October 2007 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Thomas Huber]

From Google Earth I've learnt, that indeed your garden isn't huge, but you will also
know that I also have a small one. Even the smallest garden can look great!
So please don't stop showing such photos!

PS: Booaah IS a good thing 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great stuff Paul !
Thanks for showing us around.
I find it so interesting to see some general views of peoples gardens, as well as the (very interesting) "plant pictures" that are generally shown !  And when it's a garden from "Down under" it's even more special for us !  Your Wisteria is the star of the show for me - so glad I don't have to clean up the fallen off flowers in a couple of days or weeks....

Like Thomas, I'm impressed with your "organised wildness"  and it's comforting to learn that I'm not the only one lacking space 
We all seem to aim for the same (difficult) goal : special interest throughout the year

I hope your example will be followed by some of your fellow "Southern Hemispherians" and that we'll get to see even more garden pictures.

Thanks again

[Maggi Young]

I like your rhodos, Paul but I do think your wisteria is lovely in that shape. Makes a real feature of it and extra sculptural effect, too. It's a lovely garden, thanks for sharing... we'll expect a "through the year" report!

[SueG]

Lovely pictures and at last a rhodo I'd like to grow (sorry Maggi, but they just don't do it for me at all) with it's spidery flowers and foliage - it's gone onto the (rather too) lengthy list I have!
Sue

[zephirine]

I fully agree with you about rhodies, Sue, and this one looks delicate indeed!
Does it require very acidic soil? How about the scent?
Except dwarf R. 'Cilpinense', the only Rhodies that found their way to my heart are the north-american, dormant species...Their flowers are so delicate! They look like lonicera, and their perfume is heavenly!
I only managed to get hold of a young R. arborescens, which puts out its lovely pink flowers in end spring/early summer, and have been looking for 3 years for its smaller, much earlier (march) cousin, R. atlanticum..I still have requests pending in some  continental nurseries..
But even those which list it, have, so far, regularly answered that they "didn't have any spare for the time being"...during the last 3 years...grrrr.....
Here are 2 pics of the only specimen I know of R. atlanticum, in a public Garden in Paris:
.
(I wish I could post the scent too! )
Wouldn't you like that one too, Sue?
Zephirine

[Paul T]

Thanks All.  Glad you liked the garden pics.

Sue, the Rhododendron has massive flowers (mine aren't full size this year) but in a species arrangement with only 4 or 5 per head.  Instead of being a "trumpet" shape they are more of a chalice shape, sort of a bell with a flared tip.  Lovely lemon perfume to them as well.  The new shoots are slightly fuzzy, and those hairs are pink, so the newly emerging shoots are quite a strong pink.  I think I have pics of these features if you'd like me to post them here (or in the Rhodo area?).

Luc,

Who collects teh flowers of the Wisteria after they fall?  They just dry off and act as mulch, no need to rake them or anything.  That's the advantage to having them in the middle of a garden instead of a courtyard or something.  Some of the paths end up carpeted with old flowers, but I just leave them or else rake them onto the garden at the end.  The sculptural effect of the Wisterias works really well, and keeps them under control and out of the way of everything else.  I was due to give them a very hard cut this year (I have to every few years or they get too big) which would have meant no flowers next year, or at least very few, but I didn't get a chance to do it straight afterwards.  I'll give them a moderate prune shortly or they'll just be too huge.  I have the 4 of them trained like this as I mentioned, plus 4 others associated with pergola or fences or the like.  I'm looking forward to the variegated one getting large enough to flower as the combination of purple flowers with the white leaves should be stunning!