Top ten list of garden plants

  • Abutilons of all kinds
  • Buddlejas old and new
  • Epiphytic orchids and ferns
  • Gordonia species
  • Heliotrope, Lemon verbena, Fennel and herbs
  • Michelias of all sorts
  • Perennial Salvias large and small
  • Species Camellias
  • Tea and China Roses
  • Weigela of all types

Montville Rose

Monday, April 15, 2013

The Shambles Garden Artillary

Figures of our Bassets, sadly no longer with us and our garden artillary.

Grandson Leo with Dahlias. Dahlias have struggled not to collapse in wet weather.
A wettish autumn so far has meant luxuriant growth and lots of flower bud development. Easter has come and gone with the family and I can still swim comfortably in the pool each morning so cold is not upon us.
Dombeya tilaceus, Holmskioldia chinensis including the 'Blue Mandarin' variety and Hypoestes aristata are flowering beautifully this year. The sasanqua camellias especially 'Beatrice Emily', 'Edna Butt" and 'Mignonne' are covered in flower. The equally lovely but slightly too pink 'Hiryu', 'Red Willow' and 'Dazzler' are also in flower as had been our very large specimen of  Camellia crapnelliana with its single white flowers.
Display is everywhere and Gordonia axillaris is carpeting the ground with white flowers with yellow stamens from a canopy full of blossom and bees. Next to it Camellia sasanqua 'Setsugekka' has very similar flowers which is a bit of a ? mistake given the overwhelming impact of its enormous neighbour.
The garden is full of flowers from various Plectranthus and on practically all the Salvias including the autumn/winter flowering Salvia involucrata. Salvia leucantha varieties of all sorts including both pink and white 'velour' are in display as is Salvia curviflora. Lepechinia salviae and Hemizygia transvaalensis are both in flower, the latter being a struggle to achieve.
We have had very few losses but I must record loss in the wet weather of a Osmanthus heterophylla variegata and of an Escallonia. Poppy seed hasn't germinated yet and containers of sweet peas have failed.. However the pea relative vine Clitoria ternata has returned and a great crop of Browallia are reseeded and emerging.
Our fernery wall and propagation house construction is settled in and all that was needed was to add a cannon to the garden, which I have always wanted to do. We found it in a nursery at Mount Tamborine.
Michael Simpson


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Sub Tropical Gardens

As Open garden selectors we are fortunate to be able to visit gardens and meet the owners . Last week we visited Enid and Len and their beautiful garden 'Royal Palms" at Buderim. Their garden will be open with the Open Gardens Australia scheme on the 26th-27th October 2013 and is definitely one to attend if you love sub tropical foliage plants and want to see them in all their glory.
Enid and Len have combined their two passions for ceramics and gardening at their home and Len's large pots are placed around the garden. The scale of his pots fits perfectly with the large garden with numerous wide vistas around the site as well as out to a spectacular view to the north.
The fantastic thing about Queensland gardens is that there is interest all year round and Len and Enid have chosen to open when a very large Jacaranda will be in full bloom. This tree then becomes a  spectacular focal point that can be viewed from terraces above as well as from the wide lawn below.
I often marvel at the beautiful flowering trees we have on the Sunshine Coast . Driving down the range and into Nambour in Spring there is such a display of colour and on our route to Sunray Nursery there is a lovely planting of street trees, Colvillea racemosa which has feathery deciduous foliage and spectacular raemes of orange flowers in Spring and Summer. It comes from Madagascar and was known in Australia in 1875.
Last  year we planted one at our daughters home in Brisbane and it is doing well.

Happy gardening 
Kyleigh