Garden Lore: Friday 28 November, 2014

“I have rarely seen either ruins or rivers well manufactured.”

William Gilpin Remarks on Forest Scenery and Other Woodland Views (1834)

The ha-ha at Puketarata as viewed from below

The ha-ha at Puketarata as viewed from below

Garden Lore: A Ha-ha

Behold, a ha-ha. Or, as we prefer to call them here, an infinity lawn. That is a bit of an in-joke referencing infinity pools and landscapers’ love of such visual tricks. It is in fact a stock barrier which can trace its origins back at least 800 years in both Europe and China. This particular one is at Puketarata Garden near Hawera and you can see how it is constructed and how they have managed to keep the end stock-proofed while allowing easy access through to the garden. From on top, the mown lawn melds into the grazed grass without a visual interruption and encourages the eye to look to the vista beyond. It is a huge improvement on a fence, blurring the line between garden and the natural environment.

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The origin of the term ha-ha is not known, apparently. We are of the view that it is what imbibing guests say as an unsuspecting victim falls off the edge at drunken, carefree garden parties.

The ha-ha as viewed from above - the near seamless connection to the wider landscape is what it is about

The ha-ha as viewed from above – the near seamless connection to the wider landscape is what it is about

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Plant Collector: Strelitzia reginae

Strelitzia reginae or the bird of paradise

Strelitzia reginae or the bird of paradise

Is there anything more exotic, more tropical in appearance than the bird of paradise plant? In fact it is native to South Africa which is not the usual “Tropics”, though it is now grown widely throughout the temperate and tropical world and is not as fussy as one might think. In its homeland, it is commonly called the craneflower because of the resemblance to cranes – which are heron-like birds.

It is a very curious bloom, almost two dimensional. The actual petals are the blue centre to the flower and it is this that holds the pollen and the nectar which is what attracts the birds to achieve pollination. The leaves are like paddles with very long stems (technically called petioles) and are heavy textured.

There are about 5 different species of strelitzia but this is by far the most common and therefore probably the most adaptable variety. It is never going to like heavy frosts and wants some warmth but is not too fussy. Looking at photographs, I think it must flower more profusely in hotter, drier climates but it is a pretty low fuss perennial in coastal areas of the North Island and some protection from frost will extend its range inland. For us it reaches about 120cm in height. Mark tells me he has the giant Strelitzia nicolai waiting to be planted out. That apparently reaches closer to 10 metres. If it only flowers on top, we will be wanting to plant it down a slope somewhere if we are to see the blooms.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Wildside – the new naturalism in gardening

???????????????????????????????1) I want to try and capture the magic of a particular garden in a few words and photos. This is Wildside in North Devon and was quite simply one of the most exciting modern gardens we have seen. It is not that we will try and re-create it at home, but we found it interesting, stimulating and inspirational in many ways. It has been about 10 years in the making to this point.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????2) The creator, Keith Wiley (and let us acknowledge the active assistance from his partner, Ros) has taken a 4 acre (1.6ha) flat field and created a landscape. When he started, it looked identical to this neighbouring field. All the top soil was removed and substrata redistributed to create ponds, canyons, shallow valleys and hills. At this stage, it is still possible to see this process in the upper garden which has yet to be planted. Once shaped, Keith returned the top soil in varying depths, depending on what plants he planned to grow in each area.

???????????????????????????????3) The interaction between the created landforms and the plants are the key components of this garden. When we visited, the upper garden was dominated by oranges, golds, yellows and whites. We would love to have been able to return a few weeks later because we could see that the dominant colour was going to change to blue and it would have looked very different. It takes exceptional plant skill to be able to get that transition and successional planting across seasons, let alone within the same season.

???????????????????????????????4) These are dierama, commonly called Angel’s fishing rods, one of the few corms and bulbs that were in flower in midsummer but this was a garden which was rich in drifts of bulbs – another layer of plant interest and a means of ensuring colour and detail when most perennials are either dormant or resting. In keeping with the modern perennials movement, there were grasses used but in moderation. Plants were in good sized clumps and often in drifts, but always in combinations, not chunky blocks standing in their own right as seen in many modern gardens.

???????????????????????????????5) There is very little hard landscaping and very little ornamentation. There may have been one small lawn, from memory, but this is a garden of plants and flowers. Some may consider the lack of formality and structure to be a shortcoming, certainly in a country with a long history of landscaped gardens full of permanent features. We saw a garden that pushed the boundaries of the prairie style and New Perennials movement, combined with the creation of sustainable ecosystems, underpinned by exceptional plantsmanship.

???????????????????????????????6) We travelled a long way to visit Wildside which is on the edge of Dartmoor, near Yelverton, and we would gladly travel a long way to see it again. However, it is currently closed to the public and it is uncertain when it will reopen. The owner told us that he needed to get the house built. After a decade of living in temporary quarters while giving priority to the garden, they had reached the point where the house had become a priority.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Prologue
???????????????????????????????Yes, a prologue. We first became aware of Keith Wiley’s style when we visited The Garden House in 2009 – the garden of the late Lionel Fortescue which Keith managed for many years. True, he had no hand in the first sight to gladden our eyes. As we went to enter the garden, lo and behold there was Mark’s very own Magnolia Felix Jury in prime position. To say we felt proud would be an understatement.
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But our enduring memory of The Garden House is the delightful Quarry Garden – which I wrote about at the time. We were also very taken by some of the wildflower areas and the naturalistic style. It was only after we had moved on from the area that we found out that this was Keith Wiley’s work and that he had branched out on his own garden a mere kilometer or two down the road. Had we known at the time, we would have taken our chances on seeing if we could have a look at his new project. It took us five years to get back and it exceeded all our expectations.

