Easter Open garden Preparations

Cooper the Wonderdog wonders what all this Open garden fuss is about.

Following on from the heavy rain of previous weeks there has been a lot to do to sharpen the old place up for our Open garden. For the first time with our connection with Open gardens Australia we got a mention in the April "Gardening Australia" Magazine and have had good support from the local paper and local regional papers . We even scored a mention in the "ten best things to do" over Easter in the Saturday Courier mail Newspaper (24/3/2012).
Last time the sun came out I managed to spray all the roses with triforine which is probably necessary given the ceaseless wet and humid conditions. The garden throughout has had a liberal treatment with mushroom compost and a supplement of "Nitrophoska" and Sulphate of Potash.
Kyleigh and done all the edges by hand and we have been judiciously pruning and deadheading as we go.
Camellias are starting to flower all about with the earliest being Camellia sasanqua "Hiryu", "Beatrice Emily", "Edna Butler" and "Mignonne". If we are lucky the big Gordonia axillaris will be in flower showering the ground with big white flowers with yellow stamens like fried eggs.
There are many perennials flowering. plectranthus ecklonnii is just about finishing but Strobilanthes cusia (darwin Bells) in pink and Plectranthus saccatus in blue are just about to colour up the shade.
The old fashioned roses have been flowering all along. I hope at easter "White Pet", "Perl des Jardins", "Proffesseur Graniviat", "Beauty of Glenhurst", "Comptesse de labarthe", "Rosette delizy" and "Mutabilis" will have plenty left over for display.
We are still planting. We were lucky enough to replace our lost Clitoria ternatea with both vines of blue and white flowers at the Glasshouse Nursery on Steve Irwin Way. This was a real find.
Our friend Martin Leonard helped put the final Giant Clam Shell touches on our rustic fountain of coral, shell and ferns, which is a celebration of 19th century gardening fashion.
I've just come in from paintning some "Open Garden Easter" signs for the front hedge.
Hope to see you there
Michael Simpson

Open Gardens Preparation and New Interests

Picture: Old fashioned Rose "Cousin Essie" for an Old fashion house

Heavy rain persists this week and has made us worried about the waether for our Easter open garden only 3 weeks away. We have the base for the expanded "Rustic Fountain" of coral under tarps before it can be finished and gaint clam sheels mounted.
At least new plantings of Angelonia, Dahlia, Lettuce and Parsley will take off. We added a new red cultivar Abutilon near the gatehouse and brought in yet more ferns.
Heavy rain has reminded me to think a lot more about the marvellous variety of fern genus in the garden and how little I know about them.
We have reorganized out tumble down fernery to set out different ferns although there is a wide selection throughout the garden and especially pretty around the coral "Rustic Fountain".
I have reorganized our plant inventory published in our website www.montvillegarden.com to include a section just for ferns and intend to learn a lot more about them before moving on to mosses, lichens and fungi. The following is an inventory of sorts.

FERNS at "The Shambles"

Ferns being neither gymnosperms nor angiosperms are a unique and ancient form of vascular plant. They do not flower or set seed but propagate by producing spores or by spreading rhizomes. Their reliance on spores also requires moist conditions and our recent wet years have encouraged new ferns to appear on many tree trunks, stone walls and other cool south facing positions. There are thousands of different ferns and many of ours have been acquired without identifications. Collecting ferns was a popular thing to do in early Queensland gardens. Our ferns are distributed throughout the garden but also collected together in our own 'Fernery and Fungery'. Pictorial references for identification, www.heatonsferns.com.au

Adiantum aesthiopicum (common maiden hair fern) this delightful low growing fern does require moisture to look its best. There are a great many species of maiden hair about 200 in fact plus Adiantum cultivars available. ? syn. Adiantum atroviride (Maiden hair fern)

Adiantum hispidulum (Rough Maidenhair) longer staight fronds Eastern Australia.

