Belle story

I took a trip up to Melville Rose Nursery near Kalamunda in the Perth hills at the end of last week. I had a couple more David Austin roses I wanted to pick up – a St Cecilia (after seeing them in an Open garden at the end of last year) and William Morris. The William Morris is my best guess at what the rose growing against the shed back in this post is, which I absolutely love. They look like they should be good performers – they were covered in buds. The St Cecilia is very fragrant as well which is a huge bonus.

Darcey Bussel

Here are some photos I took up there. Not all of the roses were labelled, so I haven’t identified them all.

Jude the Obscure

The Yeoman

Moonbeam

Francine Austin

And the rest are unknown

Happy Gardening!

Pierre de Ronsard (Eden rose) weeping standard

It’s rolled around into autumn and finally the end of the heat here in Perth and I still have one last post to go using photos I took last spring.

This is my Pierre de Ronsard (or Eden rose as it’s called in some parts) weeping standard.

I bought this from Roworths nursery in Landsdale. 

They have this cracker example in their carpark. This photo was taken around January or February I think, so blooms aren’t all that prolific, but the shape of it had me pulling my wallet out and asking ‘how much?’

Pierre de Ronsard is one of those rose varieties that take a few years to mature into a prolific bloomer. The maturity of it when I bought it meant that I only had to wait a couple of years for its flowering season to extend through to autumn. Up until then it didn’t flower past Australia Day (at the end of January).

This year it is starting to take on a good form as well.

In sadder news, however, the tally of deaths at the end of this summer is 5. I bought a couple of fuchsias (love them) last spring that didn’t make it; lost a couple of natives (a grevillea and a dwarf tea tree) possibly from old age - I hear some of them are short-lived; and my silver birch which is very sad.

One of the first trees I planted, after 8 summers it has passed away… now I’ve got to decide if I can do something with that lovely trunk or remove it and start from scratch.

Ahhh gardening. It has its ups and downs. Best wishes for yours.

Hedges

Two-tone hedge in a nursery in the Adelaide Hills

It’s still summer here in Perth and still hot, although (surprise! surprise!), we’ve had some decent rain recently and for a week or so it was very cloudy and warm (well hot really). I was expecting powdery mildew to become the order of the day, but no, following that everything has put on new growth like you wouldn’t believe.

Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis Indica) Hedge

And a close up of the spring flowers

I’m still running through photos I collected in spring. This post actually has photos that are several years old, but as the heading suggests these are photos of hedges that I haven’t grown, just seen.

Heart shaped hedge at Melville Roses, near Kalamunda

I love the formality of hedges although I personally only have one along the edge of my driveway, a lilli-pilli called Tiny Trev. It’s looking a little relaxed at the moment. In the past I have lost plants (and my first hedge) after pruning in hot weather so I avoid it now and hold off till the weather cools down. I tried taking photos of it but they aren’t turning out well so I’ll leave it for this post.

Rosemary hedge

These photos are taken in the garden of a medical centre near where I work. It has a very formal aesthetic with a lot of hedges and ‘Iceberg’ roses everywhere.

Unknown flowering hedge

I love it and had ideas of basing my front yard design along the same lines but my yard layout doesn’t really suit the straight line divisions required for a formal look and I had to give it away.

Plumbago hedge (it only works well where it gets afternoon shade)

I still dream of an all-white rose garden and I may yet plant an all-white rose section somewhere as an area opens up due to the death of a plant. Some Australian natives are fairly short-lived and I’ve had a couple of deaths this summer.

Gardenia hedge

Happy Gardening!

Sue