A thorny issue

Recently, I was impaled on the knuckle of my left hand by an old rose thorn. Not an unusual occurrence for a working gardener but this time the snag left a lingering soreness. Several days later my hand was severely swollen and I could barely move my middle fingers. Thinking potential blood poisoning, I went to see my doctor for help. After consultation I was prescribed an antibiotic and promptly began my treatment. Within three days my hand was feeling better and a week later I was back to normal.

Rose, by Jobo

While hardly the first time I had been stabbed by a rose this infection made me appreciate the joys of thornless roses as well as antibiotics.The biggest danger in having thorny roses is not when they are grown as bushes but when they are used as a climber near paths and high-traffic areas.

Although not totally thornless, Crépuscule  is the perfect choice for a moderate  growing climber to grow over an arch or fence . It has attractive red new growth and the flowers almost glow in late afternoon light
.

There are a number of thornless climbing roses which look great in warm temperate gardens. Who can go past the Banksia Roses for their thornless canes and robustness. Coming in white and golden forms this climber covers a large pergola with little effort. So mighty is this plant that one late 19th century specimen in Arizona is said to be the largest growing rose in the world. Its main flowering season is in spring but can spot flower during other times. 

Zéphirine Drouhin, is a moderate growing climber known for its vivid pink flowers and lovely fragrance.

From a distance Renae, looks more like a luxuriant climber than a rose. The plant has disease resistant soft pink repeat flowers and glossy green leaves and is suitable for growing over a shed or over a small pergola. Lovely fragrance. Another fine pink climber is China Doll, a fragrant rose that is almost always in flower in a warm temperate climate.

While not completly thornless the Tea Rose Crépuscule makes a lovely choice for growing along a fence or over an arch.

While researching this article I discovered that it was a wound given by a rose to the cheek of an English policeman at the beginning of World War Two that saw the first human trials with the wonder drug penicillin, an antibiotic first identified in the 1920s by Englishman Alexander Flemming (1881-1955). 

Australian- born scientist Howard Florey

In 1941 Albert Alexander scratched his face on a rose thorn. He was soon suffering from severe blood poisoning and was close to death. After an earlier successful experiment on mice the Oxford University research team led by Howard Florey (1898-1968) decided on a human trial and penicillin was administered to the patient. The policeman's temperature began to reduce and after five days he seemed to be on the road to recovery, but with the marked improvement of the patient and stocks of the new antibiotic being critically low the treatment was stopped. This neglect proved fatal and the patient soon died. This first experiment taught the scientists that antibiotic treatment, although effective, had to be followed for a full course. By late 1943 penicillin was being given to British soldiers in North Africa and soon became the first of many antibiotics which have saved millions of lives around the world.

When to water (in Sydney)

One of the most frequent questions I get asked as a gardener is when am I allowed to water? As rules about such matters change from time to time I thought it opportune to review the current restrictions for Sydney home gardeners as we move into the warm season.

In most areas watering by sprinklers is forbiddon

Sydney

Watering, including with sprinklers and irrigation systems, is allowed any day before 10 am and after 4 pm to avoid the heat of the day.

All hand held hoses must have a drigger nozzle.

No hosing of hard surfaces such as paths and driveways. Washing vechicles is allowed.

More info at http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water-the-environment/what-we-re-doing/water-restrictions/


I will update this page when rules change.

Floral Clocks

The floral clock—once a popular garden feature—has largely escaped the attention of garden historians, but it is high time these quirky timepieces were reassessed.

1970s English comic postcard with a floral clock theme
Art work by Brian Perry for Bamforth & Co

One of the horticultural oddities of the last century is the floral clock. Most of us have encountered them from time to time during our travels, often sighted on gentle slopes in manicured public gardens at tourist destinations. Apart from a moment’s thought at the sophistication of the technology and the intricate plantings used by the designers, most of these outdoor landscapes are soon forgotten. As a working gardener I’ve had a fascination with these quirky garden features throughout much of my working life. Not only are they a reflection of the design and propagation skills of their creators but they also express the civic pride and wealth of the community in which they are located.

