Lambley Plant delivery April 2012

The following plants were ordered from the Lambley Nursery 2012 Autumn Catalogue. As usual they arrived in great order and condition. I put them in full sun after a good watering then leave them for a few days to acclimatize.  They are then ready for planting out.

Agapanthus Purple Cloud.

Agapanthus Purple Cloud

We’ve used this fine New Zealand raised Agapanthus in some mass plantings in Melbourne City Council gardens and seeing well established plants flowering in the Flagstaff and Alexandra Gardens has opened our eyes to this plant’s strengths. We now have some decent sized permanent plantings in the garden here. It makes 180cm tall stems topped by large heads of dark violet-purple flowers over upright rather greyish evergreen foliage. 180cm x 90cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Agastache Aurantiaca.

Agastache Aurantiaca Copper Rose

Copper Rose Hummingbird Mint

This is a new, larger flowered and more vigorous selection of A. aurantiaca which we’ve been trialling for a couple of years in our stock garden. It makes a soundly perennial plant some 120cm tall and 100cm wide with a long succession of large tubular, copper-apricot flowers which age to rose-copper. Our resident New Holland Honeyeaters feast on the nectar of its flowers from mid-summer until late autumn. I cut it back to the basal new growth during winter. Drought tolerant. (Lambley.com.au).

Clematis Ladakhiana.

Clematis Ladakhiana ‘Old Man’s Beard’

Named for the area of Northern India bordering Kashmir and Tibet this tough vigorous climber is one of the easiest and most drought tolerant of all Clematis. It has markedly dissected grey-green leaves and from mid-summer into the autumn carries dangling bronze-yellow lanterns. The autumn seed heads are particularly handsome and warrant the popular English name “Old Man’s Beard.” It will quickly cover a two metre high fence. 200cm x 150cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Euonymus Alatus.

Euonymus Alatus Crimson Bush

Shrubs from China and Japan don’t generally do well here at Lambley. The hot dry winds of summer are too much for them. The deciduous Euonymus alatus is an exception. I planted one about ten years ago and it has never had a burnt leaf and always puts on a really good autumn display with foliage turning pink and crimson during late April and early May. This form isn’t usually found in nurseries where the ‘Compactus’ form is more likely to be found. 200cm x 200cm eventually.
Few only. (Lambley.com.au)

Halimiocistus Wintonensis Merriswood Cream.

Halimiocistus Wintonensis ‘Merrist Wood Cream’

I hadn’t seen this plant for 20 years or more until I dropped in on Malcolm Harris at Stoneyford near Colac a couple of years ago. In Mr Harris’s garden this evergreen shrub was 70cm tall by 100cm across. On the day I was there it was covered by exquisite creamy flowers with a showy maroon centre. H. ‘Merrist Wood Cream’ has done well in the dry garden in a particularly tough dry sunny spot. 70cm x 100cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Kniphofia Winter Cheer.

Kniphofia ‘Winter Cheer’

Kniphofia ‘Winter Cheer’ is one of the delights of winter when the large flower heads, scarlet with a yellow skirt, are produced. In very cold areas frost may burn the tender buds as they first emerge from the foliage clump. The large growing kniphofias are tolerant of drought and this is no exception. I cut the leaves down to about 15cm. after flowering has finished as this keeps everything tidy. 150cm x 100cm. Sun. (Lambley.com.au)

Lilium Regale Bulbs.

Lilium Regale

This is the true, old-fashioned exquisite Christmas Lily. Lilium longiflorum seems to have usurped the name in latter years. Beautiful fragrant flared trumpets of crystalline white, claret backed flowers. Generally starts with us in the second week of December and finishes early in the new year. It is pretty drought tolerant too as we’ve had it growing in a garden bed near the house which is barely watered. Sun or light shade. 120cm x 30cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Lilium Lambley Trumpet.

