In the fern house

January 13, 2016January 25, 2016 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

We have a little old structure at the back of our garden shed where we keep our replacement indoor plants, try and strike cuttings and germinate seedlings. It is not ideal as either a greenhouse or fern house but we make it work for us. One of our helpers there is the Australian semi-slug Helicarion mastersi which is called a herbivore but eats biofilm and sooty mould. If there is any plant damage in the area we can usually find a pest slug or snail also in residence.

We have a few plants of general interest in there from time to time. Two South African plants are flowering at the moment, Utricularia bisquamata flowers with Drosera capensis (also South African) and moss and Stapelia asterias.

Helicarion mastersi is called a semi-slug because it cannot retract fully into it’s shell

Helicarion mastersi, the little “horn” on it’s tail is an identifying feature

Drosera capensis the Cape sundew, a carnivorous plant from South Africa growing with moss

Stapelia asterias a carrion flower from South Africa called carrion because of the scent designed to attract specialist pollinators.

A few summer flowers

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

Lilium asiatic hybrids Kaveri and Cocopa among elm leaves

Filipendula ulmaria Meadowsweet

Pelargonium rodneyanum Australian native

Santolina virens Green lavender cotton

Insects in the garden

January 5, 2016 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

Fungus eating ladybird Illeis galbula

After a hot spell, Christmas was cool and damp and consequently stress free for gardeners worried about wilting pot plants. The summer warmth brings out the insects and we identified our 5th Ladybird species -the Australian native fungus eating ladybird – a handy beneficial in humid conditions.

We have been monitoring the whitefly and thrips populations on our abutilons since introducing the green lacewing larvae and have recorded a huge drop in pest numbers using both yellow and blue sticky

Brown lacewing on blue sticky trap with white flies a beetle and an unidentified fly

traps. We can’t say if the green lacewings contributed because we have been unable to spot either the larvae or adults in the vicinity. We did trap a brown lacewing adult on our final sticky trap and did see a brown lacewing larva on the abutilon. Environmental conditions may have contributed as we have greatly reduced watering and there was the hot dry spell. Our final insect photo is a dragon fly perched on an ivy leafed geranium. I actually gathered it up as an untidy leaf which then vibrated in my hand.

Dragonfly

Summer wildlife at Waldorf

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

The hot weather proved too much for one young ringtail possum. It dropped from the Linden at the feet of some guests this morning. They gathered it up away from the ants and I delivered it to the Wentworth Falls Vets. They will check it over and then release it to WIRES who will look after it until ready for releasing back here. We think it is probably dehydrated and hope the drop to the ground didn’t do it any damage.

Young ringtailed possum fallen from Linden tree photo by Louise

Young ringtail possum fallen from Linden tree
(photo by Louise)

The heat does not worry the blue tongue lizards, this one was heading away from the mower. The kookaburra is probably on the lookout for any sort of lizard, there are little skinks about too.

Blue tongue lizard

Kookaburra on the urn

And last but not least Billy the dog among the Weeping grass Microlaena stipoides with the pink flowering Blueberry Ash Elaeocarpus reticulatus flowering behind him.

Billy in the Microlaena

Warringine Park

December 18, 2015December 19, 2015 / Liz Riley / Leave a comment

With BHP Steel and Esso on the horizon and tankers out to sea Warringine Park boardwalk stretches around a section of Western Port on the Mornington Peninsular from Hastings to Bittern. We walked from Hastings to the viewing platform and returned.

Warringine wetland viewing platform

The wetland attracts many migratory birds including a curlew overwintering from Siberia. 176 different bird species have been sighted in the park. The boardwalk has been recently rebuilt after a fire in January 2015. The walk begins on a raised track and then continues on a boardwalk.

Warringine track

Warringine track plant community

The shrubs regenerating were Leptospermum and Allocasuarina and the trackside community included Austrodanthonia sp. and a little pigface, possibly Disphyma crassifolium.

Warringine wetland pool

Warringine wetland pool from boardwalk

The dominate greenery around the pool here is Samphire I think; Sarcocornia quinqueflora.

Lambley Nursery and Garden

December 18, 2015 / Liz Riley / Leave a comment

Lambley Nursery was originally situated in the Dandenongs but is now located at Ascot, north of Ballarat. The countryside around Ballarat looks very dry. The perennials at Lambley are grown for their drought tolerance but a good show does require some rain or supplementary water sometime.

A Lambley garden view

In the foreground above is a beautiful drift of clary sage. I have wanted to try it in the Waldorf garden since seeing a plant in one of the Leura Mall gardens. The purple behind is I think Salvia Celestial Blue. I bought both these plants from the nursery. The silver leafed Verbascum behind the Salvia I had already purchased at the Diggers nursery at Cloudehill.

The Lambley pear walk

The pears are Pyrus calleryana and so are very similar to our car park Pyrus. The purple along the edge are Salvia nemorosa hybrids. This area looked so cool after the drive through dry bare country. We have Salvia nemorosa “Caradonna” at the Gazebo entrance. These plants I am sure originated from Lambley.

