Cool Subtropics Garden Masterclass Hunters Hill ‘Clifton’

‘Clifton’ Hunters Hill … an 1890 mansion & garden

Garden Loving Colleages, hoping you will join me at beautiful ‘Clifton’ in Hunters Hill for a Masterclass on cool subtropics planting to suit our coastal    Sydney gardens.

Felicity McCaffery, owner of ‘Clifton’ and Hunters Hill Open Gardens Convenor, has agreed to host my talk to shed further light across the dazzling array of planting bandwidth that fits between our cool subtropical goal posts.

‘Clifton’ balustrade serpentine of hydrangea

See a 40 minute keynote presentation with 20 minutes for questions, of a selection of my Sydney designs and the current home work garden ’Sea-Changer’ at Forresters Beach, Central Coast, on how to make a better garden in warm temperate, coastal, frost free growing conditions.

Cycads flank the facing entry to ‘Clifton’

Find out more about what cool sub-tropics gardening is and the exciting plants you could be growing that are a fit to our brief winters and long sultry, thunder storm filled summers to make your garden great again. Part Wendy Whiteley’s garden at Lavender Bay, expanded into seasonal colour blasts, year round textural contrasts, low maintenance and next to nil predation.

The Masterclass includes a cool subtropics mini tube plant to try at home, plus free admission to my         ‘Sea-Changer’ garden on Saturday 4th May 10am – 2pm, 21 Lavinia Street, Forresters Beach.

Hippeastrum hybrids at “Clifton’

Limited numbers for this exciting talk and something to look forward to after Easter Holidays!! To hold the event Felicity and I need to get an idea on numbers. To show your interest in attending, please click on the ‘leave a comment’ field at the bottom left of this post. 

WHERE: ‘Clifton’ 7 Woolwich Road, Hunters Hill

WHO: Garden Designer Peter Nixon – Paradisus

WHEN: 10am – 11.30am, Wednesday 1st May ’19

RSVP: to show you’d like to attend Friday 1st March

COST: $25 pp at the door

BENEFICIARY: L’Arche 4 Sydney  

Green Gallery for the best colour ..

Shorter life cycle colour keeps a design open by reserving featured parts of the garden for annuals dear Designer Growers Network Peeps.

This is one way of keeping your design dynamic to avoid congestion. Planting that’s all permanent would otherwise close in and use all available growing space. This leaves nowhere to freshen your design with the ever-changing brightness of annual and biennial plantings. Here’s a few examples of mine from ‘Sea-Changer’s’ Entry Garden.  

Green Gallery temporary gallardia Blanket Flowers with permanent Neoregelia zonata
Green Gallery temporary gallardia Blanket Flowers with permanent Neoregelia zonata at ‘Sea-Changer’
Dimorphotheca daisy hybrids with pentas lanceolata hybrids
Dimorphotheca daisy hybrids with pentas lanceolata hybrids at ‘Sea-Changer’
Crossandra and Laurentia add welcome at 'Sea-Changer's Front Gate Garden
Crossandra and Laurentia add welcome at ‘Sea-Changer’s Front Gate Garden

Enter Green Gallery’s Jeremy Critchley and a world of annual & biennial options open up for you …in full or near full day sun your choice bandwidth is huge at GG of the most interesting and beautiful. The following 3 really were standouts when I visited recently.    

A sunray of Echinacea Sombrero Lemon at Green Gallery
A sunray of Echinacea Sombrero Lemon at Green Gallery
A raspberry of Vinca Tatoo Series Black Cherry
A raspberry of Vinca Tatoo Series Black Cherry
A strawberry milkshake of Gaura Belleza Series, Geyser Pink
A strawberry milkshake of Gaura Belleza Series, Geyser Pink

And for the southern house side, in the fernery or as understory ground cover beneath large trees in bright shade or morning sun these pinged hard in passing – 

A cool green pool of Pilea peperomoides
A cool green pool of Pilea peperomoides
A golden blast of Philodendron ‘Prince of Orange'
A golden blast of Philodendron ‘Prince of Orange’
Or a quiet elegance of Alocasia amazonica dwarf
Or a swish elegance of Alocasia amazonica dwarf

I might add that Jeremy and his Production Manager Peter are one of very few nurseries who e-mail a WEEKLY planting availability listing, that includes a responding roll-out of colour images. VERY impressive and I would say essential, especially when dealing in relatively short life cycle, high performance plants.