Lilium ‘Lambley Trumpet’

A wonderful strain of drought tolerant, self-supporting lilies ranging in colour from cream to lemon and mostly with a claret reverse, each one as beautiful as the last. In our dry garden they grow nearly 2 metres tall with very little extra watering. (Lambley.com.au)

Lilium Leslie Woodriff.

Lilium ‘Leslie Woodriff’

Lilium ‘Leslie Woodriff’

The best lily in our garden, L. ‘Leslie Woodriff’ produces 2 metre tall, self-supporting stems each carrying a couple of dozen flowers, white with dark cherry-red centres. It flowers with us during late January and February. It will take a year or so to reach two metres in height but flowers well even when smaller. (Lambley.com.au)

Pelargonium Reniforme.

Pelargonium Reniforme

Pelargonium reniforme is one of an interesting and beautiful group of frost hardy South African Pelargoniums. It’s been growing in our dry garden for three years and has performed so well we have planted another large patch by the side of a gravel path. Evergreen with round hairy greyish green scalloped leaves about the size of a fifty cent coin. It flowers from spring until winter with dozens of magenta moths hovering well above the foliage. Foliage mounds. 25cm x 30cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Salvia Greggii Ritambelle.

Salvia Greggii Ritambelle

Last year we imported this from Olivier Filippi’s nursery in the South of France. It has all the virtues of the species and carries long stems of soft salmon-pink, cream throated flowers which age over time to a creamy peach-pink. Happy in any sunny spot and a joy during its long summer/ autumn flowering period. 70cm by 70cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Salvia Royal Bumble.

Salvia Royal Bumble

Another exciting first release of a Salvia imported from France last year. The glowing red velvet flowers with dark almost black calyces are displayed on long stems held well above the foliage. Sun loving and drought tolerant. 80 cm x 60 cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Sedum Munstead Red.

Sedum Munstead Red

One of the best Sedum with upright red stems with blueish leaves. The cauliflower like heads of deep red flowers are produced during summer and hold well into autumn. Sun. 60cm x60cm. (Lambley.com.au)

Poa Labillardieri Suggan Buggan.

Poa Labillardieri ‘Suggan Buggan’

A fabulous form of this native grass with arching mounds of evergreen foliage, blue and graceful. Typical upright stems of flowers bluish in bud ageing to straw. Cut back to about 15cm immediately after flowering. 100cm x 100cm. Sun or at most very light shade. The best blue leaved grass we grow if given space to breathe and display its beautiful form. (Lambley.com.au)

Asphodelus Aestivus Common Asphodel.

Asphodelus Aestivus ‘Common Asphodel’

A southern European plant which grows in pine woods, olive groves and heavily grazed land from south west Spain to Greece. Sometimes evergreen it is generally dormant during the two hottest months. This asphodel makes 120cm tall branching spikes carrying hundreds of white stars and is in flower for a good eight weeks during spring. Sun or light shade. (Lambley.com.au)

Garden Update September Week 1

Father’s Day weekend and last match of the 2011 AFL football season, well, for the crows anyway! Maybe they will win this weekend and make it 8 wins for the season.

Unfortunately the crows were murdered by the West Coast Eagles and that’s that!

Work continued on painting the verandah ceiling, now to the area outside the rumpus room. Looks really bright and lifts the area nicely.

That is me painting the verandah outside the Rumpus Room

A nice bright ceiling to the verandah!

Now that the verandah is starting to look more impressive I thought I would renovate the old kitchen table we had used under the verandah. It was quite rickety and has extension leaves that always threatened to collapse, although they never did. I braced the main frame at the bottom with a piece of meranti 5in x 1.5in which served well as a footrest also. I then removed some of the hinges from the extension leaves and fitted two pine 42mm x 19mm supports the full length of the table by screwing through the 19mm side and gluing to give maximum strength. This has strengthened the leaves and improved overall stability. With the table now nicely serviceable I went a step further and started to apply some Feast Watson Outdoor Furniture Oil ‘Hardwood’ colour to the table top. Stopped there, ran out of time, and wanted to see if it came up well because the table had previously been varnished. I sanded the surface back with an orbital sander before oiling.