Adiantum silvaticum Eastern Australia

Adiantum peruvianum Maidenhair with much larger leaflets , new ones on red-bronze Central America

Asplenium australasicum (birds nest fern) Dramatic long leaf blades, very successful as epiphyte and in ground under trees throughout most gardens where there is adequate leaf litter and ground moisture. Australia

Blechnum gibbum (Silver lady fern) Fiji, New Caledonia

Calochaena dubia (Mountain Bracken fern) appears spontaneously in our garden in summer. North Eastern Australia

Cyathea brownii (Norfolk Island Tree fern)

Cyathea cooperi (common tree fern) An iconic tall fern of warm climate gardens.These are sensitive to drying out during hot dry weather and favaour a shady positions Australia

Cyrtomium falcatum syn. Phanerophlebia spp (Holly Fern)

Davallia fejeensis (Fijian Hares foot fern) Very finely divided leaflets on long cascading fronds. Fiji

Davallia pyxidata (hares foot fern) Epiphytic fern which produces ‘hares foot’ rhizome or stem below the crown

Doodia aspera (Prickley rasp fern) Attractive new reddish fronds. Australia

Microsorum pustulatum (Kangaroo fern) Native to Australia and New Zealand

Microsorum crocodyllus (Crocodile fern) Long fronds like Asplenium but tesselated in texture. South East Asia and New Guinea

Nephrolepis cordifolia (common fish bone fern) A common shade and dry tolerant fern. Does have weed potential. America 30 species known such as Sword fern and Boston fern. 3 distinct forms are very hardy in our garden.

Pellaea rotundifolia (Button fern) New Zealand

Phyllitis scolopendrium syn. Asplenium scolopendrium (Harts tongue)

Platycerium bifurcatum (Elkhorn) large epiphytic fern with shield which adheres to tree trunks or walls Australia

Platycerium superbum (Stag horn) Large epiphytic fern with shield which adheres to trees . Spectaular high in trees or understory fern Australia

Polypodium aurium syn. Phlebodium (75 species) Central and South America

Polystichum tsus-sinense ?Polystichum retroso (Shield fern)

Pteris cretica cultivar albo-lineata (Brake fern) attractive tall stem with fronds variegated with a cream-yellow central line of colour.

Pteris cretica cv. mayii (Brake fern) larger leaflets more crested than above

Pteris enformis cv.Victoriae (Brake fern) long narrow leaflets , longitudinal and banded with lighter-cream colour

Pyrrosia rupestris epiphytic linear leaflets on tree trucks or stone (Rock Felt fern)

Open Gardens, not all Scones and Roses

We spent a whole day going around primping and preening gardens which on the face of it seem only to have just been done. Kyleigh worked with the pole hedge trimmer while I stumbled around with my shears. We fixed an ornamental pump head, repaired and painted the letter box and even used some remnant paint to paint an outdoor table top.
Many ornamental shrubs and perennials such as Plectranthus saccatus, Plectranthus exklonii (white, pink and blue) and summer plants such as Dahlias are flowering well.
The rain has continued intermittently so moisture loving plants such as Coleus (Solenostemnon spp), Ruellia repens and epiphytes such as the many Dendrobium spp, Cymbidium spp, Oncidium Spp orchids and various ferns are looking well.
Even the Caladium spp which resents dry weather is in appearence. Roses and Camellias are covered in bud and all is on track for our Open garden organization visitors on Thurday morning
Michael Simpson

Open Garden Montville again

Photo: Plectranthus ditectly on the scanner plate.

With a few weeks left until Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday and our Open garden event at "The Shambles"everything is going well for a lovely event. (details at www.montvillegarden.com )
The weather controls a great deal of what our visitors will see and so far the sunny days are evenly balanced with showers and the odd storm so the garden remains fresh and our buffalo grass (not really a lawn) is thick and green.
All the old fashioned roses had both a dressing of potassium sulphate and a spray with triforine. That and a long dead-head , a demi-prune has seen them right for a display around the Easter time.
The Gardenia jasminoides of various types had quite a severe trim along our North east boundary hedge so I hope they thicken up with the rest of summer. Many other young plants are establishing quickly. In flower just now Phaseolus giganteus, Phaseolus caracala (our snail creepers). Ipomoea horsfallii (Cardinal Creeper), Quisqualis indica (Rangoon Creeper) and of course our honeysuckle.

