HELLO garden lovers, greetings from Killabakh and that means I'm home from my holiday at last! Travel can be a wonderful, exhilarating and mind blowing experience, and combined with my penchant for visiting numerous gardens, antique shops and bookstores - it can also be rather exhausting! But as they say … no pain, no gain - and I certainly have gained a few pounds and had a fantastic trip! Sixty garden visits, Chelsea and Malvern Flower Shows, garden seminars, numerous antique and bookshops, holidaying with friends, morning tea with Count Calheiros, lunchtime with Lady Clark and afternoon tea with Viscountess d'Allen - I packed it in!
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My accommodation included two palaces, a 17th C manor house, a grand Welsh Hall, a 400 year old fisherman's cottage and a castle 'view' hotel. But after seven weeks, the call of the Killabakh hills, memories of my autumnal garden and the fact that I couldn't bear the thought of another repacking of my overstuffed suitcase and the stench of dirty socks, finally sent me home.
I will be hosting a fundraising luncheon and photo presentation of this recent overseas trip at Killabakh Hall on Tuesday August 4 at 12 noon. Showcasing the glorious gardens of Portugal, England and Wales and the RHS 2015 Malvern and Chelsea Flower Shows. Tickets are $10, which includes a delicious soup and dessert luncheon, afternoon tea, lucky door prizes and the photo presentation. All proceeds from the day to benefit Ronald McDonald House Northern NSW. Come along for a few hours of photos, food, fun and friendship. RSVP by August 1 for catering purposes. Phone 6550 5890 or email ghoad@internode.on.net
After the initial shock of leaving the exuberance of late spring gardens in East Sussex and arriving home to my own rather sodden plot on the cusp of winter slumber, I was heartened by the amount of colour and energy still to be found. Unlike the gardens of colder climes, where they are buried under snow and ice, we are blessed with a winter garden that merely rests, where colour and seasonal interest is still on display.
Nothing warms up the winter garden more than the sunset colours of orange, yellow and red, and in my garden, the towering beacons of red hot poker, kniphofia 'winter cheer', of which I have numerous clumps scattered throughout, add that splash of hot colour and give the garden a real zing! They prefer a full sun position, good drainage, go on flowering for several months and the birds and the bees love them.
The orange trumpet vine, pyrostegia venusta, also brightens the winter months and puts on a spectacular display of brilliant orange flowers right through to spring. Great for covering fences and pergolas, as it needs a strong support and dislikes frost.
The old fashioned abutilons or Chinese lanterns are another good plant, now available in a whole range of sunset colours. They prefer full sun to light shade and some will flower for much of the year.
Another good performer at this time of year are certain salvias, many coming into their own in autumn and going right into mid winter. My favourite, if you have the room, is salvia involucrata, the roseleaf or bethel sage, which can grow up to two metres high and sprawl outwards about the same if allowed. But a real dazzler is the common red bedding salvia splendens, grown mainly as a summer annual but with a prune and deadheading, can last in flower for a couple of years.
These are just a few of my winter favourites and I'm sure you all have your own preferred picks, flowers that raise the temperature and lift the spirits in the winter garden.
Happy gardening,
George