The Rickety kitchen table is now a partly refurbished verandah table.

In the vegie garden I decided to dig up a couple of potato plants that had died back. I was pretty sure there would be no potatoes because they hardly grew any size at all and had succumbed to fungal attack and died, never flowered I am sure. The potatoes were a couple of Desiree reds saved from my 2010 crop in the southern beds.  Out of the row 5m long only 2 plants grew, as they had been planted too early in the season. The plan was to simply replant the row with some new seed potatoes. However, I was astounded at what I found under the ground. For failed plants they produced a mass of 3 kg of good-sized potatoes, larger than tennis balls and almost as round. This spurred me on to continue with spuds a little further. Next to these two plants a row of Kipfler potatoes were planted at the same time. Although these did not germinate either when planted, now they have now all sprouted and are strong plants. To avoid the damping off with fungal rot of my earlier crops I have started a spraying programme with copper spray and baiting for snails, who love potato plants. I have now mounded up the row of Kipflers and will check their progress.

The row of Kipfler potatoes next to the Greenfeats Peas in Bed 1.

The newest patch of strawberries are looking a bit stressed. Pamela and I dug up some new plants from last year’s runners and transplanted them to a new bed in bed 8. Unfortunately they are not doing well and I suspect they have been allowed to dry out a bit too much. I decided to install their soaker system that I use throughout the vegie garden. Once installed they were given a good watering and picked up almost instantly. The soil drying out always catches me out here. The weather remains cool and you think that plants are going well but the rain has stayed away for a few weeks now and the soil is fairly dry. The same situation has occurred in other years so I must add August watering startup to my 2012 planner to avoid the element of surprise next year.

The new strawberry bed in Bed 8 next to the Dry Garden

Inspected the Raspberry beds and see that there is activity with new suckers and last years canes budding up. Still need to set up their trellis and irrigation.

Raspberry Bed with the first signs of spring growth, not very obvious right now

The newest perennial flowers are showing signs of stress so I watered them with the watering can. That seems to do them well enough for a week.

Newly planted Cistus showed signs of stress and were given a small amount of water

Tulips are budding up but only short stems. I wonder if that is because they were planted late or if they are a poor variety. The Diggers free tulips were planted earlier and they have produced longer stems. When the opportunity presents itself I want to get Tulipa Whitallii from Lambley. I have a lot of confidence in Lambley products at this stage. Not one of the plants I purchased from them has died and all are doing very well! I expect their bulbs will be as successful.

Yorktown tulips flowered very low in the vase of the leaves. Not very showy.

Diggers Tulip is growing on a longer stem than the Yorktown tulips

In the North Perennial Garden the Oyster Plant is doing beautifully and I can see at least 5 flower spikes coming. I thought it was going to take several years for our first flowers but we have some in our first year.

The moved Impatiens with the Oyster plant between it and the palm. Note the Day lilies to the right behind the jonquils.

The plant has now spread so wide that it has half covered my Impatiens which looks like it is trying to run away. So I decided to pull out my Comfrey which are dormant at the moment and will move them to the herb spot in the South Perennial Garden. I dug out the Impatiens and put it further to the front at the edge where the Comfrey were removed. Although it will probably stress a bit for a week or two I hope it will be looking nice again for christmas.

