On a recent trip to Paris, I was greatly inspired by Monet’s garden.
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The huge colour spectrum of perennial plants was amazing. The different layers and textures, adding depth to the garden, literally lead you up the garden path.
It was an overload of the botanical senses of colour, texture, perfume and bird life.
I was nicely surprised to see Cuphea ‘Tiny Mice’, one of my favourite small plants.
This Cuphea always seems hard to get in Australia, but there it was growing throughout Monet’s garden, with its tiny flowers showing off its blazing red and purple velvety blooms.
The best thing about perennial gardens is the free plants, self-seeding plants and plants that are easily divided and transplanted.
Great for swapping with fellow keen gardeners and always a handy supply for other areas of the garden lacking in numbers.
This year has had some lovely new releases including Lychnis ‘Petite Jenny’, a sweet lavender coloured flower; Echinacea ‘Baja Burgundy’, high impact bold and red; Eryngium ‘Neptunes Gold’, a golden leaf version of the sea holly; the salvia ‘Autumn Sapphire’; and the daffodil ‘Elvin’s Voice’, white flowering highlight.
When using such an array of colour, always use plenty of pockets of white flowering plants and lighter foliaged plants to add contrast and bring out the other colours.
This way, they really highlight the garden.
Try Queen Anne’s lace sprinkled through the garden, white iceberg roses, white cleome and gardenias where you can.
Gardenias bring that starkness of white, but also their perfume.
There are plenty of varieties that vary in size from groundcovers such as Gardenia radicans to taller varieties like ‘Professor Pucci’.
On the border, gardenias are best planted in semi shaded areas protected from afternoon.
A specific fertiliser, such as a good camellia azalea food, keeps them nice and healthy as they are quite hungry feeders producing flowers in most seasons.
All these plants love a good loamy soil rich in organic matter – use plenty of mulch when establishing and apply once a year in the winter when giving the garden a tidy up.
A final reminder for those you want to learn the basics of propagation – Wodonga TAFE has a half-day course on Thursday, October 6.
Alister Rhook will take participants through basic seed sowing and the simple taking of cuttings.
The class runs from 9.30am–12.30pm. Cost: $50.
For more details, visit the horticulture department, University Drive, Wodonga or phone 1300 698 233.