Floral clocks are found throughout the world but usually within temperate latitudes within societies which can afford the high cost of upkeep. Hotspots for these horologically functional novelties include North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. But floral clocks of one form or another can be found in other areas of the world too—I know of examples in India, China, and Japan, and recently stumbled on one in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, hardly a city we connect with municipal prosperity.

While mostly associated with twentieth-century landscape design practice, floral clocks have a history that dates back to the eighteenth century (and even earlier if their horological cousin the sundial is included). The celebrated eighteenth-century Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus was, for example, obsessed with the possibilities of creating a botanical clock, known as a Horologe or Watch of Flora, made up of 46 different flowering plants which opened and closed as the day progressed, thus informing the viewer of the time of day.

The Swedish botanist Linnaeus proposed the
 idea for a clock made out of living plants

image from author's postcard collection

Linnaeus’s plan seems solely an intellectual fancy restricted to observations of the habits of individual plants, and to the best of our knowledge his clock was never constructed. Despite this, his research in Uppsala found a reflective audience over the following decades and ‘dial plants’ were sometimes grown in botanical collections. The early nineteenth-century British gardening authority J.C. Loudon, for instance, listed a number of dial plants suitable for the purpose in his influential Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1822).

During the nineteenth century, floral or carpet bedding became increasingly popular and gardeners experimented in constructing intricate designs combining brightly coloured plants sourced from around the world. Reflecting the tastes of the time, gardeners tried to make plants look like something else. While many such bedding designs were laid out in private gardens the increasing establishment of public parks saw these skills transferred into a civic setting.

While carpet bedding began to loose popularity in the late nineteenth century there was clearly an interest to use the skills learnt in ‘bedding-out’ in a new modern way. Reflecting the advances in technology it is not surprising that someone would eventually build an outdoor clock decorated with living plants, with the time being articulated by machine (clock hands) rather than by the plants themselves.

The earliest known example of a floral clock was the l’horloge fleurie created by a French horticulturist named Debert in the Trocadéro gardens in Paris (1892). Not long after, another was constructed across the Atlantic at Water Works Park, Detroit (1893) and a decade later the still-extant clock at West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh (1903). Another significant early example was the giant clock created for the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, Missouri. Other early floral clocks were also constructed in Le Mans, Interlaken, and Budapest as well as elsewhere in Europe.

After the first wave of interest in floral clocks some of these were abandoned due to the upheavals of the Great War, but during the 1920s and 1930s interest in the concept returned. With the increasing popularity of the motor car many towns constructed floral clocks as tourist attractions and many new floral clocks were constructed in English coastal towns.

Edinburgh's famous floral clock in 1958

Floral clocks came on the scene at the same time as the fashion for postcard collecting so it comes as no surprise that these gardens would become a popular subject. Thanks to the popularity of postcard collecting we have a record of nearly all of them, and as plantings changed each year these postcard views offer a revealing record of changing design approaches. The best-known example of this chronological record is of the Edinburgh floral clock, photographed by postcard sellers most years since 1903. Designs used for this high-profile example have celebrated royal celebrations and civic achievements as well as anniversaries of significant local worthies.

The first floral clock in Australia was built in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in 1928 and since that time it has been a popular landmark destination. In 1930 a clock was built at the Royal Agricultural Showground in Melbourne. This example was constructed at the height of the Great Depression and the mechanism was made out of scrap parts, a thrifty showpiece which was a popular curio at the showground for many years. Following the construction of the large clock in Melbourne’s King’s Domain, however, the Showground dial lost its uniqueness and was later removed.

The former floral clock at the Melbourne Show Ground

As someone who has planted out formal annual beds I am in awe of the skill of the gardeners who plant-out the dials of these clocks. While some modern dials are decorated with mass plantings and coloured gravels, the true floral clock is decorated with thousands of tiny individual plants that have been raised from seed prior to planting out.

Many of the locations of the early clocks were found in temperate climates with cold winters. Therefore the annual planting-out of the dial face only occurred in spring, after the end of the cold weather, as many of the plants were frost tender. Plant selection was important but with the large range of plants imported from around the world designers have had a large range of plants from which to choose.