Some silly Camellia sasanqua are coming into bud but also spotting flowers and we are not usually bothered with disbudding Camellias.
The cuttings grown perennials for our plants stall are all very well established as is our growing collection of ferns of all sorts which thus far I have failed to identify
Michael Simpson

garden visitors in 2012

photo: "The Shambles" south rose garden

Christmas and family birthdays are just behind us and bus visits to our garden, arranged last year are looming. The benign weather, continual grooming and a deliberate strategy of putting plants into empty spaces has our garden looking the best it has for a while.

We have to keep on our toes not just to have a display for visitors in January but because of our Open Garden Australia opening at Easter , Saturday, Sunday and monday 7th-9th April this year.
A little stroll today identified flowers on just about everything in the long narrow East garden. At one end is an arch with mauve flowering Phaseolus caracalla and at the other an arch of flowering Phaseolus giganteus and a climbing frangipani not ready to display. Old fashioned roses, Salvias, Abutilon and Cannas are in flower along with Eryisum bicolor (wallflower), Mirabilis jalapa (4 O'Clock plant), a very late flowering Quisqualis indica and a big tall clump of Crinum x powellii.
At the south east stone circle garden and walkways along with Hydrangea there are both blue and pink flowering Plectranthus ecklonii and a great crowding in of fresh green growth on our species Camellias, Spiraea, Clerodendrum nutans, Thunbergia erecta and white flowering Orthosiphon stamineus
Never being shy of a challenge we planted three Forsythia x intermedia 'Lynwood Gold' interspersed with single pink and mauve Azaleas along under the cool south side of the house. Colour madness you might say! We shall see what the result is next spring or perhaps the one after. We also planted Deutzia gracilis in and around a garden which is already too busy with Spiraea and white species Camellias and the odd young Pliladelphus mexicanus ? coronarius.
Lastly near the stone circle we planted a tiny Kolwitzia amabilis "Pink Cloud' where we can keep an eye on its early life.
Elsewhere in our busy garden old fashioned roses of all sorts are coverd in bud and bloom, the Agapanthus are just at the end and Hibiscus syriacus of several coloyrs are still flowering.

And so this friday and the following week bus trips are bringing visitors to the garden for an hour or two and we feel that there is quite a lot of colour and interest to see for all tastes. Along with plants mentioned above there is lots of other perennial colour and in our forested areas and tropical foliage plant areas the rain and humidity have interesting new growth on plants which don't normally flower at this time of year. Brugmansias, Iochromas, Cetrodenia, Ipmoea carnea, Bauhinea corymbosa and Lagerstroemia speciosa/ Lagerstroemia indica and in display.
Its raining tonight again but we hope that there some moments of sunshine for our visitors
Michael Simpson

Gardening up to Christmas

picture: Clerodendrum bungeii

Summer this year seems to be like 2010 with cooler cloudy days , showers or rain and ideal growing conditions for the garden. The damp soil is ideal for weed growth such as the tropical chick weed, but also ideal for pulling them out.
All of our juvenile heritage roses are doubling in size (with only one or two casualties). Newly acquired Salvias such as 'indigo Spires', 'Megans Magic' and several unnamed Salvia microphylla cultivars are growing well.
A bit of insect protection has meant that our various Hibiscus syriacus, Hibiscus mutabilis and Hibiscus insularis cultivars are flowering and look much better than last year.
Kyleigh has estabilshed healthy cuttings specimens of all manner of perennials to sell at our Open garden in Easter 2012 or to offer to Bus trip visitors in the new year. Some of the cuttings such as Ruscus, Hypericum and Iochroma warscewiczii we will keep for ourselves.
Even tough our days are sometmes quite dark and cloudy it is still quite relaxing to sit in the garden, listening to the birds. Oh! just remembered we saw a Richmond Bird Wing Butterfly head through the garden the other day.
New Cordyllines added today, along with replacements for our Salvia discolor . Cuttings of old roses 'La Marne' and 'Peace 1902' also planred out in south rose garden.
We hope Christmas is a fine day for all of us
Michael Simpson

New England and Mount Wilson

Alpine garden at The Boulevard, Armidale.