“People who remain convinced that fashion does not enter the garden can think again. Almost every year one or two plants go “out” and others come “in”. You’ll have to be really on the ball to keep up…”

Alan Titchmarsh: Avant-Gardening, A Guide to One-Upmanship in the Garden (1984)

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The Fashionable Umbellifers

I do not often give fashion advice but today I will give a tip. Umbellifers, dear reader, umbelliferous plants are hot overseas and we usually follow fashion. Preferably in white but that is not a great problem because it is the most common colour. If the flower looks familiar, it is because the apiaceae family that spawns most of the plants with these flat headed flower clusters called umbels, includes carrots, parsley and coriander. Also fennel, though that has soft yellow flowers.

The umbellifers include a number of wildflowers or roadside weeds, depending on which camp you fall in to. A fair few appear to be referred to as Queen Anne’s Lace, or common cow parsley, but we have failed to disentangle the many different species. There is a very large one referred to as giant hogweed that we saw growing wild in England. It is renowned for its caustic sap and the advice is to avoid ever touching it, let alone growing it from choice.

Why are the umbellifers so popular? They make a huge contribution to the nectar and pollen supply. Most have finer foliage and the flowers can rise above and appear to be dancing lightly in the air. Compare them to the chunky, compact bedding plants available today, and you can see how ethereal these simple blooms appear. Jaunting around a number of local gardens recently, I saw the annual Orlaya grandiflora being used. This is sometimes called French cow parsley or white lace flower. It is a smaller growing option available on the local market (Kings Seeds have it listed). Apparently switched-on gardeners have already picked up on the simple charm of umbellifers.

Pretty little Orlaya grandiflora

Pretty little Orlaya grandiflora

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission. 

The November Garden – rose time

November is peak rose season for us

This is the first spring in twenty seven years that our garden has not been open to the public. It has been something of a revelation. We have so many friends and colleagues who open their private gardens for at least some of the year that it had become normal – an integral part of our lives and how we gardened. We wanted a break but the main driver for the decision to close has been the high impact of the petrochemical industry. From being a sleepy little rural enclave, in a few short years Tikorangi has become Petrochemical Central and this has sent scarily large amounts of heavy and often hazardous transport past our gate. It is not a good fit with an open garden. We take the long view here. Our garden is built around trees originally planted by Mark’s great grandfather from 1870 onwards. The house gardens have been intensively worked since they were first put in by Mark’s parents in 1950. It seems likely that the garden will still be here when the gas has been pumped out from the ground below us and the petrochemical companies have moved on from fossil fuels – to renewables, we hope. In the interim, I don my iPod because I would rather listen to music in the garden than heavy industry. Now we garden for our own pleasure and without having to titivate to open garden standards – or garden grooming we call it.

Cymbeline, on of the David Austen roses

Cymbeline, on of the David Austen roses

November is peak rose season for us. I have a love-hate affair with roses. I am forever debating with myself whether the beauty of the blooms outweighs the foliage and form which are often disappointing – even more so as the poor defoliated things battle through summer and autumn. But is a large, comprehensive garden ever complete without roses? The problem is that we don’t spray our roses. Ever. I never spray anything and Mark point blank refuses to do roses. If they don’t perform without spraying, rip them out and replace them is his view. We do a bit of that and we are trialling some almost thornless pillar roses for a new pergola we have planned.

Mme Plantier, I understand

Mme Plantier, I understand

Mme Plantier, I understand [/caption]Personally, I am not a fan of hybrid teas. They don’t even rank amongst desirable cut flowers for me. I much prefer the informal floribunda types. We have a wonderful white shrub rose which was finally identified for us as Mme Plantier. It keeps excellent foliage without intervention, flowers in abundance and is sweetly scented. But it is only once-flowering and so many gardeners now refuse to grow any rose that doesn’t repeat-flower through the season. We don’t expect other shrubs to flower continually but poor roses are now judged by a different standard. Is six weeks not enough?

Rose Flower Carpet Appleblossom

Rose Flower Carpet Appleblossom

While the Rose Flower Carpet series never attract descriptors such as delicious or exquisite, as high health backbone plants, we have yet to find anything to rival them. Year in and year out, they flourish despite our high humidity and high summer rainfall.  The somewhat vibrant pink form that was the first to be released and the white have particularly long flowering seasons. In fact the white is rarely without blooms. The bright pink looks great when surrounded by large amounts of background green. It took me a few attempts to find the right locations. I prefer the paler apple blossom pink but it doesn’t repeat as well and blooms can ball in heavy rain. While we don’t spray, I am old fashioned and prune by the manual, even though there is research which says that a pass over with hedge clippers is just as effective. We keep roses in open, sunny positions with good air movement. As a point of principle, we do not routinely add fertilisers to our ornamental gardens but we mulch often with homemade compost. That is their feed. If any roses can’t perform well enough with the same regime of care that the rest of the garden gets, then I am afraid they are not for us. But those that do well here are a November delight.

First published in the November issue of NZ Gardener and reprinted here with their permission.