Geranium maderence and the annual bed revisited

When I think of Geraniums stinky smells and old people come to mind. My thoughts, however, were changed when Michael Dale pointed out this magnificent Geranium maderence which is in the entrance garden in Parkville. When not in flower I barely noticed it but it is now in bloom and it looks amazing, nothing like the traditional ones I see here in the front yards of seniors. Like the Echiums I'm fond of it is also native to the Canary Islands and specifically the island of Madeira. It is a biennial plant but it self seeds easily so there is always another ready to go when another dies. It flowers in its second year of growth.

Look at all those flowers

Close up of a Geranium maderence flower

Last of all we finally got rid of all the Mizuna plants from our annual bed and it looks so much better. It has also filled out substantially since my last post. All the Tulips are now open and the Stocks are standing tall.

Looks so much better than in my first post

The Dutch love Tulips and so do I

Primulas

Some sort of crazy coloured Tulip chosen by Michael Dale



Echium simplex plants in Parkville

Another Echium I love is Echium simplex. Its flowers are much larger than Echium fastuosum, the ones shown below are well over 1.5 long. The plant in its entirety is over 3m tall. The common name for this plant is 'Tower of jewels' due to its incredible flower heads. It doesn't like frost so I wont be trying this one at home as unfortunately it is just too cold. Having just said that, I did see lots of Echium fastuosum plants in Macedon in full flower on the weekend so I'll try planting them. It is a biennial plant but it self seeds vigorously due to its plentiful flowers.  Echium simplex is native to the Canary islands. If you live in Melbourne where the weather permits this plant I would highly recommend it, especially as a show piece in the front garden.

 

Towers of jewels growing in the Parkville garden I work at

 

Bees love Echiums

Strange flowers in Dicksonia rare plants Mt Macedon

 Here are some plants I spotted whilst working at Dicksonia last week. First of all is Muscari botryoides 'album' which is the white version of a regular blue grape hyacinth plant (which can be seen in to the side of the plant in question).

 Next is a plant I know little about which goes by the name of Rununculus ficaria 'brazen hussy'. I had to include it because of its funny name. I'd love to know how it got the name brazen hussy, perhaps an interesting lady once grew them. This is one of the plants in the nursery that is not for sale and that being the case makes me really want it.

Below is a mystery plant that I found behind the brazen hussy at the nursery (I'm referring to the plant when I say that). It looks to be some other variety of Runuculus. I'll ask Stephen what its called next time I'm working with him.

Front garden bed in Parkville (a work in progress)

I've put together this group of pictures of one of the front garden beds in the Parkville garden. The basic idea is that there were 2 massive palm trees that the head gardener wanted gone. After that I had the lovely task of digging out the roots of the palms which took ages (ask anyone who has done it). We then did some edging around the bed and dug through some mushroom compost. Lastly we planted the bed out with annuals for the gardens open day. As in all parts of the garden we haven't finished the bed and we plan to plant some creeper on the cable trellis we installed on the back wall of the bed. The annuals will also have to be periodically replaced (I'm guessing annually haha).

The two trees as they once stood (spot the arborist)

Looks bare now doesn't it?

No more sign. I hope people can still find the general office and the meeting rooms.

Digging around the services pit to install more edging.

But boss its all roots in there!



Here's me digging away. Notice the posts on the wall with steel cable run horizontally every foot or so.

That looks better. All the edging is done and compost has been dug through now time to plant some annuals.

Annuals are now all in place. We planted stocks, violas, pansies, primulas and also some ornamental mizuna (Japanese mustard). There are also some tulip bulbs in there

The bed as it is now.

We tried to plant the annuals with the smalls in the front and talls at the back. Damn it we didn't count on the mizuna being so tall, live and learn i suppose. The stocks and some of the others in there still haven't bloomed or reached their full height as it's still only early spring. A wise gardener once told me that gardening is a process not an end result and we aren't finished with this bed. I'll try to post more pics after the annuals are replaced and the creeper is established the back wall.



Cercis chinensis 'judas tree' & flowering Echium candicans in Parkville

This amazing tree is flowering in the Parkville gardens in which I work. It's called Cercis chinensis. It's a very striking in the sense that its flowers are so abundant and vivid in colour. It is native to China and Japan. There is a myth that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from a tree of the Cercis genus.

The Echium Fastuosum 'Pride of Madeira' plant is finally firing up with most buds now blooming. I did an earlier post on this plant with more botanical information on it.

 

Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' in the Fairfield gardens

Aeoniums are winter flowering succulent plants which are native to Madeira, The Canary Islands, Morocco and East Africa. This Zwartkop cultivar is also known by the common name 'Black Rose'. They look spectacular whether flowering or not. I've taken several cuttings from these plants in Fairfield with the hope of growing them in Macedon. Although they are not supposed to tolerate frost the cuttings have survived through the cold of winter in Macedon so hopefully they will work. Unfortunately they take a few years of development before flowering but it will be well worth the wait if they do. I love the shape of the clusters of flowers (like a small yellow Christmas tree).

Hellebores at Mt Macedon rare plants nursery

Yesterday I worked up at Dicksonia Rare Plants nursery in Mt Macedon. I haven't worked up there for a couple of weeks due to there being incredibly heavy rain. Its been quite uncomfortable working up on the mountain during the winter. Some days it's been between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius and when you take the wind chill factor into account it makes for a bloody cold day. Yesterday was the first day of spring and also the first day in a while where the weather has been sunny and warm. It made for a nice change.

From the nursery I've photographed these Hellebores. Almost everyone who enters stops to look at them. They are hybrids the first of which is called Helleborus x ballardiae 'pink frost'. I'm not sure of the name of the second but you can see that it is a double Hellebore of some variety. These plants have survived the cold winter up at Mt Macedon so they can obviously tolerate frost. Hellebores can also tolerate some shade and they like to be planted under deciduous trees.