The day lilies in the North Perennial Bed are looking very vigorous and exciting. I  now there is at least one orange coloured one but the rest are a  mystery. Sweet Peas in the same bed are also looking very strong and beginning to show some flower buds but as yet there are no flowers. Daffodils flowered only poorly and were another disappointment. Bulbs came from Diggers and another of their less than successful plants. When the tops die back I will move them to the dry garden and see how they go there. The Rhubarb in this bed came from Kangaroo Island, Liz and Scott, and are also poor. They are growing fine but threw up so many flowers that I was for ever breaking them off. I have ordered a new thick stalk variety from New Gippsland Seed Farm and hope they will behave better. When they are established I will pull the others out. Alstroemeria is moving and expanding but no flowers at the moment. The Mother’s Day Chrysanthemum has died back and not showing signs of resprouting from the base. Dusty Miller is sending up tall flower spikes after sitting there doing very little for the past year or so. Will be interesting to see how it comes up. Clivia are flowering sporadically but they look like taking another year to settle in. Agapanthus look strong but not flowering yet. Elephant ears bulbs did not flower this year but leaves look strong and the same story for the Nerines. I suspect this bed may too wet for them to set flowers in the bulbs but the real test for these will be a comparison with those planted in the dry garden next season. Wild Irises have just started to throw out a few flowers. The Bay tree is budding up and looks like it will move soon. Bearded irises that are left in this garden look healthy but I suspect they may not flower either this year, garden is probably too wet in this area. I will check them against those in the dry garden.

The herb barrels have grown well over the past year and need some work. Unfortunately they were not used as I expected so this year I will change things around, not physically with the barrels but how they are planted. I planted some pansies in one empty one at the end of autumn and they are flowering beautifully.

Herb barrels with Pansies flowering in the barrel nearest the road.

Tom helped with rotary hoeing this weekend. Bed 1A and 1B were hoed as was Bed 8 ready for some early spring plantings. In bed 1A beside the Greenfeast Peas I will plant the latest Kipfler seed potatoes and bed 8 will probably have some of the sweetcorn beds.

Pamela got stuck into the Canna beds in the South Perennial Bed on Sunday. We are a bit late cutting them down to the ground, should be done in June but there hasn’t been much movement yet so it should be OK. Canna can’t be shredded with a cheap shredder, it just clogs up, so the stalks will be manually chopped then added to the cold compost heap, which seems to be working well as it reduces a fair amount each week. I will start a new one in Summer and close this one up for the next year or so.

Pamela chopped down the Cannas to make room for this year's flowers

Phillip helped out by emptying and screening the compost tumbler. It had a fair amount of woody material not composted so that will be added to the next batch. The screened compost he put into the spare wheelie bin ready for the next bed being ready.

Cut the first batch of asparagus on Sunday and made some cream of asparagus soup – delicious. Gave the patch a good watering and it looks like we may get a good result this season. The 1-year-old crowns are still in the foam tub but these will be planted out this month.

Asparagus bed jus beginning to produce.

Garden Update 28-8-11

This week my latest order from Lambley arrived. These are designed to develop some plantings started with the previous order. This shipment comprised the following: Agapanthus Inapertus Hollandii ‘Lydenberg’, Cotyledon Orbiculata ‘Tall Flowered Form, Penstemon Barbatus, Penstemon Isophyllus and Eryngium ‘Oxford Blue’.

Agapanthus 'Lydenberg'

Agapanthus ‘Lydenberg’ came to Australia from the Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens 20 or 30 years ago. It always stirs the blood of visitors when it’s in flower in the dry garden. Tall strong stems carry pendulous light blue flowers in great abundance during mid to late summer. In our dry garden A. ‘Lydenberg’ barely makes a metre in height, but if well fed and watered it will grow up to 160cm tall by 70cm wide. Herbaceous. Lambley.com.au

Cotyledon Orbiculata Tall Flowered Form in Flower

Cotyledon Orbiculata 'Tall Flowered Form'

Cotyledon Orbiculata ‘Tall Flowered Form’ This is a very tall flowered, frost hardy summer blooming form of Cotyledon orbiculata. Many forms are grown in gardens but this is by far the most impressive. Shrubby in habit, its evergreen large leaves are powdery grey edged with maroon. Metre tall stems are produced in summer, capped with many-flowered heads of large waxy coral orange pendant bells, each one flared at the tips. One of the stars of our dry climate garden. Lambley.com.au

This will be planted in a group with Cotyledon Orbiculatum ‘Queenscliff‘ and Agapanthus Lydenberg and Eryngium Oxford Blue outside Tom’s bedroom.

