In recent years, as our planet warms inexorably, many of us have been looking for ways to adapt our gardens gradually to a new era. The Antipodean garden is one answer for gardeners, encouraging a turn towards the remarkable potential of plants from extreme climates, such as southern plants.
Let’s see how to use certain succulent plants formerly thought suitable only for southern regions, and integrate them into different garden types, from dry rockeries to Mexican-style settings.
Origin of the Antipodean garden
Last year, one of the stands at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show surprised many: right in central London, this temporary garden staged a landscape straight out of the South African bush. The Karoo Succulent Garden, conceived by landscape designer Katie Lewis and botanist Ernst van Jaarsveld, offered a sublime scene of exceptional succulents, remarkable spiny shrubby plants, Aloes, collections of Haworthia and Gasteria amid mineral chaos… A genuine plea and reflection on the garden of the future, this Antipodean garden showcased only plants native to South Africa, resilient, capable of surviving severe droughts and adapted to the region’s grand yet arid and hostile Karoo environment.
Top right, Sarcocolon crassicaule grows in the Little Karoo
On a dry rockery by the sea
Our coasts, from the Channel to the Atlantic and of course the Mediterranean, offer an ideal climate for these plants from the Cape. Take inspiration from the sublime jardin d'Èze near Nice. Many plants from Mexico are grown there, but also South African plants such as Aloes and various types of euphorbias.
For example, you can group in very warm exposure, without them complaining, Cape-origin plants such as Aloe ferox, Delosperma cooperi and an Euphorbia caerulescens. Aloe remains very architectural even after flowering, its orange flower spikes enhancing the garden in winter and spring. The spreading Delosperma will flower mauve continuously all summer. The euphorbia brings a lovely green, succulent touch to a rockery. Add other perennials that tolerate strong light, very free-draining soil and have sufficient hardiness in this coastal context: Euryops pectinatus or Euryops evansii, Protea, trailing Plumbago, for a blue, unexpected late-summer display, etc.
In a Mediterranean garden or a dry garden without watering
The dry garden, arguably one of the gardens of the future, is precisely the type suited to these South African plants that grow locally in poor, arid soils. Inviting these Antipodean plants into our gardens in the Mediterranean or in regions with mild winters is a great way to refresh the plant palette of gardens designed without watering.
Ramified shrubs such as the Tylecodon wallichii, a superb plant related to crassulas, which eventually forms a small trunk bearing leaves clustered at the top, a South African heather, Erica arborea, or the Cape heather Phylica ericoides make perfect companions in this Mediterranean yet wild setting. A very striking aloe with a dragon-like appearance, Aloe dichotoma (quiver tree), will make a sensation once its trunk has developed. All these plants appreciate a perfectly free-draining, poor and light substrate. Better-known plants such as Sansevieria (snake plant), also native to South Africa, can be grown in pots to bring their incomparable architectural form.
Flowering of the various South African shrubs and undershrubs, southern‑hemisphere timing aside, tends to occur in winter or spring. So add a few summer-interest plants to bring colourful touches to this unusual world, such as diascias (annual or perennial) and the shrubby Cape mallow (Anisodontea capensis) which can flower until frosts and will require, unlike the other plants, a little watering while it establishes.
In a sheltered patio, like in Mexico, or on a sunny balcony!
Although unaffected by scorching sun, succulent plants and other South African natives lack hardiness in our hemisphere. They must therefore be potted in some regions where they might suffer, especially from winter damp.
So why not evoke a South American patio to dream of distant horizons from a sheltered, very sunny patio, courtyard or terrace? Then simply bring them indoors to a warm living room for winter months.
Think again of easy-care plants, provided their low watering needs and a warm exposure are respected. Here we plant in attractive glazed pots a Senecio serpens 'Blue Chalk', or 'Dwarf Blue', a Haworthia fasciata 'Big Band', also called zebra plant, delightful for its ultra-compact habit and characteristic stripes on its fleshy foliage.
Consider bright paints applied to walls or to pots, such as orange, terracotta, turquoise and green to accompany your plants in this decidedly colourful patio and reinforce the South American vibe. The plants mentioned can just as easily be placed on a small south- or west-facing balcony in town, provided you remember to overwinter them at home from late autumn to spring.
Discover our selection of succulents on our "Jardin des antipodes" page online, and our inspiration in the trendbook 2026!
Southern atmospheres are popular: we have covered this theme in several articles: Alexandra talks about her botanical trip to South Africa, our advice on planting and growing southern plants, and our inspiration sequence Exotisme austral.
To keep up with the trends for 2026, also check our topic Garden: what are the five major trends for 2026?
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