Succulents are a popular choice in many floral clock planting schemes. Hardy sedum and sempervivum are desirable as they are easy to propagate, diminutive in size, and come in a large range of colours. Less hardy choices include the larger-sized echeveria and agave. While there are many suitable non-succulent plants, popular choices include alternanthera, lobelia, alyssum, senecio, coleus, iberis, feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), and salvia.

While most landscape themes have been well studied it is slightly surprising that garden historians have written little about these highly distinctive, much viewed landscapes. It is hard to explain such historical neglect as carpet bedding has been well documented and analysed. But perhaps these quirky landscapes have been perceived in some quarters as a form of horticultural kitsch, reflective of an earlier artistic aesthetic. But like the recent interest in garden gnomes—now sanctioned by Chelsea Flower Show—there is hope for a revival of interest in these intricate, technologically inspired, floral landscapes.

Listen to Silas Clifford-Smith talking about floral clocks with Michael Williams on ABC Radio National's Blue Print for Living programme (aired on 5th March 2016) http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/the-folly-of-the-floral-clock/7210984

This article was first published as 'Floral Clocks: Civic Pride of Horticultural Kitsch' in the July-September 2014 issue of Australian Garden History (the journal of the Australian Garden History Society). This issue is available online at the AGHS website.

Veltheimia

I noticed today that the flower buds on my Veltheimias were starting to stand proud, surely a sign that we have reached mid-winter the peak growing time for this little used garden plant. I first came across Veltheimia bracteata several years ago when working at historic Vaucluse House, where it was planted in dappled-shade on a gentle-sloping bank between a garden path and some camellias.

Veltheimia bracteata flowers about to 'blow'

The two species of Veltheimia come from South Africa and are named after a certain count of Veltheim (whoever he was).  A small growing bulb, the foliage grows to about 30cm tall, and the plant looks a little like Lachenalia or small Kniphofias. While easy to grow this plant requires good drainage and a half decent garden soil. While I have used them in gardens I find that Velthemia make great outdoor pot plants, and they look wonderful growing on my antique wire-work plant stand. When grown in a container use a good quality potting mix without water-holding crystals. Plants form a glossy rosette of leaves in early winter and they flower later in the season.  While most blooms are coral pink, some varieties have cream or yellow flowers. During summer the foliage dies down and I retire my pot to a dry and shady part of the garden during its dormancy. If planted in the soil the bulbs can be left in the ground as long as they don’t get too wet. The best time to transplant or divide is in autumn. Plants can be propagated from seed or offsets removed from the main bulb in late summer.

Veltheimias in full bloom 

Every garden should have a few unusual plants and this South African bulb is definitely worth trying, I promise you will be asked about it when it’s in bloom. While hardly a rare plant, Veltheimia can be sourced from specialist bulb nurseries such as Sue and Garry Reid's rare and speciality bulb nursery in northern Victoria. The Reids have a mail order service and can be contacted at 43 Wallace Road, Allans Flat, Victoria 3691 (tel 02: 6027 1514)

When to prune roses in Sydney

Mid to late July is the commonly accepted time to prune roses in warm temperate Sydney. While this is true for most roses there are many plants that should not be touched at this time. So before you get out your saw and secateurs you need to know what kind of rose you have. Common roses that can be pruned now include Iceberg, Queen Elizabeth, Just Joey and Peace.

Not all roses should be pruned in winter.
This spring flowering climber should be pruned
immediately after its spring flowering

The most commonly grown roses found in our gardens are Hybrid Tea's. These are a group of shrubs which became increasingly grown during the last century. Originally favoured by florists for their superior blooms they soon became popular with home gardeners. In frost free areas these plants are best pruned in mid winter, but in colder areas their annual haircut should be delayed until early spring. 

Like surgery on humans, clean and sharp tools are essential for rose pruning as there is less chance of introducing diseases to the plant. Make sure you are protected from rose thorns with sturdy garden gloves and try to use some form of eye protection. Many are baffled on the right way to prune a rose bush but generally you should try to cut the plant back by about a quarter of its original size and concentrate on removing old stems and diseased foliage. After your prune try and spray with lime sulphur. When you have removed all the prunings take time to weed around the base of the plant.