Penstemon Barbatus

Penstemon Barbatus is another dry climate plant unlike most other forms of Penstemon. To be planted under the Powton tree opposite the shadehouse.

Humming birds pollinate this native of Arizona, Utah, Texas, Colorado and Mexico. Different in habit from most Penstemon grown here, P. barbatus makes basal rosettes of glossy fresh green leaves. 100cm tall spires carry from top to bottom hundreds of good-sized scarlet red tubular flowers. It’s the only Penstemon to make it into our dry climate garden where we have a decent patch. 100cm x 70cm. Lambley.com.au

Penstemon Isophyllus

 Penstemon Isophyllus I’ve grown this species from the Mexican states of Pueblo and Oaxaca for 25 years. It has got by with no watering at all these last few drought years. From a woody base metre tall stems carry red flowers with a hint of salmon, during the warmer months. All it need is a sunny spot. Lambley.com.au

Eryngium Oxford Blue

Eryngium Bourgatti ‘Oxford Blue’ This has been growing in our dry climate garden for ten years or more. The flowers, a metallic blue thimble, are circled by a metallic blue ruff, as intricate as a snowflake. This Sea Holly has interesting evergreen foliage, much cut and two toned green and silver. If spent flowers are removed ft will bloom from late spring into winter. 50cm x 50cm. Lambley.com.au.

Garden Seat No.1

This week I oiled the new garden bench with Feast Watson Outdoor Furniture Oil, Clear colour. The wood soaked up the oil in no time. I decided to give several more coats during the next week until it is nicely sealed. It looks to me that it will be obvious when enough oil has been applied as it will take no more with pooling on the surface.

Verandah Renovation

Continued with verandah renovation. Last segment of the ceiling has now been painted over the walled area. Probably 2 sessions left to paint. First the ceiling over the verandah outside the family room window then the incomplete sections at each end. From there I will paint the fascia boards, silver was the consensus so silver it is. From there some filling and repair of the wall render and that will painted followed by the trims and finished. The most interesting phenomenon associated with this paint is that the condensation that used drip from the ceiling has stopped. Water still condenses but in much smaller droplets that never fall. The unpainted corrugated iron would collect all the drips together and drop them all over the verandah.

Garden Update 21-8-11

This weekend promised to be a good one with the weather bureau forecasting some beautiful weather. Had to work Saturday morning but the rest of the weekend was mine. I managed to spend the best part of Saturday afternoon painting the ceiling of my verandah with Killrust Aluminium paint. This is not the best job for preserving the back and neck but it had to be progressed. The silver ceiling certainly lifts the brightness under the verandah so will work away at it each week until finished.

Aluminium Ceiling paint on back verandah 21-8-11

Sunday provided another beautiful morning with a long list of gardening t asks that I wanted to complete today. No chance of finishing them all of course a list helps sort out the priorities. First task for the day would be to feed and water all the chooks and generally carry out any extra maintenance needed there. The hens are all looking particularly fit and ready for the breeding pen soon. Will mate them in September and hatch in October this year. The automatic watering in pens 9-13 is causing some concern again this year and failing to fill properly. Will have to add that to next weeks list for special attention.

Stone Fruits

The stone fruit trees are showing signs of buds swelling and it is time to spray a copper spray to prevent curly leaf. Used Copper Oxychloride this year. 5 Litres of spray was enough to do the lot. None of the trees had burst into bud yet, in fact seem to be a couple of weeks away yet. The flowering plums have shown their first couple of flowers so look forward to a great show next week.

Perennial Flowers

The perennials from Lambley have all spent the week in an outdoor situation being hardened and acclimatized and are ready for planting so that was the next task on the list. I remain very impressed with the quality of the plants I received and fully expect they will do very well provided our alkaline soils don’t upset any of these.

Cotyledon Orbiculatum Queenscliffwas planted outside the Tom’s room where it will later be joined by Cotyledon Orbiculatum Tall Flowered Form and Agapanthus Inapertus Hollandii ‘Lydenberg’.

Cotyledon Orbiculatum 'Queenscliff' outside Tom's room.

