Shape, Scent and Colour in Winter

 

Variegated pohutakawa

Variegated holly

I have been trimming and shaping our evergreen shrubs as they come to the fore and attending to hedges now the autumn leaves are fallen and the trees bare of green. The pohutakawa took me ages to identify but the nearby New Zealand flax should maybe have given me a clue to the plant preferences of a previous gardener. We have Arthropodium cirratum (New Zealand rock lily) on site too and I have added Korokia cotoneaster to the New Zealand component. In shaping these already established plants I responded to the shape already presented by the plant,  formalising it a little. In the pohutakawa photo there is also a recently levelled buxus hedge, trimmed calamondins and in the foreground a budding Pieris japonica. The holly is very difficult to shape because as well as being prickly it is perched on the edge of a retaining wall and among other thick growth.

Chimonanthus praecox

Lonicera fragrantissima

Winter scent is now being contributed by the Luculia mentioned in the previous post, by our car park daphne plants and in the garden by Wintersweet Chimonanthus praecox and Winter honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima sometimes known as Woodbine, although this name more commonly refers to Lonicera periclymenum, the vine.

Cornus stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’ in front of Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’

The yellow and red stemmed dogwoods have lost their leaves and are now contributing stem colours to the garden. I planted these dogwoods to add winter colour and they have proved very successful. I do think there is some variation in the intensity of the red, depending on the provenance of the actual plant and the nursery it originated from. I bought the yellow stemmed as C.stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’ but it’s more common synonym is C. sericea ,Flaviramea’

 

 

frost edged oregano

We have had a series of frosts and clear days to welcome in winter and now some rain. The buffalo lawn has stopped growing but the rye/fescue is still looking good. I was paid the ultimate compliment a few days ago when a gardener who has done much green keeping told me the Waldorf lawns had a very good colour for this time of year.

early snowflake

The jonquils have been flowering for a couple of weeks and the snowflakes are just starting.

 

 

 

Osteospermums and a lawn of good colour

White brachyscomes, Korokia cotoneaster and Chrysocephalum apiculatum

Luculia gratissima

There are still plenty of Sasanquas in flower and the Luculia gratissima is beginning to flower. The Brachyscomes are flowering at the Gazebo along with some late penstemon and linaria blooms. The gardens are looking lovely at the beginning of winter.

Begonia at stone seat with Sasanqua camellias in the background

I am going to add in a couple of shots taken at the end of May. A farewell to the autumn leaves that  have now fallen from most deciduous trees (with the exception of the Pyrus calleryana. It’s brightly coloured leaves are still falling in the car park). This photo is of one of our Gazebo tripods topped with an old copper float on which Kookaburras love to perch. The autumn colour is provided by an Acer palmatum. The second shot is of the evergreen Clematis cirrhosa “Wisley Cream” trying it’s best to establish against the competition of both large trees and snails. I have surrounded the base of the clematis with a cut off 2 litre milk bottle ringed with copper tape. If the snails can be deterred this clematis will be lovely,

Pyrus calleryana leave and Hellebore foetida in the car park

Gazebo tripod and Maple

Clematis cirrhosa “Wiseley Cream”

 

Gazebo Abutilons

Double pink Abutilon x hybridum

The Gazebo is our indoor/outdoor function area. It is used most often for wedding receptions. There are views onto gardens from all four sides. The garden on one of these sides is built inside the space and covered with a poly-carbonate roof. The feel of this garden bed is that of a conservatory although it is not enclosed entirely from the outside and has no temperature control. To achieve the conservatory feel we need plants that can withstand the cold winter temperatures in the mountains and then the sun that beats in on summer afternoons. Abutilons fill this criteria admirably. The only drawback with abutilons is their susceptibility to aphid and white fly. The insects have easy access to the garden and protection from wind and rain once established. We use a few methods to keep these critters under control. The abutilons are cut back during winter so there is less chance of overwintering insects and their size in summer is more manageable. We spray off the aphids with water and treat the sooty mould that is the aphid companion with a detergent spray and rinse. The white fly is treated periodically and alternately with Eco-oil and Eco-Neem.

Abutilon megapotamicum

With the exception of one, all of the Abutilons in the Gazebo bed are Abutilon x hybridum. This species name is given to abutilons of uncertain origin. They are cultigens not occurring in the wild. Abutilons are related to mallows and hibicus in the mallow family Malvaceae. The species abutilon we have is Abutilon megapotamicum. It has a striking flower but is weedy in the Sydney area.