YAY for Jeremy & Peter !!!! 

Jeremy Critchley – The Green Gallery 0403 194 320     thegreengallery@yahoo.com.au and www.thegreengallery.com.au  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cabbage Tree, an old fave grower for cool subtrops ..

Dichroa versicoloured the evergreen hydrangea
Dichroa versicolor the evergreen hydrangea ..

Shady beautiful from Jon & Terry at Cabbage Tree …useful evergreens flowering shrubs to less than 3m are always good to find. Especially ones like the Evergreen Hydrangea, Dichroa versicolor that favour the southern house side where they grow without losing condition during sunless winter months AND conceal the boundary fencing.

Sandy slightly alkaline soils produce rose shades
Sandy slightly alkaline soils produce rose shades for Paradisus design
Epidendrum hybrids at Cabbage Tree
Epidendrum hybrids at Cabbage Tree
Crucifix Orchids used as part of xerophytic rooftop mix
Crucifix Orchids used as part of xerophytic rooftop mix for Paradisus design

Self Water storage is the imperative if your selection is going to match to rooftop low water use growing conditions.  Contrasting textures bring year round interest yes and if there are seasonal flowers as a bonus, why not consider Epidendrum ibaguense hybrids. Also perfect for within drip-lines of crunchy, dry gum leaves where little else does so well …

Solandra longiflora the Dwarf Hawaiian Chalice
Solandra longiflora the Dwarf Hawaiian Chalice

If shady evergreen shrubs are good to find, interesting climbers are scarce as hens teeth. Enter Solandra longiflora, little sister to S. maxima and an extremely useful subject for converting pvc mesh fencing to ‘green fencing’. ‘Green Fencing is where certain climbers that are flexible but woody enough to hold position,   are woven loosely through mesh and effectively disappear into the garden but have the advantage of keeping your client’s dog and the neighbour’s dogs out.

Solandra longiflora a medium weight climber for frost free cool sub-tropics
Solandra longiflora a medium weight climber for frost free cool sub-tropics – Paradisus design

Garden variety bromeliads that make good garden plants are a low risk option for bright but dry shade. Virtually no maintenance or predation, Billbergia (‘Domingos Martins X ‘Ed MacWilliams’) ‘Hallelujah’ is high on this list and if you have a featured east facing spot for morning sun only, expect to be rewarded with stained glass winter colour through low angled sun light and flower flashes during any of the warm weather.     

Billbergia ('Domingos Martins X 'Ed MacWilliams') 'Hallelujah'
Billbergia (‘Domingos Martins X ‘Ed MacWilliams’) ‘Hallelujah’

Go on, make a garden from plants I dare you and call Jon or Terry now !!!

Jon Williams & Terry Castle for Cabbage Tree Nursery

64 Quarry Road, Dural 9651 1851‬

 

 

   

 

      

Pete’s Leaves & Shoots … ’19 promising newcomer grower

Agave america, a hero plant for the largest statement maker
Agave americana, a hero plant for the largest statement maker

Young growers with ‘planty’ interest are great to find, so when I came across Pete Bowen at his 3 year old growing space at Sommersby on the Central Coast last month –  I stayed to have a good look around.. !

Now dear reader, I don’t want you thinking each grower covered on DGN Blog amounts to a random roll-out of kooky plants in no particular order or use. So if you’re reading this in the hopes of expanding an existing plant offering to clients for your designs, into interesting non-general line to give your work an edge – you’ve come to the right place !! To this end I’ve made humble suggestion in pairs (or more) of how you might do this. Of course, its entirely up to you how you might use Pete’s feisty current range but as follows to inspire –

Aloe variegata 'Gator' like a triangulate 'little stiff dress' for living sculpture high contrast
Aloe variegata ‘Gator’ like  triangulate ‘little stiff dresses’ for living sculpture high contrast
Lampranthus brownii, pillar box red year round Pigs Face
Lampranthus brownii, pillar box red year round Pigs Face

So if you had a sunny patch where height restrictions at the front of the planting space were limited to less than 200mm but focal requirements high at the front door, why not crowd Aloe variegata ‘Gator’ together at 250mm centres. Then bring gauzy relief to these little stiff triangulate peaks with a species Pig Face, Lampranthus brownii. These will wind their wiry way around each crisp alligator patterned mini Aloe, with matched low water requirements and a year round blast of pillar box red.

