September 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

As Lesley mentioned we went to the Plant Sale at Mt Macedon and were lucky enough to be given a private viewing of Stephen Ryan's garden. Stephen is a member of our "local" AGS group and has been a friend for a long time; he's now the presenter of the "Gardening Australia" program on the ABC (our version of the BBC ) but still runs a nursery on Mt Macedon and is president of the Mt Macedon Hort Society which ran the Plant Sale.
Here's Stephen pointing out somethings of interest to Paul in one of the rock gardens; Cynthia and Roy are approaching.

In the background you can see one of Stephen's articifices - the dead stems of Miscanthus "Gigantea" spray-painted bright red - he calls this variety "Duluxii"!

A couple of stunning Helleborus x hybridus in the garden,




Azara microphylla which filled the air with vanilla/chocolate scent!




A hybrid Hellebore (x ericsmithii ?)


A Caltha (?palustris?) in the pond,




And a clump of Tulipa "Zombie"


cheers
fermi

[angie]

Great picture., would have liked to have seen the garden looks really interesting. What more could you ask for, great company and great plants, wish I was there. Need some more pictures please.

Angie

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great  to see you're all having such a fine time Down Under !!
 

[Paul T]

Hi All,

I'm back to being me!!   

Fermi,

Great pics.  I bought one of the Azara microphylla from Stephen's nursery when I got there the other day, then had the pleasure of actually staying with Stephen and his partner on Monday night.  I felt like I was staying with horticultural royalty!    Very cool.  I snaffled a tiny piece of the Azara in flower to bring home with me to show Yvonne and it is still fully perfumed.  It is absolutely delicious.  Now, where to put it (end everything else I bought..... I had a car half full of plants by the time I got back).  I must photograph the lovely double yellow and double slate hellebores etc and post them here.... but I've got something like 500 pics to sort through from my holiday, so there should be an odd picture of two that I shall post in the near future.

Thanks to all the forumists that met up down there.  It was such a wonderful time.  Thanks also to Angie and Margaret helping make it an absolutely riotus evening at the restaurant the other night. 

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

I'm not sure where to put all the pics from the trip, so will just put the majority in here for the time being.  If Maggi wants to split them off to somewhere else then please feel free.  I have some pics of an open garden called 'Cloudehill" coming up as well, so should they go into an open gardens type topic?

Anyway...... starting the trip chronologically.....

The trip in total was just over 2000km, the vast majority of that in the first and last days (I drove maybe 700km or so to get to the Dandenongs on the first day, for example, although I didn't note the exact km readings).  On the way I passed through some of the areas devastated by the major bushfires in Victoria in Feb last year.  Along the roadside verges near Kinglake I came across Epacris impressa in full flower, making the most of the light I think from the road cutting through the tree canopy.  This was just one of the cuttings that had them flowering on it.  I've included a couple of larger "colony" shots, and well as some examples of the colour ranges of the various plants.  This has inspired me to buy a few of them to grow here, although I am putting them in far more shade than where I have tried them unsuccessfully before. 

Enjoy.

[Paul T]

On the second day of my trip (Thurs 16th, Sept) Otto took us to visit the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Hall, a purpose built facility for their flower shows etc.  We've shown pics from their shows in the past, so you may have seen how perfect the place is for viewing flowers.  I took a bunch of pics of the gardens surrounding the hall though, as they're beautiful.  There is a wonderful dry creek area and pond that has only been built in the last couple of years, as well as extensive plantings of Proteas and Leucodendrons (I don't know the name of the glorious red one, but the pics do NOT do it justice) and sweeping lawns bordering Camellias, daffodils and Azaleas etc (the banks of Aaleas weren't in flower yet, so I didn't photograph them.  I would imagine that they would be looking stunning by now though).

So here's a range of pics to enjoy, including one of the hall, which I think sits down nicely into it's setting.  We also weren't the only ones enjoying the lovely surroundings, as you can see from the first pic of the family picnicking on the lawn. 

[Paul T]

And the rest from Ferny Creek.....

[Paul T]

Got to head to work soon, so that's it for this morning's installment.  Still got some pics from Viv's garden, Otto's treasures, Cloudehill, Stephen Ryan's garden, Fermi's fabulous rock garden, and some of the beauties I bought while I was away.  I'm still only 75% through actually putting names on the photos I took (I can't believe how long it takes to just do that  ), but I wanted to start posting some of the pics as soon as possible.

Enjoy, everyone.

[ranunculus]

Super images Paul ... can't wait for the next instalment!    i

[angie]

Thanks for taking the time to post these pictures , looking forward to seeing the next batch.
I always feel that I am missing out when you see a group of forum members visiting gardens and meeting members but thanks to computers we see things that otherwise we would miss out on.
Thanks Paul for sharing your trip.

Angie

[Maggi Young]

Thanks, Paul.... enjoying these very much.
Those Ferny Creek Folks have a superb hall and the gardens are lovely....what horticultural club wouldn't be THRILLED to have such a place?


I am agog with delight and envy over those fantastic "erics" - the Epacris impressa...... such colours and the flowers are so beautiful. Boy, would I like to have those growing in my eric collection! I can just imagine what they would think to a life here... couldn't be repeated in public, I reckon. 

[fermi de Sousa]

Paul's pics have reminded me that I've been remiss in not posting pics from the Spring Show a couple of weeks ago!
So here are some pics but few names! These are from the Rock garden Section:
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

The "Floor Garden"

[fermi de Sousa]

These are particularly for Maggi!
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

More for Maggi!