In a future post I'll look at the right time to prune other types of roses.

Showy Sedums

From low maintenance, sun-drenched, inner-city balconies to rural plants-man's gardens the hardy Sedum genus is a group of Northern Hemisphere succulent plants that should be included in every Australian garden. Tough as old boots these plants - commonly known as stonecrops - can withstand frost, strong winds, and intense heat. Last month my Sedum's survived 45 degree plus conditions in Sydney, while last winter, in my mountain garden, they managed -10c without complaint.

An early advocate of the low growing sedum's was the influential 19th century Irish garden writer William Robinson who recommended them for use in rock gardens or grown under roses. While Robinson chose to ignore their use in Victorian carpet bedding schemes, these plants have maintained their popularity despite changing fashions in garden design. 

Sedum 'Bertram Anderson'

Thoughtful selection will find cultivars that will flower at different times of the year. My winter  flowering yellow Sedum (pictured at foot of page) reliably flowers from mid-winter until early spring. One of my favourite stonecrops is 'Ruby Glow'. In late summer this attractive low growing plant produces lovely reddish-purple flowers which last until early Autumn. A similar variety is  'Bertram Anderson'. This cultivar also flowers in late summer but has darker foliage. Both plants look great in large pots.

Sedum 'Ruby Glow'

Apart from a sunny position and good drainage stonecrops need little care, and there are few pest or disease problems. Propagation is done by dividing the plant during dormancy in late winter.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

For those looking for more drama in their planting schemes, consider the taller growing stonecrops such as 'Autumn Joy', a plant much admired by the late garden writer Christopher Lloyd who found it 'arresting at every stage from bud to seed'. This is a plant best grown in garden beds rather than in containers.

The winter flowering Sedum confusum

Sedums can be purchased from most nurseries, but the tall growing varieties are harder to find. One nursery which sells them is Lambley nursery in Ascot, Victoria. http://lambley.com.au/

There are many books on succulents that make passing mention to sedums. Specialist book mostly approach the subject from a botanical perspective. Readers besotted by this hardy genus may be interested in viewing the website of the UK based Sedum Society http://www.cactus-mall.com/sedum/

Can you recommend some other Sedum varieties? If so what time of year do they flower?

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

The last rose of summer

Its now mid-winter and there are hardly any decent roses in flower. Well that was what I thought until today I saw my 'Autumn Delight' in full bloom.

Autumn Delight

This beautiful rose has been in my front garden for about ten years and was purchased from Mary Davies Colonial Gardens nursery in Dural near Sydney. At the time I was looking for a low growing white rose which dated from the interwar period for my period-themed front garden. Without any hesitation Mary recomended this 1933 British raised Hybrid Musk. This rose only grows to 1 metre and has few thorns, and seems to tolerate Sydney's humid climate. I used to prune it like a Hybrid Tea in late winter but I have recently tried to resist attacking it with the secateaurs apart from regular dead heading. This shrub has an open habit and has flushes of semi-single white/cream flowers throughout the year, especially in late autumn and early winter, and makes a great alternative to the overused Iceberg rose.

Deciduous Magnolia

The English diarist Dr Samuel Johnson once said that "when men grow old they start planting trees". This may well be true in the 18th century but why wait now? Late autumn and early winter is without doubt the best time to buy and plant most new plants and the mild temperatures allow young trees almost six months to establish a root system before the onset of summer heat.

Deciduous magnolias come mainly from cool temperate parts of China and Japan. They are slow-growing but make wonderful specimens in temperate wind protected gardens.

While I usually say you should wait to see a plant in bloom before you buy, the magnolia is an exception as you're better off trusting the picture on the plant label and planting now. If you wait until the usual flowering time in late winter and early spring before you buy the young plant often lacks early vigour because they miss out on that cool settling-in period before summer. Many a magnolia has died during its first summer because it has been planted too late in the season.

In the right spot deciduous magnolias live for many decades, so with a bit of luck you'll be enjoying your trees in your old age - not still planting them.

Now what are you favourite varieties of deciduous magnolia? Suggestions welcome.