Old Apples

I grew up in an English village which was noteworthy as a centre of apple growing. One apple grown in the district was a variety known as the Baddow Pippin. This richly aromatic and spicy apple was first found growing in a garden in the nearby village of Tolleshunt d'Arcy in c.1785. This variety was first known as D'Arcy Spice but the name was changed when it began to be commercially cultivated in 1848.

Around my home there were many acres of orchards given over to growing apples and pears, and the village supported 12 fruit farms in the 1960s. As well as the Baddow Pippin, popular varieties locally grown included Bramley's Seedling, Cox Orange Pippin, Laxton's Superb and Worcester Pearmain. In the 1970s and 80s many of the English orchards went out of business unable to compete with cheap imports from France and elsewhere following Britain's decision to join the European Union. With the rise of new imports of Golden Delicious and the Australian bred Granny Smith many old English varieties, sadly, went out of commercial cultivation.

The experience in Australia is somewhat different to Britain. Apple production in Tasmania, Victoria and the eastern Tablelands was once high and almost every home in cool temperate areas had an apple tree. The popularity of the apple was reflected in the lists of 19th century nurseries such as the 1889 catalogue of John and William Gelding's Nursery in Sydney which listed a staggering 133 varieties of apples for sale, mostly of British and North American origin.

The apple maintained its popularity in Australia for many decades, but late last century consumers developed a taste for more exotic fruits. The competition from other fruits, increased pests, and the ending of mass exports to Britain after they joined the European Union led to a steady decline in the number of productive apple orchards. As in Britain, the decline in fruit consumption has seen a reduction in the number of varieties available in supermarkets and fruit markets.

For those with an interest in growing unusual varieties of apple there are now many heritage apple lovers who are trying to encourage the growing of old varieties by commercial growers and home gardeners. One such devotee is Stuart Read from the Australian Garden History Society who has put together a list of farms and nurseries where you can source unusual apples from around Australia. Stuart's list also includes a link to the Heritage Fruits Society.

Mayfield - an Australian cool climate garden

While there are many fine gardens in the Sydney area they become thin on the ground when you move west of the Blue Mountains. One notable exception is Mayfield, located near the exotically named town of Oberon in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. Mayfield is quite an unassuming name for this park-like landscape garden, and while the owners claim to be influenced by English gardens such as Cliveden and Chatsworth, Mayfield is much more in the style of grand-gesture French gardens inspired by Versailles. Therefore the grounds are filled with fountains, water features and formal clipped hedges. A dominant design feature of the garden is the mass use of locally sourced basalt rock which is used throughout the garden for the construction of retaining walls and steps.

This stone bridge is one of the highlights of Mayfield garden

With an elevation of over 1,000 metres Mayfield can rightly claim to be a cool climate garden, and because of this the owner grows many plants and trees not normally seen in Australian gardens. The visitors brochure declares the garden as a 'botanical wonderland'. This is a big claim as I found the palette of plants rather uninspiring being largely dominated by standard landscaping favourites. Despite this, the garden includes some interesting mass plantings of maples, hydrangeas, iris and bulbs. With the exception of the well maintained rose garden most of the plants in the garden were labelled. I particularly liked the choice of plant tags which were made of small rectangular pieces of slate. These labels harmonised well with the stone and the slate roofs of many of the buildings.

Stone retaining walls is a dominant design theme in this garden

Despite being such a large garden there was surprisingly little sculpture. One of the few exceptions was the recently installed water-dripping copper tree which was sourced from the Chelsea Flower Show in London. Every good garden needs something to lure the visitor back, and while the grounds at Mayfield were well laid out they lacked personality, a problem often found in recently established landscapes. I'm sure that in time the shrubs and trees will grow giving the garden a distinctive presence, but as the garden is young (established in 1999) the owners should find something that will entice the visitor to return, such as a museum, art gallery, sculpture park or musical performances.

The copper tree fountain

Despite some reservations I take my hat off to the owner and his team of gardeners and stonemasons for their hardwork and foresight. They are creating a distinctive garden in an area lacking in fine parks and gardens.

Mayfield is open to the public for only 6 weekends a year in Spring and Autumn (check their website for future opening times) http://www.mayfieldgarden.com.au/ Be warned the garden admission charges are exorbitantly high ($25 cash only, in 2013), and the grounds are not suitable for the frail and those in wheelchairs. A moderate level of fitness (and a hat) is needed to enjoy the garden.

Old sages

One group of plants which came into its own in the perennial revival boom of the late 20th century was the ornamental flowering sages of the Salvia genus. Today there are over 150 different salvias available in Australian plant nurseries. Most of these have been imported over the last 25 years, but there are some which have been grown in our gardens for nearly two centuries.

Salvia patens as illustrated in
Edwards' Ornamental Flower Garden (1854)

For many the best known salvias are the common culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) and the scarlet red bedding sage (Salvia splendens) both of which were growing in Australia by the middle of the nineteenth century. The culinary herb may have been the first sage imported into the colony while the red bedding sage probably came here in the 1840s, although it was not listed on plant catalogues until the early 1850s. 

Another early import was the red flowered tropical sage (Salvia cocinnea). This plant is much gentler on the eye than the red bedding sage and also comes in a white flowered form. Its self-seeding habit has made it a weed in tropical areas of the world so it is hard to find on local seed lists. Despite this it can be found in old gardens and grows easily from seed sown in spring or early summer.

The most popular blue flowered salvia was the gentian sage (Salvia patens). This beautiful plant appears in almost all nursery catalogues from the 1850s and seems to be one of the most popular perennials used in nineteenth century gardens. Being hardy to light frost it is an ideal plant for most temperate climates although it has a tendency to spread by vegetative growth.


Apart from Salvia splendens (which was used in mass plantings), most nineteenth century salvias were used simply as filler plants in large garden beds. Although they never enjoyed the popularity of fuchsias, carnations, or geraniums, the salvias’ long flowering habit and ease of propagation would have made them a hard plant to ignore in the nineteenth century Australian garden. Perhaps owners, gardeners and designers of heritage gardens will review their planting selections to include some of these much-loved early perennial favourites.

Salvias commonly found in nineteenth century Australia gardens

Salvia africana-lutea* (syn: Salvia aurea) available from 1850s

Salvia azurea - prairie sage – available from 1850s

Salvia coccinea – commonly available by 1850

Salvia farinacea - mealy sage – appears on nursery lists by late 1880s

Salvia microphylla ‘Kew Red’ – (syn: Salvia grahamii) – available from 1880s

Salvia officinalis* - common sage - probably the first imported sage

Salvia patens  - gentian sage – appears on many local nursery lists from 1850s

Salvia splendens – tall growing red cultivars available in Australia by 1850s 

* denotes a frost hardy species

While a limited range of salvias are available from most nurseries the best range is available from Sue Tempteton's Unlimited Perennials nursery at 369 Boomerang Drive, Lavington 2641, NSW. Tel 02 - 6025 4585. Sue has a mail order service and website http://www.salviaspecialist.com/

Salvia illustration courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Library