re: What is in bloom now?

At the end, almost, of a long hot summer and a drought already 
strectching behind us three months what is there to see? First is 
Clematis flammula, a weed, that is potentially invasive and I'm 
digging and spraying it out. Evergreen climber with large heads of 
small starry white flowers; sweetly scented to the point of being 
cloying. Then there is a cluster of species shrub roses, by now 
beginning to turn colour in their heps from green to orange, scarlet, 
rusty brown and dusky pink - Rosa moyesii GERANIUM, Rosa sweginzowii, 
Rosa moyesii HIGHDOWNENSIS ,Rosa pisocarpa,  Rosa davidii 'Elongata' 
among them. I've just spent an entire Saturday digging out a 
forest of suckers of Rosa virginiana. It too has lovely shining red 
heps but is too willing here and will be much curtailed, and maybe 
finally removed.

Then theres a long gap with yellow 'lawn' paths and the greenery of 
shrubs - Azara, various Asian Cornus, an old holly, a line of 
standard camellias (mini. flowered forms), a mass of Gallica roses 
(also on my hit list before they swamp everything else), Mahonia 
aquifolium underplanted with dwarf  white Vinca and odd Mediterranean 
plants like Ferula communis, Euphorbia mellifera, Euphorbia 
characias, Nectaroscordium, various irises, Clematis recta, 
Clematis HULDINE, Clematis viticella (lots of seedlings 
scrambling about), Crambe cordifolia - none of this in flower, just 
green. An odd Tea rose in bloom - ADAM, MRS B R CANT, SOUVENIR D'UN 
AMI with a background of the weeping silver pear, a very large shrub 
of Rosa pomifera 'Duplex' (Wolley Dodd's rose - about 4m tall) and a 
screen of Rosa MME GREGOIRE STACHELIN on the verandah. This last rose 
has lots of huge 'apples', pale acid green yet but it won't be long 
before they colour to a soft apricot.

A further gap of greenery but by this the paths have been changed to 
hard surfaces of slate slabs and paving bricks lined with box edgings 
- not dinky mini-hedges but substantial ones that can survive the 
heat and drought, and that really show up in winter when this part of 
the garden is bare of background greenery. Further on Salvia 
guaranitica flowers 3m high and spreads in a clump for 5m along a 
fence line. In the background the gold variegated Algerian ivy looks 
stunning with the bright, dark blue flowers of the salvia. A tall 
self sown Oenothera with pale yellow flowers does its own thing 
before we come to more and more green stuff around an open glade of 
yellow grass. The foliage makes the scene with grasses, iris spears, 
fountains of daylily leaves and a background of old apple trees. 
Under a large Gleditschia - the yellow leaved kind SUNBURST?, a mass 
of Euphorbia wulfenii waits, silver grey in the dappled light to do 
its winter thing; great drifts of it that sweep around three 
different variegated Yuccas to the boundary and around a corner into 
the back garden. Green wands of Jasminum nudiflorum (not in flower) 
mix under the euphorbias with dwarf vinca (ELIZABETH CRAN - double 
wine purple) and lots of Euphorbia cyparissias. Where the turn leads 
under a small pergola into the next part of the garden a flying mound 
of Lonicera hildebrandiana flings massive growths skywards and makes 
a dark, shady tunnel. It has a few of its long tubular flowers left. 
Dark yellow and sweetly scented. Out of the dark and into the light 
directly ahead a large clump of Agapanthus inapertus holds up 40 
stems of deep blue 'mops', 2m tall and very stately it is one of our 
best Nile lilies. Most of the new hybrids can't hold a candle to it 
tho LOCH HOPE is pretty good. On the right more green foliage under a 
young Gingko and a small trial of ancient vars of Rhododendron 
ponticum hybrids. They suffer a bit in the drought but have hardy 
enough foliage and, if I can get them established, will do well as 
many 100 yr old plants in 'dry' gardens around here show. A bit 
further on an open sunny patch is developing as a Med garden with 
lots of seedling sp. peonies from Greece and elsewhere planted out 
with thymes (the ordinary culinary sort), catmints - WALKER'S LOW, 
more Yuccas and a half a dozen new Sedum hybrids from Germany and 
Holland (new to Australia that is - the best looks to be BERTRAM 
ANDERSON) Then there are big mounds of Aretmisia - canescens, POWIS 
CASTLE, LAMBROOK SILVER, FAITH RAVEN and a few grasses Calamagrostis 
and Miscanthus with more Euphorbias - rigida, myrsinites, niccaensis 
and several small Clematis viticella and C. texensis hybrids 
scrambling about over all.

Next comes a number of Camellia reticulata hybrids which are about 4m 
tall. They won't flower until September but their huge leaves and 
greta fat flower buds look good now. Behind them roses and clematis 
cover a shed and in the foreground Clematis viorna and sp. irises 
muddle about with Clematis Jouniana MRS ROBERT BRYDON, Allium ceruum, 
 Sedum VERA JAMESON, Oreganum HERRENHAUSEN and lots of self sown 
Verbena bonnariensis. 

A hedge of Trachelopsermum (Chinese Star Jasmine) around our swimming 
pool is still in flower but will soon have to be shorn because its 
long new growths are beginnning to inconvenience our jumping and 
splashing. On the far side of the pool old camellias, inc. a large 
sasanqua that arches over the water makes a tall informal hedge and 
screen to the drive. Beyond them a grove of walnuts, over 100 yrs old 
line the drive. Towards the house, up the 'lawn' - still yellow, an 
old variegated holly and a row od standard camellias screen the house 
from the garden and from the western sun. In the shade, near the back 
door and the gate to the pool hostas, liliums, ferns and other 
drought sensitive plants are clustered to keep some colour going 
while the garden is so sleepy.

Outside the garden gate there is the driveway, dusty and white, and a 
tunnle of shade made by the walnuts and a few other trees; a 
Pistachio chinensis, Acer pentaphyllum, Prunus TAI HAKU, an old 
camllia so tall and broad we drive under it, a purple Beech and a 
cut-leaf purple Beech.

Will try to write another tour when all the bulbs are beginning. For 
now we have only small carpets of Cyclamen hederifolium, in pink and 
white, with clumps of Cyc. intaminatum and Cyc. purpurascens. And I 
noticed yesterday the first pallid fingers of Colchicum pushing 
through the soil. Autumn must be on the way so it is time to get out 
and plant bulbs and seeds.

regards


-----------------
Trevor Nottle
Garden Writer, Historian,     
Lecturer and Comsultant 
       
    'Walnut Hill'                          
     5 Walker St       
     Crafers SA 5152 
     AUSTRALIA

Phone: +618 83394210
Fax:   +618 83394210
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