Carex buchanii - Brown Sedge a perfect ultra fine foil for rubbery textures
Carex buchanii – Brown Sedge a perfect ultra fine foil for rubbery textures
Senicio amaniensis, flushes bright cochineal in winter
Senicio amaniensis, flushes bright cochineal in winter

Next up in height at less than 400mm or so, and still in at least half day sun might be a tawny broom straw sweep of Brown Sedge, Carex buchanii. This plant often looks intriguingly ‘dead’ but isn’t and you can get year round contrast using a  rubbery cluster of Senicio amaniensis, that has the added feature of a cochineal flush where winter’s cool night air touches it in dry conditions.

Kniphofia 'Candlelight' grassy sword supporting chartreuse mini torches
Kniphofia ‘Candlelight’ makes a grassy sword supporting chartreuse mini torches
Senicio mandraliscae rug cover of soft blue fingers
Senicio mandraliscae rug cover of soft blue fingers

Succulent blue foliage can be difficult to reconcile with other planting into the garden. Somehow it often looks marooned in its blueness. Use of chartreuse flowers or gold foliage always looks fresh though. Dwarf Pokers in a sunny 350mm tall like Kniphofia ‘Candlelight’, against thick rugs of Chalk Sticks, will give your design ‘high pop’ just where you need it for extra feature on converging sight lines. Be sure to use Senicio madraliscae, avoiding S. serpens that tends to black over with rot by late February humidity.

Agave america, a hero plant for the largest statement maker
Agave america, a hero plant for the largest statement maker

These young plants haven’t developed their distinctive mid point white stripe on each leaf. Long before they do you’ll want to be sure to give plenty of elbow room to expand out into an impressive 3 m wide statement maker and about as high ! Super sharp spikes on each leaf apex and armed with sawfish-like teeth on the leaf margins, these are not so recommended for a pool surround or front door approach. If you’re looking for a hero plant however with gravitas, to anchor your design to a distant but featured corner in challengingly poor unirrigated soil , THIS is the plant for you !!

Euphorbia cotonifolia, a beautiful humidity loving alternative to Cotonis coggyria - Smoke Bush
Euphorbia cotonifolia, a beautiful humidity loving alternative to Cotonis coggyria – Smoke Bush

Requirement for small trees less than 5 meters with featured deciduous foliage is not something that’s going away any time soon. Increasingly limited available space for our designs and a tendency for most winter deciduous offerings to wildly exceed this height limit, can make responding successfully to this request challenging. Especially when most suggestions purportedly a fit for this requirement, come from a far cooler climate than the cool to warm sub-tropics in Sydney Metro.

However, Euphorbia cotonifolia (after Cotinis coggyrifolia – Smoke Bush that it looks quite like, sans the high humidity intolerance), is a great fit for this category. It ticks most boxes for feature foliage colour, height and regular shape. You may have to stake a young tree against lurching over during summer storm strength wind and reduce its tendency to multi-stem by removing all but the strongest leader while still less than a year old. Past these, it has no predator I know of and the pretty claret red high spring canopy usefully sheds by late July to prevent winter gloom for companion planting.

Synadenium grantii rubra, Red South African Milk Bush small tree for paces of limited space
Synadenium grantii f. rubra – Red South African Milk Bush small tree for places of limited space

Last but not least, another feature small tree coming from tropical eastern Africa remains an excellent red and or apple green splashed feature for the courtyard. Being warm sub-tropics, canopy with drop by end of August and its convincingly  combined with bromeliads, euphorbias, kalanchoe, hibiscus, phymosia, brugmansia, iochroma, solandra, ensetes/musa, heliconia, hedychium, dichorisandra, hoya, ruellia and many other cool to warm sub-tropics. Yes, don’t put your hand to your face while pruning it to shape as the white sap is irritating to eyes and some people also experience hive-like reaction. Short of these a more beautiful small tree with feature foliage would be hard to find.

Expand plant offering, support a grower with interesting alternatives to production grown lines while giving your work a distinctive edge !! Pete’s range is expanding, call him to discuss your requirements for a design made from plants.     

Pete’s Leaves & Shoots – Peter Bowen 0400 134 404‬

64 Ghilkes Road
Somersby (Central NSW Coast) pete@shootandleaves.co.au 
      

Peter Nixon – Paradisus & Convenor Designer Growers Network Blog 0418 161513 Insta Facebook             

o418 161513 info@peternixon.com.au

   

           

 

     

    

 
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