During November our Queensland branch of 'Heritage Roses in Australia' (HRIA) toured gardens at Warwick, Glen Innes, Tamworth and then enjoyed the St.Peters garden weekend in Armidale where 10 gardens were on display.
Once again hanks goes to Barbara and Vic Beerling for the research and organization which made this trip so successful. For our part after an extra night at Armidale we travelled on to Mt Wilson via the Upper hunter and Bylong Valley to Mt. Wilson in the Blue Mountains.
For Queenslanders the European trees in New England and the Blue Mountains, the Acers, Oaks, Elms, Liriodendron, copper Beech, Poplars, Willows and conifers such as Norwegian Spruce are are visual contrast to what we see around us at home. Shrubs such as the Rhododendrons, Kolwitzias, Laurels, Crabapples and Peonies are also new experiences for Queensland eyes.
The exuberant growth of so many fabulous roses reinforced how difficult our aspiration for rose growing is in the sub-tropics. However, I did notice a conspicuous lack of the sort of old tea, china and noisette roses which grow in our climate.
The heritage rose garden established at 'Pringle Cottage' at Warwick is a credit to the society who manages this historic precinct. We stayed at 'Guy House' with some beautiful gardens in Warwick.
At Glen Innes we visited the beautiful country gardens of Eileen Landers and her son next door.
In cattle country near Tamworth we visited an extraordinary garden of Evelyn Loseby with collections of all sorts including roses, iris, pelargonium and elegantly displayed large cacti of all sorts.
The tour was a marvellous and varied experience, in perfect weather. Unexpected pleasures came from our visit to Nundle with its working woolen mill and the wonderful hospitality of Sue and Rob Bedford and their neighbours with a bar-b-que for the HRIA group at their beautiful garden in Armidale.
We hired a car while the others travelled in a hired bus and at Armidale we stayed at Lindsay House overlooking the beautiful park and cathedral precinct. Our car enabled us to enjoy a wonderful afternoon at the house and garden of Saumarez Homestead at Armidale and visit Booloominbah House in the grounds of the New England University.
It is quite a long step to Mt.Wilson from Armidale (and home again) but the roadside scenery was dramatic and always wonderful to see. Towns such as Scone, Murrurundi and Rylstone on the way there and back, including Tenterfield of course, had some surprisingly good cafes. The industrial landscape around Lithgow is dramatic in itself.
At Mount Wilson we stayed at the old teachers cottage and met Tim Gow who had agreed to show us around. Luckily for us the bush was full of wild flowers including both red and white waratah and the beautiful Mountain Ash. The large 19th century hill station gardens at Mt.Wilson are so special as to defy description. Very few people actually seem to live there, there are no shops , cafes and almost no one around. The silence is deafening.
We visited 'Bebeah' (Tim Gow was staying at Bebeah Cottage) with 12 acres of manicured garden rooms, century old oaks, a large ornamental lake and collections of Rhododendron, Maple, Azaleas (including Mollis Azaleas) and much more. The owner Barry Byrne was apparently away.
Next we went to 'Withycombe' yet another extraordinary collection of fine old, European trees ornamental shrubs, lawns and terraces around a beautiful house encircled by verandahs. Yet again the owners were not home sadly.
At 'Merry Garth' yet another garden, the result of 30 years of expert plant collecting, where, this time, Keith Raines but sadly not Libby Raines was at home. With views to the valleys far below 'Merry Garth' contains an enormous variety in many genus including alpine species, Rhododendrons, Maples and the remarkable Kalmias.
Storm damage, which was not so obvious to us had dramatically affected some residents such as the owner of 'Wynstay'. Mt. Wilson had lost part of its historic avenue of Elms. We visted St.Georges Church and yard with its ancient tree ferns and the dramatic stony Wynnes lookout.
We visited 'Sefton Cottage' with its stone walls and may beautiful shrubs and perennials. With a camera each our collection of photographs was expanding by this stage.
At 'Windyridge' the beautifully diverse terraces, steps, ponds and paths contained a wild variety of ornamental plants in excellent condition. As always no owner around but we did find a gardener to speak to.
Now we love our quiet at Montville but the degree of isolation and even loneliness at Mount Wilson made it quite a relief to visit Mt.Victoria and then on to Katoomba and the unmissable view from Echo point. At Leura we even found a present for our grandson Leo.
In spite of all the diverse beauty we saw in those elevated cold climate gardens we are so glad to live and garden at Montville in Queensland.
Michael Simpson