More Autumn Colour

english beech and redstemmed maple

Nandina domestica

Gazebo garden

The autumn in the mountain villages has been spectacular this year. The leaves have lasted well on the trees because the weather has been calm and dry for the last few weeks. We have only had 12mm rain so far this month. The english beech leaves looks gold in front of the yellow leaves of the red-stemmed maple. The Nandina domestica berries have been brilliant in our Gazebo garden.

ready for spreading

spread

Topdressing the lawns is a challenge in a wedding garden. The bridal party does not want black topdressing ingredients caught up on their beautiful clothes. We waited until after the final ceremony before topdressing. The lawns ideally should be growing quickly so that they both grow through and respond to the layer of topdressing. Our lawns are still growing but slowly. A bit more rain to help incorporate the topdressing would be ideal. The topdressing is mixed at our suppliers and contains sand, compost and cow manure. It is brilliant stuff!

Flowers for an Autumn wedding

The last wedding of the season approaches next weekend and the gardens are looking good. The lawns have responded to the March rains and autumn fertilizing and are looking beautifully green. Unfortunately I fear that it was too cold when we applied nematodes recently to combat the lawn grubs as a fox has been digging up grubs merrily. The Plectranthus ciliatus has been putting on a wonderful show and is worth keeping under control for this reason. This plectranthus tip roots readily from it’s hairy stems and so can be a little invasive but not hard to pull back. 

Camellia sassanqua Setsugekka

The windflowers and sassanqua camellias are flowering, the camellias will continue to flower well into the winter. We have arborists working on the Pyrus in our car park. They are pruning them back off the buildings, raising them a little to allow cars easier parking underneath and thinning them so that the winds will pass through. They have grown well in a less than ideal situation and have become wind sails; catching the wind and being rocked more than we would like in a car park. We save as much of the wood chip as we can and have started mulching our garden beds including the bed at the front of the Gazebo. Here we have laid cardboard down over a particularly bad patch of onion weed and mulched on top of the cardboard. A visitor told me I need to cover onion weed for 7 years! The Rosa mutabilis is in this section of the garden. It is still only small but I find the flowers and their fading exquisite.

Rosa mutabilis

Front Gazebo mulched

 

 

Autumn Reds

All these photos are of evergreen plants in our garden that are none-the-less colouring in autumn. The conifer is Thujopsis dolobrata “variegata” apparently it is very variable in its display of winter colour. Loropetalum chinensis var rubrum has a few coloured leaves. It is backed by Juniperus taxifolia var lutchensis. Above them is an elm with corky wings on its branchlets so it is possibly Ulmus x hollandica. The fern is a native Doodia aspera.

The first of our deciduous trees to turn has been Cornus sanguinea. A couple of these have been planted among taller trees so are a bit straggly but the removal of a conifer to the north has let in a bit more sun and I think helped with the colouring. The windflowers are looking good and we’re have had a great show from the autumn crocus Sternbergia lutea planted under the weeping elm. This year has been a great one for the carrion plant (Stapelia asterias) in our green house,  it has been flowering for months.

Autumnal Orchids

Eriochilus meadow with waratah in middle distance and radiatas beyond

 part of the Eriochilus meadow

Pterostylis spp. aff. parviflora (large red-brown)

I was walking Billy the dog around Blackheath and came across this lovely orchid meadow under a stand of old radiatas and cypress. The radiatas are spaced far enough apart for light to get in and for a sparse ground cover to grow including a collection of native grasses and many other small growing natives. The area is mowed periodically and this year has favoured the orchids. The Eriochilus first caught my eye and then on closer inspection I found two species of Greenhood (Pterostylis) orchids and the long green leaves of what might be Caliochilus.

Pterostylis coccina coming up through a small Poa sp. along with the leaves of another orchid to the front.

P. coccina taken with a flower lens

The identification of the Eriochilus depends somewhat on the leaf being hairy or not and I don’t now have that information but I am fairly confident that it is Eriochilus autumnalis.

Eriochilus autumnalis (Parson’s Bands)

 

Waldorf Wildlife in Autumn

Colchicum cilicicum and cyclamens

The non floral signs of autumn for us are bare patches in the lawns from curl grub damage and bare areas appearing in garden beds as we deadhead and cut back the summers flowers. We used parasitic nematodes on one of our two wedding lawns at the beginning of December and now have much worse baring off on the untreated lawn. Tom and I dug up a shovel sized square from both lawns to see what we could find. We only did this once for each lawn because the dug areas are not a good general look for weddings. In the lawn untreated last year we found 7 big curl grubs in the 20cm square hole dug by the shovel. On the lawn treated in December we found 3 smaller grubs in the same sized area. These are very encouraging results and we hope that our treatment did reduce the population of large grubs in December. These curl grubs are the Dusky Pasture Scarab larvae Sericesthis nigrolineata.