Cotyledon orbiculatum ‘Queenscliff’

Cistus x Purpureus ‘Alan Fradd’ planted outside the bathroom window beside the concrete tank pad.

Cistus x Purpureus 'Alan Fradd'

Cistus 'Alan Fradd' outside Bathroom

Salvia Nemorosa ‘Blauhagel’ (Blue Hills) planted under the White Cedar near the fence on South Kilkerran Road.

Salvia nemorosa ‘Blauhugel’ (‘Blue Hills’) next to some Tulips assorted from Diggers just poking their heads up.

Salvia Nemorosa 'Blauhagel' (Blue Hills)

Salvia Megan’s Magic planted under the espaliered Lady William apple on the Eastern side of the Growers Pens.

Salvia 'Meigan's Magic' under the espaliered Lady William apple.

Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ also planted under the espaliered Lady William apple on the Eastern side of the Growers Pens but on the Northern end of the arms.

Nepeta Six Hills Giant under the espaliered Lady William apple.

Ferula Linkii (Giant Cow Parsley) planted against the western face of the new 22kl tank next to the pig pen, now housing some bunnies.

Ferula Linkii next to the tank beside the pig pen.

Verbena Rigida F.Lilacina planted under the Powton opposite the shadehouse. This is a hot dry garden exposed to full sun for most of the day.

Verbena Rigida F.Lilacina in the dry garden opposite the shadehouse

Convolvulus Sabatius ‘L.A.Form’ planted in the front corner dry garden at the base of the eucalypt tree. Very dry and very hot garden with heavy clay soil.

Convolvulus Sabaticus 'L.A.Form'

Limonium Peregrinum also planted under the powton under the shadehouse.

Limonium peregrinum (syn. L. roseum) - Shrubby Statice

Click for larger photograph. Limonium peregrinum (syn. L. roseum) - Shrubby Statice

Rhodanthemum Tizi-n-Test also planted under the eucalypt in the rose garden.

Rhodanthemum catananche ‘Tizi-n-Test’

Rhodanthemum catananche ‘Tizi-n-Test’

Furcraea Madougalii – Macdougal’s Century Plant. This an agave reaching a massive size and flowering another 8 metres above that. Planted in the old Banana Plantation.

Macdougal's Century Plant

Helianthus Grosse Serratus is also planted in the Old Banana Plantation. Plants in this area can be watered easily if needed during a very hot summer. The plants were dormant when they arrived and remain so yet.

Sunflower Helianthus Grosse Serratus

Miscanthus Transmorrisonensis is an ornamental grass that Pamela was taken with at one time. Hope it looks as good in real my garden as it does on the DVD. Planted in the Old Banana Plantation.

Miscanthus Transmorrisonensis

Garden Seat No.1

One of the things I have missed in my garden in recent years is seating. I am determined to change that this year and an ideal opportunity presented itself when the district council took down some old Athol Tamarix (Aleppo Pines) at the Agery-Kadina intersection. They left some short logs 30-40cm in diameter that I thought would make ideal bench legs to use with an old railway sleeper, or something similar. On the way home from the shop I stopped and loaded two into the back of the Ford Station Wagon, with the help of Phillip and Tom. They were pretty heavy but that is perfect for this use, then they won’t fall over so easily. The boys complained a bit about stopping but we got them loaded and at home I managed to unload them and cart them with a sack truck.

This weekend I set the bench up and it is perfect. The spot chosen was in the vege garden next to my strawberry patch, what a perfect place to sit with a coffee and test the strawberries. I dug a hole to take the stumps to lower their height and to help keep them stable. The holes were just deep enough to level the top of the posts at a height that would suit the bench I was putting on top. The seat was a hardwood board 30cm wide and 80mm thick by 2.4m long which I salvaged from the jetty reconstruction at Port Victoria 18 years ago (legally of course). I always thought it had the finish and dimensions for a garden bench such as this.

A third stump was located and that made the ideal coffee table!

Garden Seat No.1