Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Lesley Cox on April 25, 2007, 10:55:43 AM
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Starting a new topic for these pictures from my Australian holiday. I've decided NOT to go with the title Fermi suggested but will be quite conservative and stick with the tried and true format. So here goes, a first batch.
These were in fact taken at the last place I visited and stayed, with my friend Don Schofield in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, west of Sydney. Don gardens at around 1000 metres I think and certainly gets some frost and snow in the winter so is able to grow at least some alpines, in spite of being at a latitude a little north of Sydney. His temperatures go well into the 30s in summer and like all of Australia it seems, is suffering from a distinct lack of good rain, though better than many areas.
Don was my travelling companion for the week after I left Otto and Tim in Victoria, with me in Tasmania before we flew north to Sydney and then to his home at Mt Tomah.
Firstly, the man himself (with his permission).
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As you see, Don has a great interest in the breeding of Nerines and had produced many superb colours and forms with good strong stems, very weather resistant. My camera doesn't do red well and certainly hasn't done justice to these wonderful flowers. He also grows many species and after the gorgeous smoked colour seedling below, there is N. pudica and then N. humilis. Katie is Don's cat, and a lovely lady she is, though spoiled rotten. (I had an email today from Don, saying that when Katie had to go out (it was raining lightly) he also had to go out - to hold the umbrella!)
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I do like to see these nerines here and in Fermi's pix.... I love the variation... I could feel an addiction coming on but I don't think they would be happy with Aberdeen's climate. Too cold and damp, for the most part, I reckon. Those hot colours just glow, though, don't they?
Nice to hear that Katie Kat has got Don properly trained! Ian's office cat, Copper, always said she was amazed how simple it was to train a human, when she put her mind to it!
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I've just removed the last batch, totally pranged up the pictures. I'll have another go in the morning. Just too tired now.
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Get a good rest Lesley and then show us more of these beauties !!!
Thanks in advance ! ;)
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Lesley,
Great to see your photographs. Your friend has a lovely collection of nerine, some interesting colours.
Maggi, would your climate be much harsher than ours? Nerine grow with great ease here.
Paddy
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Paddy, Scotland is a different world to yours! We can grow Nerine bowdenii outside, but not many more types here in Aberdeen. We are quite apart from even Mark in the North......I would, for instance, never DREAM of putting any half-hardy bedding out until late May at the least, or even early June... Mark has his in now! That's a banana belt you're living in, if you didn't realise it!
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Lovely pictures Lesley. Nerines!- makes you want to spit! I've tried them three or four times and they have all died on me.
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These really is nice compared with the tiny ones seen in Portugal with lamer colors and fewer flowers as well as weak stems.
But then again that is what happens when a plant is bred properly.
Those are almost like agapantus in size and the sirdy stems and those grow like almost weed in Portugal.
Actually they are used as ground cover nowadays instead of the earlier used irises. :'(
Thanks for this and hope more is to come :-*
Joakim
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Finding it really hard to get time to myself to post pics. The downsizing takes a lot of time. Here are a few bulby things from Don's garden. First Crocus niveus and C longiflorus.
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Spiloxene alba is quite lovely in a patch like this.
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This tall, autumn flowering Gynandiris species - almost to a metre - comes from Iran. I think I was told the specific name, but it escaped me now. There was good seed forming.
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Then some little plants, a very tight and compact form of Daphne cneorum album
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and an attractive edelweiss, from China, Leontopodium ?sinensis? The foliage is as good as the flowers.
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Then there is a native plant called Milligania. In foliage it's very like the smaller Astelias but the flowers are more interesting, little red centered, white lilies. Don bought one at a native plant nursery in Tasmania with the hope that seeds will form in time.
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The hostas were dying away but many had beautifully coloured foliage even in their death throes.
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Don's garden is based on superb trees, most planted by him but also great beeches, gums and others from before his time at Mt Tomah. The austumn colour in the Blue Mountain was outstanding, in particular because since it had started there had been no wind and the leaves stayed on the trees. The carpet, when they fall mill be magnificent.
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He has many Fothergillas, all superbly coloured
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This weeping larch is being trained carefully into a fountain
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And a superb Cornus
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This is a most unusual Rhododendron species. Again, the name has left me. Someone please?
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And a final small batch from `Winterwood,' Don's garden in the mountains.
This round, wheel-like structure made from box hedging, is fully developed now, but when I was there 3 and a half years ago it was not obvious at all, just a lot of little buxus plants. Don's plan is to plant the "floors" in each segment with massed Nerine bowdenii but I'm doing my best to persuade him to use Lycoris aurea, a less aggressive colour. He has plenty Lycoris to do the job.
