Blushing Lucy is in full bloom in the Victorian Rose Garden and putting on a spectacular display.
Brian Dellamore with this year’s garlic crop pulled today, now curing under the extension to the handsome Garden Shed built by Keith Bateman last year.
The Rockland Border gardens contain a number of unusual plants. The photograph on the left shows: top left, Paraserianthes lophantha (Crested Wattle), native to Australia; top center, Tetrapanex papyrifer (Rice Paper plant) native to Taiwan; and top right with purple flowers, Solanum. Planted below are ligularia, restio, Euphorbia griffithii, fuchsia and dahlia. The photograph on the right shows Abutilon ‘Tiger Eye’. A tender perennial, Abutilon is a genus of many broadleaf flowering evergreen trees and shrubs, commonly called Flowering Maples.
This is a great time to view the many iris species and cultivars growing in the gardens. While the flowers come in many colours, here is a sampling of three purple iris currently in bloom.
Camas (Camassia quamash) are in bloom on the Terraces and in the Woodlands.
The Nursery Group propagation skills are now focused on serving specific needs of the Government House gardens for new plants, replacement of worn out plants or maybe simply for more plants. Behind every great garden is a good nursery. Reliance on local commercial nurseries is expensive. The Nursery Group is hoping to fill at least part of the requirements internally and provide a real savings. New facilities are in place so that a full range of propagation techniques can be used including cuttings, seeding and plant division. We can advise on the best way to meet specific garden needs with capacity to handle a significant plant volume or just a solitary specimen if that’s what is wanted. If there are left over plants after a project is completed then they will be sold. We are tracking new introductions particularly perennial varieties. Acquisitions will be displayed in the nursery for review if supervisors are interested in acquiring them.
A camellia blooming near the Pearkes Peak flagpole.
