Living here means accepting that we will experience frequent harsh winds, but after a gentle spell of sun and calm the gales we are getting again are particularly unwelcome, to me at least. The lily flowers are bruised and battered, sigh, but the buds will provide another beautiful display when the gales have passed. Doing their remarkably effective wind-baffling in the meantime are two NZ native plants...
Muehlenbeckia astonii and Brachyglottis greyi, together making an informal hedge and windbreak.
The divaricating form of the Muehlenbeckia with its dense tangle of zig-zagging wiry red branchlets protects the tiny bright green heart-shaped leaves and little white flowers, and it disrupts and slows the wind flow.
In bright contrast is the Brachyglottis with its profusion of daisy-like yellow flowers. It has more substantial branches and makes a dense and wind resistant bush. The bright silvery hairs on the branches and leaves protect them from dessication, and have a lively brilliance no matter how dull the sky.
The sunny silver and gold and the tangle of red and green - together a formidable team. Not by blocking the wind - dense barriers actually make things worse by increasing turbulence downstream - but by diffusing it, slowing it down, and still letting the light get through.