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There are thousands of Cyclamen around everywhere and these two had particularly good foliage.
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The head, slightly smaller than the other sections, is at the front of this plump caterpillar and Don was very happy with it until someone told him that the upright bit should be at the very back section. It's still lots of fun but I bet it gets through a lot of chewing in a night!
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And a last look, at the view from the back door, with Nyssa Chinensis and other good trees.
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I think the rhodo is R. stenopetalum 'Linearifolium'.
Seeing the Milligania (I think it's M. lindoniana, but I could be wrong) is very nice, yet another endemic worth growing.
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Lesley, great pictures. Keep them coming.
I usually dislike Rhodos (the hybrids) but the one you showed, has just made top on my desire list.
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Thanks for the names Rob. The brain clicks into gear once they're in front of me. It's a species Razvan, not a hybrid. Very different from the usual.
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Gosh, that Rhododendron is nice. Is it a small species? Hardy?
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The R. stenopetalum 'Linearifolium' is a real stunner, isn't it? I think this variety makes about 1m while R. stenopetalum would be a little larger. Hardy to about H3 ...(UK) so will need a protected spot, which I am prepared to provide! I MUST find one!
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Lesley,
What a wonderful selection of photographs. They give us a lovely glimpse into the gardens in Australia, something we would otherwise not have. I could comment and compliment one plant after another but that would be such a long list so I will confine myself to the rhododendron which is a truly different cultivar, one of those plants which would puzzle many a visiting gardener.
You should pass on our compliments to your friends on their wonderful gardens and tell them they are being enjoyed at the other side of the world.
Yes, I know the downsizing of the photographs is a chore but I, for one, am looking forward to the next batch. Don't worry, we can be patient and life must go on and so look forward to them whenever you get round to it.
Paddy
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You should pass on our compliments to your friends on their wonderful gardens and tell them they are being enjoyed at the other side of the world.
Yes, please, Lesley, do tell your friends how much we are enjoying your/our visit to their beautiful gardens. It's a triumph that anyone can make such a wonderful garden in such difficult conditions of drought etc... our good wishes to them all :)
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Wonderful pictures Lesley....so many thanks from this side of the giant ball.
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The R. stenopetalum 'Linearifolium' is a real stunner, isn't it? I think this variety makes about 1m while R. stenopetalum would be a little larger. Hardy to about H3 ...(UK) so will need a protected spot, which I am prepared to provide! I MUST find one!
I'm pretty sure Don's plant was close to 2 metres as from gound level I was looking up at it.
This was just one garden of course and all were different. There's another close by that I didn't visit this time but I have some pics on a disk from a 2003 visit. I'll need permission perfore I can use them though. It is quite different and totally unexpected in the Australian bush setting. See what I can do. In the meantime, and to follow very soon, a few from Victoria and from Tasmania.
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Don's plant was close to 2 metres
Crikey, I didn't realise it could make that, never mind, I still want one!
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Lesley - great impressions. I like it.
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Just 7 pics today and then one of the really big batches, starting tomorrow. It will be May by then anyway.
I took very few pictures at either Tim's or Otto's houses, mainly because it was so good just to talk and be with them both and Tim's lovely family that the camera took a back stage. In any case, Tim's garden which I think is about 12 acres, is in a major re-development phase, (as is his house) so perhaps in 2 or 3 years there will be a better idea of Tim and Angie's own tastes, rather than those of their predecessors.
But you will I'm sure like Tim's garden gnomes. PROPER gnomes, not the beastly plaster/concrete things with faces like those of Disney's 7 dwarfs. These are delightful and it's a shame that all the original set isn't there, many having been lifted by a previous occupier.
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This enormous Cryptomeria japonica has a multiple trunk from just inches above ground level.
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Tim's intention is for a mainly woodland garden and the old trees are a great help in providing cool, moist places for his extensive collection of Trilliums and other cool loving plants.
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At present there is a series of smaller gardens making up the whole. I think some are to be developed or changed and some abandoned in favour of something different. Tim is a great planner and seems to have the final vision for both house and garden firmly in his mind.
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This tall eucalypt is in a neighbour's garden, but dead and was being taken down bit by bit, then fed into a giant mincing machine, making enormous piles of mulch for miles of paths. I expect it's gone by now.
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When we had coffee in a little deli, this clipping was on the wall inside. It was from last spring. I think in future Otto will have to take my avatar title. He does delicious cakes, pies, flans, tarts. I know, I tried several.