Lawn treated in December

Untreated Lawn

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We decided to do an autumn treatment to remove the big grubs currently doing the damage and give the lawn a good run through the autumn. Last week we measured the ground temperature at 20degrees C. We ordered the nematodes from Ecogrow in Canberra and they arrived yesterday. In a week the ground temperature has dropped to 16degreesC! They are stressed below 15degreesC. The ambient temperature when I put them on was around 14degreesC so we hope they quickly find a nice warm curl grub to cosy up to!!

Striped Marsh Frog

We are putting out our site made compost on garden areas that are looking a bit bare. I found this frog in the compost as I spread it on the garden. It was lucky not to get skewered with the mulch fork. The frog measures around 4.5cm long and I think it is a Striped Marsh Frog Limnodynastes peronii.

A few more floral signs of autumn are autumn roses,  late summer/autumn wisteria and dahlias. I have not had much success with dahlias as part of border plantings but continue to try, focusing on the smaller varieties. I bought this dahlia at a community market knowing it was a seedling of the Bishop of LLandaff. I bought the seedling with the darkest foliage and while the flower has not turned out red it is making a healthy show in the entrance driveway.

Soul Sister

Autumn wisteria

Seedling from Bishop of LLandaff

Re-purposing an old lamp post

The replacement driveway lamp post

This is an old property and there are quite a few redundant installations which included a lamp along the pergola pathway to our Gazebo. The lamp itself was in very good condition and matched the one in the driveway that had not so long ago been driven over by a truck. The decision was made to delete the pathway lamp and use it as a replacement for the driveway lamp, making all the old wiring secure at the same time. When the lamp was lifted off it’s base we found an older base underneath, very securely fixed into the ground. This base was centred on our pergola pathway both coming towards and going away from the Gazebo. The spot is in shade under Californian redwoods so a difficult spot to garden in but a great spot for a feature. We had a can of black spray paint, a square of salvaged timber and a sandstone look concrete paver all in reasonable proportions so Tom got to work and assembled it all on top of the metal post. The initial consensus was that a black pot would look great on the pedestal so a pot also received the spray can treatment.

Under the pergolas

It does look good too but I felt it didn’t set the right tone for a wedding venue so tried a cream pot, I think this feels more comfortable in the spot.

From the Gazebo

Then, in the window of an antiques shop in Katoomba I saw a lovely concrete urn which could look fantastic. Then the question will be should we respray the post underneath white or maybe grey? A bunch of these white Hydrangea paniculata would look lovely in the urn.

Hydrangea paniculata

 

Farewell to the summer holidays

The holidays seemed way too short this year. We swam, sat on the beach, had encounters with a tree snake and bluebottles, saw Christmas bells (Blandifordia nobilis) in the bush and generally wound down. This was followed by the  Australia holiday and hot weather and the garden got away on us a bit. We have been working hard this last week reining it in and tidying it up in preparation for our first wedding of the year this weekend. The lawns are causing the most stress of course as we try and supply them with their required 25mm of water per week in very hot weather. The garden has emerged looking lovely for the wedding and as long as the afternoon storms hold off it should be a beautiful ceremony in the deep shade under the Linden and a cool reception in the gazebo with all the blinds rolled up for a change!

Fuchsia magellanica and white iceberg rose

Rudbeckia with weeping elm and white crepe myrtle in the background

The iceberg rose has been planted in between a camellia hedge, the Fuchsia and a large Buxus sempervirens. It would not be a recommended planting but has proved very successful here. The rudbeckia are putting on their usual bright show but are not particularly long lived. I have been delighted to see quite a few seedlings appearing this year for the first time so we will pot them up in preparation for autumn replanting.

Tiger lilies

Nicotiana, cosmos and Celosia argentea

The tiger lilies seem to be naturalising in this spot among an old planting of Nandina domestica. I have not had such success with all the lilies I have tried. We replanted our entrance driveway bed with nicotiana this year despite warnings that it may not do well, susceptibility to powdery mildew I think was the fear. We planted them well apart and they have been giving a summery show. We did spray once with spinosad after finding a couple of caterpillars. There are a few of the Cosmos bipinnata “Velouette” down the middle and more recently we have added in the magenta Celosia argentea. So far so good!