AMMOPHILA arenaria

It prefers sunny locations, but it adapts to partial shade where summer afternoons can be hot. It prefers poor soils, even sandy or stony, as long as they are well drained, fearing dangerous water stagnations. It tolerates both prolonged periods of drought and the salinity typical of sea winds in coastal areas. It can bear minimum winter temperatures of a few degrees below zero, and therefore, where the cold can be intense and long lasting it is advisable to choose a sheltered position, or make a good mulch at the base with dry leaves or straw, or even guarantee it in winter a shelter in a cool and bright environment. At the vegetative restart in spring, it is advisable to cut the entire head a few centimeters from the ground: in this way, an effective rejuvenation of the whole plant will be obtained with benefits for its growth, more dense and compact, and its subsequent more generous flowering. It can be grown successfully on terraces and balconies in medium sized pots and containers. In the open ground in the garden, it can enrich our rocks in a creative way, it can dress large flowerbeds in large patches, it can elegantly underline dangerous hills and sloping areas and finally it can build, alone or in succession with other essences with contrasting foliage, bizarre low borders.