I hope he doesn't open this one before he leaves on Wednesday for Prague! He'll murder me :'(
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Lesley,
I won't tell him till we're on the plane!
cheers
fermi
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Wonderful images Lesley and super little gnomes....they could almost represent an East Lancashire Group picnic scene from Harrogate!! Can't wait for the next batch of piccies but I suppose it's going to be next month before we can view them over here! ;)
Take care y'all.
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Nice Gnoms and pics Lesley.
Otto is not a cake maker he is a cake baker if any thing, since I presume he bakes the cakes as well as put icing on them.
I missed the cake pics :(
Joakim
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Getting the bit between my teeth now.
Otto, Tim and I went to a fascinating place called the Cranbourne Botanic Garden. It is quite close to Melbourne and I think is an offshoot of the Melbourne Bot Gdns. It has only native plants in it and the way they are displayed and grown is unlike anything I've ever seen. Though it's not a garden I'd want to live in, it is hugely effective for education purposes and very dramatic.
These first pictures are reminiscent of Aboriginal art and show the "Great Red Heart" of Australia.
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This wattle or mimosa is Acacia aphylla, literally without leaves, has spines instead. They are quite soft to touch though, not unlike the spines of Cichorium spinosum.
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Many plants are displayed in bands of related species or species from the same area in a single group. The rope dividers are different and interesting. There is no attempt to make the place look "natural" as we would think, but rather, to create some idea of the great space and essential harshness of the Australian inland landscapes.
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Many plants have superb foliage like this one, Eremophila glabra
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Hills and wet areas are made deliberately "artistic" rather than natural and are very exciting in the context of the whole garden.
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The botanic garden looks amazing. It shows what a dramatic effect can be achieved with native plants.
Regards,
Rob
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Of course we took pictures of each other.
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Here's one for Maggi. A bull ant and Tim said it was a queen. Does that make it a cow ant? She has a good set of pincers.
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Two more of the general planting schemes. The second shows the building which houses admin, shops and a good cafe along with various educational facilities and of course, loos.
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Fitting well into the whole concept are some really quirky art works and scuptures. I really liked these watering cans.
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And these great rusted iron boxes looked like derailed and abandoned railway wagons but were another sculpture.
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Stunning !!!!
Are you sure these pix have been made on planet earth Lesley ? ???
You might have been kidnapped by aliens to a nother planet, by the look of this (for us) strange vegetation...
Seriously now Lesley - thanks a lot for some quite extraordinary pictures ! :-*
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Lesley, I would so much rather you hadn't shown that fearsome critter with the pincer jaws... and it has wings, so you can't even outrun the ruddy thing! Yeuch! [attach=1]
I am thrilled to learn more about Otto the plantsman.... this insight into his talents and successful career make him seem to show just the perfect combination of gardening and "real life"....I do hope he won't be cross with you Lesley, I like him better for knowing this!
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Otto will likely be madder for what Tim's about to do!
Here's another batch. If I'm posting too many do say. It's just that Cranbourne is such an amazing place. The first plantings were only 18 months ago and so I'm fully intending to return in another 18 months to look at progress and enjoy a more developed garden. I don't know whose was the original concept and design but he/she was truly inspired and did a great job.
Here are the big boxes again. There's a lot of rust around, quite deliberately let develop and used as a very attractive background for signage, more of which later.
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Some plants in the different gardens. Apart from the huge centrepiece of the red soil, there are many smaller garden areas which demonstrate what can be done e.g. without water, or in sand, modern gardens, all sorts which must be great inspirers for visiting Aussies.
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A heath-like plant but with lovely silver foliage. Most of the names were unfamiliar to me and at the start I was stupidly relying on memory from reading the labels but after a while started taking pics of the labels themselves, right after the plant, (before the plant pic would have made the down sizing and renaming easier).
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Anigozanthos `Yellow Gem,' one of many kangaroo paw species and new hybrids, all great garden plants and some are hardy enough for lower NZ.
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Although this species has the huge "cone" flowers of tall Banksia bushes, it was low and spreading. The flowers looked a bit much for the low plants.
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Helichrysum bracteatum is a widely grown shrublet in the southern hemisphere. That was a thick band of it in the second pic in this whole group from Cranbourne.
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More watering can art. Nothing subtle about the primary colours or, in fact, about the whole place.
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The water message and the need to conserve it comes through very clearly at Cranbourne. Recent and long running droughts, seemingly all over Australia except in the far north and east, mean that gardening apparently has to change quite markedly if it's to continue at all, especially in the cities.
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A very pretty Dianella, perhaps tasmanica but in a very good form I think, compared with others whose flowers are darker and muddy blues. Not a good photo though.
