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PLANT OF THE WEEK #67: Rubbish jonquils
I’ve given up trying to decide what I think about jonquils – particularly the indestructible and ubiquitous Narcissus ‘Soleil d’Or’. The arguments for and against them provide no clear position. I...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #68: Ribes sanguineum
One Mediterranean climate flowering shrub I would not be without is the red flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum. You might associate it with English gardens, but actually this shrub is native to parts...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #69: Viola odorata
Back when I was living with the family in Northern Ireland (as you do, for twelve months, when you just feel like your life needs a bit of adventure), we discovered some lollies named ‘Parma violets’....
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #70: Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’
What is it about humans that we undervalue stuff that comes too easily, and over-rate stuff that eludes us? Whether its relationships, skills or garden plants, the principle applies. The miniature...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #71: Euphorbia myrsinites
Euphorbia hereby becomes the most heavily represented genus in this list. And really, what would we do without them? The evergreen types all send up new, fresh young shoots from the base during...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #72: Forsythia
I remember turning up in London, for my first time, in April 1991, and the only things in flower in the otherwise bare front gardens as I was driven from the airport were Viburnum tinus and Forsythia....
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #73: Rosemary ‘Blue Lagoon’ (Salvia rosmarinus ‘Blue Lagoon’)
One of the faults that plagues rosemaries is their default desaturated grey-blue flowers. This can look fabulous when working with a very restrained dry-plant palette, but can just look plain dowdy...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #74: Epimedium Amber Queen
Yesterday at the nursery in which I work a small group of locals had congregated for chat, in a socially distanced outdoor space for Covid times . Knowing one or two within the group I joined in,...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #75: Echium ‘Heronswood Blue’
For years – I mean decades – I’ve been trying to establish the difference between Echium fastuosum and Echium candicans. And now it appears that the names are synonymous. Yes, that makes it much...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #76: Syringa x persica ‘Alba’
Please note: if you read on, you’re entering a zone lacking both experience and discernment. It’s gush, from start to finish. My white Persian lilac (Syringa x persica ‘Alba’) is in flower for the...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #77: Malus toringoides
Quick one today, as there’s not a lot to say. I’ll let the pics do most of the talking. Everyone knows the crabapples, and if you’re after a white flowering one, you’re kind of spoiled for choice....
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #78: Tulbaghia ‘Fairy Star’
I’m a rather reluctant fan of Tulbaghia ‘Fairy Star’. Why reluctant? Firstly, there’s that truly horrid, simpering name. Secondly, I rarely see ‘miniaturising’ of any plant as adding to its charms...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #79: Geum ‘Tangerine’
There’s been a twenty-or-so year hiatus in my growing of Geum ‘Tangerine’. Now I have it back, I wonder how I survived without it. According to the Woodbridge nursery website, it was Dennis Norgate...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #80: Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’
Were you gardening in the days before Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ became available in Australia? I remember poring over British garden books, and yearning – like actually aching – to be able to get my...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #81: Euphorbia ‘Craigieburn’
It’s all too rare in this age of plants with huge glossy labels for a new release to totally eclipse its horticultural predecessor. It seems like the imperative for the novel and the new trumps true...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #82: Stipa gigantea
The best view of our back garden is from the new clothesline. This wasn’t intentional. From the clothesline, the old metal shed barely encroaches on my peripheral vision, the green Colorbond fence...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #83: Orlaya grandiflora
I remember well receiving a packet of Orlaya grandiflora seeds from that fabulous gardener from the NSW Southern Highlands, Col Blanch, about 20 years ago. I was between houses, or some such thing,...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #84: Salvia nemorosa types (like ‘Caradonna’)
There are few plants more striking in the garden, right now (just pre-Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere) than the nemorosa-type salvias. They’re powerful in shape (piercingly vertical), in floral...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #85: Clematis ‘Rooguchi’
The truth is that virtually any well-grown clematis, except perhaps the more common montana types, is likely to induce a groan of acquisitive longing from me. There’s just something so other-worldly...
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Time to bulldoze and start again?
Like most creatives, I’m easily rattled. And, frankly, I’ve come to love a good rattling. I love nothing more than being unglued by visiting a garden so different from mine that it makes me want to...
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