully fragrant white flowers that most people walk straight past without noticing, until they catch the scent and start hunting for the source.
Planting combination: Brilliant as informal screening or a windbreak hedge on an exposed boundary, underplanted with something salt-tolerant and flowering like Cistus (below) to bring colour at ground level while the Elaeagnus does the heavy lifting up top. See the RHS profile on Elaeagnus × ebbingei for more on its coastal credentials.
3. Pittosporum tenuifolium
This is the plant I reach for when a coastal garden needs structure with a bit more elegance than a straight windbreak hedge. Pittosporum is an evergreen shrub with small, glossy, wavy-edged leaves on dark stems. It’s endlessly useful because it takes clipping well, so you can shape it into anything from loose informal screening to a tight, tidy dome.
Small, honey-scented purple flowers appear in late spring, easy to miss visually but not on the nose, walk past a flowering Pittosporum on a warm evening and you’ll know about it. It likes a sheltered-ish, sunny spot with some protection from the very coldest drying winds, so I tend to use it slightly inboard of the most exposed front line rather than right on the seafront.
Planting combination: Gorgeous next to silvery, aromatic plants like Phlomis fruticosa (below) the dark, glossy Pittosporum foliage makes silver and grey-green leaves nearby really sing. More detail on its needs is on the RHS Pittosporum tenuifolium profile.
4. Santolina chamaecyparissus (cotton lavender)
If you want that low, silvery, sun-bleached Mediterranean look along a path or border edge, this is your plant. Santolina forms a neat, dense, aromatic little evergreen mound of fine, silvery-woolly, dissected foliage, genuinely soft-looking despite being tough as boots,topped with bright yellow, button-like flowerheads held on wiry stems through summer.
It’s built for exactly the conditions a lot of Sussex gardens have in spades: hot, sunny, free-draining spots, including chalk. Being low and dense, it doesn’t offer much for the wind to grab hold of, and once established it barely needs watering. The one bit of maintenance it does want: a proper cut back by at least half in mid-spring, plus a light trim after flowering, or it gets leggy and flops open to show bare woody stems underneath, not a great look on a front boundary.
Planting combination: Brilliant as a low, silvery edge to a path or border, or dotted in drifts among taller architectural plants like Euphorbia and Phlomis, where its fine texture and pale colour give the eye somewhere restful to land. Full growing and pruning detail is on the RHS Santolina chamaecyparissus profile.
5. Cistus × purpureus (purple rock rose)
Cistus comes from dry, rocky parts of the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, so drought tolerance is basically its whole personality. This particular variety produces crumpled, dark pink flowers with a maroon splash at the base of each petal through June and July, each bloom only lasting a day, but there are so many of them in succession that you’d never know.
It genuinely tolerates chalky soil and salty air, which puts it near the top of my list for exposed, sunny, well-drained Sussex borders. The one thing to know: it doesn’t respond well to hard pruning, so light trims after flowering are the way to keep it neat rather than cutting it back hard like you might with other shrubs.
Planting combination: Perfect towards the front of a sheltered, sunny border, or massed on a sloped, well-drained bank where “poor soil” is a feature, not a bug. Full growing detail is on the RHS Cistus × purpureus profile.
6. Phlomis fruticosa (Jerusalem sage)
One of my absolute favourites for that relaxed, sun-baked, Mediterranean feel. Phlomis is a bushy evergreen shrub with soft, felted, grey-green leaves and architectural whorls of golden-yellow hooded flowers held on tall spikes in early summer, properly sculptural, and the bees cannot get enough of it.
It’s very drought-tolerant once established and does best in full sun with decent drainage exactly the conditions a lot of Brighton and Hove gardens have whether they want them or not. Leave the seed heads standing through winter for structure; they hold their shape nicely even when everything else has gone quiet.
Planting combination: Underplant with low, silver groundcover, or let it anchor a gravel garden alongside Euphorbia characias (next) — the grey-green Phlomis foliage and the acid-green Euphorbia flowerheads make a proper double act. More on its care is on the RHS Phlomis fruticosa page.
7. Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
Gertrude Jekyll once called this “one of the grandest of plants,” and honestly, she wasn’t wrong. This euphorbia has upright stems clothed in whorls of fleshy, blue-grey leaves, topped in spring with huge domed heads of acid-green flowers with a bronze eye — it looks architectural even before it flowers, and genuinely dramatic once it does.
Native to dry, rocky Mediterranean slopes and scrub, so drought tolerance once established is a given, and it copes fine with poor, free-draining soil. A quick safety note for a fun blog, said the fun way: the milky sap is a skin irritant, so gloves on when you’re cutting back old flowering stems (do it after flowering, right at the base).