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Another wattle, Acacia cognata 'Green Mist,' very low and mat-like with a spread of 1 metre. I'd love to see these little species in flower.
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Though not a great fan of palms, I liked this palm in a pot of such a lovely shade of blue. There were several others as well.
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This is Lomandra `Aussie Blue-Grass' quite appropriately I think. The men, having no sense of style (sorry lads) wanted it planted against the red scoria background but I liked the grey-on-grey which EMPHASISES the colour of the leaves. It belongs to Xanthorrhoeaceae( ???)
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More sculpture, barber poles this time. Mmmm?
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From Proteaceae, comes Adenanthos `Coral Drift.' It has to be VERY close to Eucalyptus. Low, bushy and very lovely. Lots of wasps around though.
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We talked about Leschenaultia somewhere else on the Forum a while back. This is the little low L. formosa with more buds to come, but just a small foretaste here.
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A mass planting of a lowish red kangaroo paw. In the right place these are very exciting.
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And I loved this quite tiny form.
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Olearia astroloba is a very pretty bush daisy with good foliage'
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And more good foliage belongs to Senecio garlandii
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Two last pics in this batch are of what I assume is another kangaroo paw but is called
Macropidia fuliginosa. The green and black combo is startling and gorgeous. I really want to try
this one.
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Hi Lesley
Otto and I are enjoying your pics while in transit through Singapore!
He says to tell you he'll deal with you later for your posting of that article!
Changi airport is vast and even has an Australasian Fern Gully with Koi pond!
Otto also sends greetings to Thomas Huber and yourself!
Hope to catch up in January in Christchurch (can we convince Maggi to accompany the BD?)
cheers
fermi and Otto
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Lesley, all the ants in a colony are female. Only the queen (and the emphemeral king) start their adult life with wings. She will break them off after mating and then look for a suitable nesting place to found a new colony, or return to her original colony, as some species of ant have many queens in a colony.
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Following are the final pics from Cranbourne. There are lots more but enough is probably more than enough.
US first
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And number 4 is the Scaveola which is the background.
This little grey leaved plant is Eremophila glabra `Murchison Magic'
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and Hypocalymma cordifolium `Golden Veil'
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There are many many hybrid Grevilleas nowadays, all making excellent plants for dry southern gardens. This is a very pretty prostrate form
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And this large corrugated iron tank made an interesting planter for a hybrid Banksia, called `Birthday Candles'
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As mentioned before, much use was made of rusted metal for signage and sculptures. It was effective and attractive, as in this stack of boxes
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This shell suggests a modern house and there was planting in containers and garden plots to suit the style
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I liked the lizard climbing up the house wall
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I was continually attracted to the huge rusty "boxes" that made up this great barrier between the wetland garden and the great dry, red interior
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And I loved this dramatic walkway made of dead eucalyptus trunks, inverted
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A final picture of the three friends. Tim collared another man who was also looking, to take the photo. I don't know why we look so serious because it was an amazing day full of interest and enjoyment. I loved every minute and I would thoroughly recommend Cranbourne Botanic Garden to anyone travelling to Victoria from overseas, or to all Australian gardeners who haven't already visited. Neither Otto nor Tim had previously been there, though it's only about an hour or so from Melbourne, so it was a revelation to all of us.
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I was in the process of saying "more, more, more" Lesley when more arrived. :) That wee Banksia 'Birthday Candles' is nice. Looks like a good subject for a northern alpine house? Can you get seed from it or is it propagated vegetatively?
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A couple of days later Otto and I went to Cloud Hill, a beautiful garden and garden centre near his home in Olinda. I'll start another thread for the pics from there as it's now May.
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I enjoyed those Lesley, thank you.
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Great show, Lesley, Loved the eucalyptus.
Paddy
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Well Paddy, perhaps you'll like this eucalyptus too. It also is from Cranbourne but I only took a pic of it this morning. As yet I've not decided how to frame it (it's actually white backgound and mount, the mushroom colour is from the dim and religious light in my sitting room at present, with curtains keeping the sun off some water colours) but because the plant itself is silvery grey, I think a thin chrome frame will set it off beautifully. I love it for itself, but even more, for the person who gave it to me. It is Eucalyptus macrocarpa.
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Anthony, I don't know about seed from the banksia, but possibly. This whole genus is wickedly difficult to propagate from cuttings. There are many species with cone-like flowers as above but others I've seen are on big shrubby plants or even trees.
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Now that is lovely, Lesley.
...though it does lack some of the life of the other.
Paddy