Re: [OT] More Louisianas please!

---

Dear Talkers

Today Heather and I went to deliver some LAs into the northern regions about
2 hours' drive from Sydney.  This lady had purchased 150 LAs from us last
year on her gardener's recommendation and this year she requested 300
rhizomes.

YIPPEEE!  We can pay a bill at last!!!  Well, I exaggerate, however, it was
a great sale for our little nursery.  We have spent 2 days preparing them,
choosing varieties and so on.  But the customer was naughty as she insisted
on having them right now and it is smack bang at the start of bloom season.
A time when we are frantically taking photos and slides, hybridising, etc.
as you all well know.

Still, she is a charming person and Heather was keen to renew the
acquaintance and also for me to see the 17 acre estate.

I was quite excited about going there as Heather recounted last year of the
beauties of the property when she delivered the previous shipment.  The
property ("Torryburn") was once owned (around 1893) by the family of a
famous Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar, who wrote one of our most famous
poems, "My Country".  In that poem, Mackellar refers to the beauties of the
English countryside wherein she now lives, but mourns the loss of the
ruggedness of the Australian flora and scenery which she holds so dear to
her heart.  For most Aussies, the famous lines are:
            I love a sunburnt country,
            a land of sweeping plains,
            Of rugged mountain ranges,
            Of droughts and flooding rains.
            I love her far horizons,
            I love her jewelled seas,
            Her beauty and her terror,
            The wide brown land for me.

As we swept down the red gravel drive, there on the left was her main dam
and there in full bloom were the LAs from last year.   What a lovely sight!!
She had chosen to plant them in a mirrored design ranging out from cream in
the centre out to soft lemon to lemon then to yellow into lavendars and then
rich purple.

This time for her order she had chosen to sweep around the left bank to
extend the vista and had selected colorus ranging from bright lemons into
clear yellows into salmon and rose and then into red.  It will certainly
make a great statement next year.

I went over to see exactly which varieties we had sent her last year and
there in the centre of several of the blooms were the tiniest of frogs.
They were stunning!! They were about 1" in length in sitting position and
were bright lime green.  They were just so cute and petite!  Only I was too
shy to ask if I could photo them.  Maybe next time.

Then we were taken on a tour of the gardens - normally the garden is open to
the general public once a year and about 20,000 people go through - so a
private tour by the creator and owner of the gardens was rather special and
we felt very privileged.

She has chosen to design the areas around the extensive house in something
like garden "rooms": old-fashioned; white and pink; walled (in shades of
blue) [and here we had taken her a gift of a pot of JACARANDA LAD with 4
spikes in full bloom - JAC LAD has the loveliest mid-blue flowers and
lavendar styles] - she loved it and immediately put it in the centre of her
pond which was empty  of plants and in need of just our gift!; and a long
border walk; cottage gardens; two vegetable gardens designed like parterre
gardens; and so on and on it went.

Wow!  I nearly ran out of superlatives!  It was all in near full bloom.
Down the border walk (here this is a long border garden that is about 8 -10
feet deep on both sides and causes one to proceed down towards a focal
point - an Eighteenth century urn the owner had brought back from England)
she had planted strong colours of yellow, white and scarlet - the clearest
reds came from oriental poppies and there to our delight was IRIS
PSEUDACORUS in a HUGE clump in absolute full bloom - wow! It was so
eye-catching and vivid.

It was so nice the see PSEUDACORUS not always being relegated to the water
garden.  She had used it in 2 other places in other "rooms" to similar
superb effect.  What a great eye for colour and design.

She was also growing TBs in the blue walled garden where she had Buxus (or
Box) hedges in knotted designs and then TBs planted in the centre.  The grey
foliage contrasted wonderfully with the dark green Buxus and complimented
the shades of blue in the garden from Salvia and so on.

I have always advocated the use of iris architecturally (in terms of the
foliage colour and shape) in designing a garden and not just to focus on the
colour effect of the flowers.  Here I saw so many of my ravings to our other
customers come to fruition - and annoyingly she did it without my having any
input!!  The nerve!

On the way back we dropped in on a customer who had bought LAs from us over
2 years.  Their LAs were just starting to bloom around their dam and were
really looking wonderful too.  The dam has an island whose flowers are all
in shades of white - LAs, Arum lilies, Crinums and so on.

At one section of the dam, they also had PSEUDACORUS and ROY DAVIDSON in
bloom near bright yellow and gold Canna lilies, yellow LAs and a yellow
jasmine.  Really wonderful colour effects.

Around the bend was the blue and lavendar section.  Here, below a sandstone
wall over which purple verbena was trailing and white TBs were standing
tall, they had planted bright blue LAs and others into the violets and
lavendars and then blue and white forms of LAEVIGATA.  So wonderfully
lovely.

Three mother ducks had also decided to take their ducklings out for an
afternoon swim on the nearby "nursery pond" where several ducks and geese
had been nesting.  One mother had five ducklings, one had seven ducklings
and one had ten "in tow".  What fun it was to feed them with the loaves of
"duck food" we had been provided with by our hostess.  Heather tried to
capture the commotion of ducks, ducklings, floating slices of bread all in a
wonderful rural landscape on film.  It was a magical moment as we were told
that the ten ducklings group were experiencing their first "swim"!

The holiday long weekend drive home was not too tiresome and we have
returned home with fond memories to two magnificent gardens swimming in our
minds - just like the ducklings in the dam.

Anyway, we've had a great day and we hope that yours is special too!

Bernard Pryor  i*@pip.com.au