Planting combination: Brilliant threaded through a gravel garden or Mediterranean-style border with Stipa tenuissima and Phlomis — the lime-green flowerheads zing against grasses and silver foliage alike. Current stock and a fuller description are on this Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii listing at Crocus.
8. Eryngium maritimum (sea holly)
This one’s the real deal, an actual native of British sand dunes and shingle beaches, so if any plant on this list has earned the right to call itself “coastal,” it’s this. Sea holly forms low clumps of waxy, spiny, blue-grey leaves with striking white veining, topped with metallic-blue, thistle-like flowerheads in summer that pollinators absolutely swarm.
It’s built for exactly the conditions that break other plants: salt spray, drought, and thin, sandy or shingly soil. The waxy leaf coating that gives it that frosted look is literally there to lock in moisture against the wind. It does need sharp drainage, so avoid anywhere that sits wet in winter.
Planting combination: Perfect for gravel gardens, raised sunny borders, or anywhere you want that authentic “shingle beach” look brought into the garden, team it with Crambe maritima (below) for an all-native, thoroughly Sussex coastal pairing. Growing notes are on the RHS Eryngium maritimum profile.
9. Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass)
I mentioned this one in my last post and I’m not sorry,it earns its place here too. This fine-leaved, hair-like grass moves constantly in the slightest breeze, which sounds like a liability at the coast but is actually a superpower: rather than fighting the wind, it performs with it, catching every gust and turning it into movement instead of damage.
It’s genuinely drought-tolerant once established, wants full sun and sharp drainage, and is happiest planted in generous drifts rather than as a lonely single specimen. For care, feeding, and combining it well, the specialists at Knoll Gardens have a detailed growing guide for Stipa (Nassella) tenuissima well worth a look if you want to get properly nerdy about ornamental grasses.
Planting combination: Drift it through Euphorbia, Cistus and Eryngium for a naturalistic, sun-baked scheme that looks like it’s always belonged there,which, in a coastal Sussex garden, is exactly the effect I’m after.
10. Crambe maritima (sea kale)
Another genuine British coastal native, and one of the most sculptural foliage plants you can grow. Sea kale forms a bold clump of large, wavy-edged, powdery blue-grey leaves, properly striking on their own, then sends up dense sprays of small, fragrant white flowers on tall stems in early summer, like a cloud of baby’s breath floating over the foliage mound.
As a genuine halophyte (a plant that actually loves salty conditions), it occurs naturally in shingle and sand along the coast, so salt spray and lean, free-draining soil aren’t obstacles, they’re home turf. Give it full sun and shelter from the very strongest winds and it’ll ask for very little else. As a bonus for the curious: the young shoots are edible and were a genuinely popular vegetable in Georgian England, blanched and eaten rather like asparagus.
Planting combination: Use it as a bold foliage anchor at the front of a border, with Eryngium maritimum and low grasses around it for a planting scheme that reads as “wild Sussex shoreline” rather than “suburban front garden.” More detail is on the RHS Crambe maritima profile.
Putting it all together: a coastal planting combination that works
If I were designing a sunny, exposed coastal border in Brighton or Hove tomorrow, here’s roughly how these ten would work together as layers:
- Backbone (structure and screening): Griselinia littoralis or Elaeagnus × ebbingei, with Pittosporum tenuifolium for softer, more sculpted structure further in from the wind.
- Mid-layer (flower and form): Cistus × purpureus and Phlomis fruticosa, giving you flower colour from June right through summer.
- Architectural accents: Euphorbia characias and Eryngium maritimum, for the sculptural, slightly other-worldly shapes that make a border memorable.
- Low silvery texture: Santolina chamaecyparissus edging paths and borders, tying the whole scheme together with that pale, sun-bleached Mediterranean colour.
- Movement and native texture: Stipa tenuissima drifting through the gaps, with Crambe maritima as a bold foliage anchor near the front.
Layer it that way and you get a border that’s tough enough to shrug off a Channel gale, drought-tolerant enough to survive a dry Sussex summer without you glued to a hosepipe, and just as importantly, genuinely beautiful across every season, not just for two weeks in June.
If you’ve got a coastal plot that’s chewed through one too many “ordinary” plant lists, this is exactly the kind of problem I love solving. Have a look at how I approach planting design for exposed and coastal Sussex gardens, or get in touch and let’s talk about what would actually thrive in your garden.
You might also enjoy my last post on life as a garden designer in Brighton, which goes into more of what it’s actually like designing gardens along this stretch of coast.
Purely Planting, garden design and planting across Brighton, Hove, Lewes, Sussex and beyond.
