Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’. Again. Beloved of landscapers and non-gardeners alike, it is even more popular in Australia than in New Zealand. For readers who continue to think that the name ‘Little Gem’ means this is a dwarf tree that will only reach two or maybe three metres high, I offer you these plants photographed from Sydney daughter’s third floor balcony. They are already head height on the third floor and will have more growing to do.
These particular plants have been stretched upwards by close planting at not much more than metre spacings. Trees will reach for the light when there is competition but there is nothing unusual about ‘Little Gem’ reaching this height. Apparently the owners of the ground-floor apartment are not so keen on them. I can understand this. All they will see is the bare trunks at the base but to them falls the task of cleaning up the leathery leaves which take a very long time to break down. It is our daughter who gets the benefit of flowers and foliage three stories up.
Just be warned if you are planting this handsome but ubiquitous tree in a small space. Also, do not expect a glorious floral display from the evergreen grandiflora magnolias, such as you get from deciduous magnolias and members of the evergreen michelia family. The grandiflora flowers are individually showy but short-lived and generally few in number at any time. The bougainvillea in this photo from the third floor balcony has since been removed by the ground floor owners and I can’t blame them for that. Like most climbers, it flowers on the top growth, so they would have had all the problems of rampant and wayward growth with fierce thorns but none of the delight of the colourful bracts.
When a frangipani and wheelie bins fill your only outdoor space….
Urban living is a source of some fascination for me, a long-term country dweller with huge amounts of personal physical space – even more so when it is high density, inner city living rather than suburbia. There is much discussion in our largest city of Auckland these days about the need for intensification of housing in the face of a rapid growth in population. I could not help but notice in Sydney that the provision of space for rubbish and recycling collection is often overlooked in the planning of both building and the provision of services. When your only outdoor space is almost totally taken up by a plethora of recycling bins, it seems a failure of something.
I read a report last week about leading Auckland mayoral candidate, 
Why, when we live in a country that was until very recently, heavily forested, do so many people hate trees here? Why do so many folk want to hack back or cut out anything over two metres in height? And why do we so often see the death sentence pronounced and carried out on trees once they have reached about fifty years of age? “Past their use-by date”, it is often claimed even though the tree may in fact have a life expectancy of hundreds of years.
Some readers may recall our lost campaign to try and 
Believe it or not, some folk actually think this barren wasteland (now grassed) is an improvement. Three small specimens have been planted to replace the missing twenty-nine. Eventually, that is. As long as tree-hating local residents and the powers-that-be don’t hack them out before they ever reach maturity. For this is New Zealand and urban trees are not greatly valued by many.
These are the genuine article when it comes to terracotta urns – Greek oil jars. I spotted them just lying about looking absurdly decorative out the back of a shed on a tiny island just off Patmos. It was not until I saw Greek oil jars that I ever considered the different shades of terracotta that come depending on the local clay. On the eastern isles, the terracotta was quite pale with a white powdery finish which I find much more attractive than the more usual orange shades. If I could have shipped some lovely oil jars home, I would have.
Hardly urns, but a handy segue on how attractive older utility gear can be, forcing pots, just hangin’ about waiting to be used again in the vegetable garden. Placed over vegetables that need blanching (rhubarb, kale, white asparagus, celery and the like) they produce more tender shoots. We saw them in more than one English garden. I think they are available in New Zealand but with a hefty price tag that will ensure they are used as ornament, not their designated purpose.
If you are going to have an urn, or a font, maybe, and have a property that is of a suitable scale, then you might as well make it a B I G one. This is at Castle Howard in Yorkshire with Mark standing beside it. I am not sure what is growing in it but it did not really enhance the Experience of the Urn. It may have been more effective left empty.
When it comes to lidded urns that bear a slight resemblance to a certain style of funeral urn, the same principle may apply. If you are going to have one, it may well look considerably more dramatic if you have many, as in this interesting and contemporary small Auckland garden.
Still with the greys, these two handsome urns are from Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s garden at Gresgarth. The squatter pot was nestled into the garden by the stream, making a charming scene to be viewed at close quarters. The use of a plinth makes the taller pot a statement all on its own. I admired it enormously, even more so in its understated meadow setting.
I feel some gardeners haven’t quite taken on board the message that some pots are sufficiently elegant to exist simply as a decorative pot, without a plant in it. Very deep pots can drain poorly – some even come without any drainage holes in the bottom at all – meaning that the roots are going to be very wet all the time. A tall pot on a narrow base is not the most stable design. Adding in a tall plant will make it even more top-heavy. Further, to keep container plants healthy and growing well, they really need to be completely repotted in new mix at least every second year, if not annually. Getting a plant out of a pot with a narrow top is a mission and usually involves either damaging the plant or breaking the pot.
This modern urn filled with copper foliage (posssibly a cirsium -one of the ornamental thistles) sat on a plinth in an otherwise austere setting – the stable yard, I think it was – in a private Yorkshire garden. One of a pair or maybe even more, I am sure they were not cheap to buy but they were very effective. I thought from one of my photos that they were marble, but looking at the others, it appears they may be a composite stone that is made to resemble marble and the run-off from the copper is giving a subtle patina over time,
Nobody does cheerful urnage like the Spanish and the Portuguese. At least nobody that I have seen. I photographed these two in Seville because they were so shamelessly flamboyant. The amazing thing is that these pots can be placed in a public area and not be smashed as they would likely be in this country. But honestly, I think it is very difficult to transfer this sort of decoration away from that bright light and cultural context of southern Europe without running the dire risk of it simply looking, well, vulgar. The only time I have seen something similar done successfully was by Lynda Hallinan in Auckland. Her elaborate pot sits empty, you will notice (filling it would really be over-gilding an already gilded lily), nestled in amongst lots of foliage and flowers where it caught my eye.
And the modern take on the baptismal font? This is in the middle of the raised beds at Tupare Garden in New Plymouth. I am not sure it is a good enough piece to take centre stage. It may have looked more at home were it in grey stone but that sort of modern take on mellow Cotswold stone is not so much at home across the world. But I guess it comes down to personal taste. 
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 