Yellow Clematis

Anthemis Mrs E.C. Buxton

The yellow clematis will be available for sale from Lambley in the winter but I forgot to ask its name, on consulting my “Clematis for all Seasons” book by John Feltwell my guess is C.tangutica “Bill MacKenzie”. The Anthemis is the softer yellow colour I had sort at Cloudehill. It has been propagated from a cutting given to David Glenn by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch from her garden at Cruden Farm. It is a plant that brings us back to the first garden we visited on our Victorian sojourn.

Cloudehill

December 17, 2015December 18, 2015 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

Cloudehill is a modern garden slotted into what had been a farm/nursery/flower farm in the Dandenongs dating from the 1890s. A bushfire swept through the property in 1962 but some plantings survived from earlier times,1928 being a big planting year and then 1962 post the fire. The mature trees on the property date from these times.

Cloudehill beeches

Part of the modern garden (built from 1992) incorporates a section of cool borders followed by warm borders on either side of a central path.

Cloudehill warm border

Cloudehill cool border

Cloudehill Achillea in cool border

The Achillea in the cool border caught my eye but it was not until I returned home and consulted “Cloudehill, a year in the garden” by Jeremy Francis that I realised it is probably Achillea “Moonshine”. I brought back Achillea “Coronation Gold” from the Diggers nursery now on site – a brighter yellow from the warm border but still with silvery foliage.

Cloudehill path through grass

The path through the grass looks like it might end at a topiary buxus or holly but I didn’t actually check. On the map this lawn is called the Commedia dell’arte lawn and maybe my Achillea has sneaked into the corner of the photo.

Cloudehill view down the valley

The local Mountain Ash eucalypts tower over the deciduous trees down the right of the photo.

The book by the current owner Jeremy Francis is very good and full of lots of great photographs including the colony of Arisaema candidissimum which I saw but failed to photograph. “Cloudehill, a year in the garden” by Jeremy Francis, Images Publishing, Victoria, 2010.

Cranbourne Royal Botanic Garden

December 16, 2015December 17, 2015 / Liz Riley / 2 Comments

Just down the road from Cruden Farm is the Royal Botanic Garden dedicated to Australian native plants and preserving an indigenous Victorian bushland. The walkway up to the gardens is through the local bush and then the entry to the gardens themselves is a view of the spectacular red sand garden with lovely dry habitat planting flowering around its edge. I tried to photograph a New Holland honeyeater busy in the kangaroo paws.

Red Sand Garden

New Holland honeyeater in kangaroo paws

native plantings around edge of red sand garden

The Eucalypt walk is a highlight with lots of interesting under plantings and bluestone hard landscaping.

Eucalypt Walk

Acacia howittii prostrate form with the native jasmine Jasminum suavissimum creeping through

Grass tree style

Bottle trees

There is a large amount of hard landscaping using stone and water throughout the garden in the midst of which is the weird and wonderful garden and its bottle trees. The gardens do hope to encourage visitors to consider natives in their gardens and seem to be experimenting with various plants to assess suitability and pleasing groupings. The plant I will definitely be considering for our gazebo garden is Leptospermum morrisonii “White Opal”. We do have burgundy plantings in the Gazebo gardens and I hope it will be an improvement on Berberis as it has no prickles and with increased hardiness as compared to Loropetalum.

Leptospermum morrisonii “White Opal”

Cruden Farm Tour

December 16, 2015December 17, 2015 / Liz Riley / Leave a comment

A quick garden trip to Victoria involving lots of driving and we made the 10am tour conducted by John Christie, horticulturalist and General Manager at Cruden Farm. The paddocks where looking summery with the famous lemon scented gums up the driveway fitting right in as the approach to the lovely borders and trees around the house.

Looking down the drive and out into the summery paddocks

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch gardened here from 1927 until her death in 2012. Lady Mabel Fairfax began gardening at Sospel (now Waldorf Leura Gardens Resort) in 1927 and the age of both gardens is apparent in their tranquil feel. Cruden Farm has lovely lawns and a huge 80 year old tree on the National Trust register. It is a hybrid oak and dominates the inner garden a little like the Linden Tree does here. There is a lovely specimen of a weeping elm beside the oak.

Hybrid oak with weeping elm tucked in to the left

Our weeping elm was not planted until 1966 by Margaret Stevens but it has attained a similar size. A copper beech is another stunning old tree. The Lady Fairfax garden contains a beech specimen of a similar size but it is not from the purpurea group.

The two borders that caught my eye where the burgundy border echoing the colours of the copper beech and the white border. The white border contained tall white phlox. The tall phlox were a part of the Fairfax borders too although they are the pink ones in the photos we have.

White border with white phlox down towards the end

Burgundy border

Cruden farm has a lake which Dame Elisabeth helped to sculpt, a walled garden designed by Edna Walling and a picking garden with lots of roses looking fabulous.

Cruden Farm Lake with pin oaks planted by Dame Elizabeth's granddaughters reaching the water

Cruden Farm Lake with pin oaks planted by Dame Elisabeth’s granddaughters reaching the water

A section of the planting in the walled garden

The beautiful rambler around the gatehouse

What rose is that?

December 3, 2015 / Liz Riley / Leave a comment

It has been a great year for roses in the mountains and instead of considering removing them all I have decided to have a go at identifying them. The last shot is over the road, the colours kept catching my eye so I walked over and photographed them.