Winter at Bloomfield Cottage...Brrr

The temperature is plummeting as a massive cold front covers a third of Australia. It snowed last night, at the top of the Blue Mountains which is common in winter, but it snowed half the way down the mountain too, which rarely happens, and a big dump of snow in the Southern Highlands. As I sit cosy and rugged up inside writing this, it`s a chilly 8 degrees with a bitter wind blowing. It has been 0 and below at night here, with a few heavy frosts to blacken the more tender plants.

Most of the trees have lost their leaves and the roses are just about all asleep. Wisteria and perennials are now bare and lots of bulbs are up -  the Jonquils are already flowering with a heady scent.

When we get a run of cold frosty mornings, after it slowly melts when the sun hits it - the day warms somewhat, into the most brilliant blue still day. Beautiful. But don`t be fooled - the temperature will drop rapidly early afternoon, into another freezing night.

Just as well my gorgeous little horse Hunter, has his woolly winter coat on - like a thick fluffy powder puff. It keeps him dry and warm cause it`s about 7cm thick!

Isn`t he too cute? Dear little boy.

So what else is going on around here...well the bulbs are all up - Jonquils and Daffodils,

Bluebells, Lachenalia, Tritonia, Ornithogalum, Dutch Iris, Babiana...phew, the list goes on..they are not all flowering yet, most flower early spring, but some get going early.

Double white Jonquils are always the first to show off.

and let`s not forget IT`S PANSY TIME...I love them

The glasshouse is going gangbusters. This is the best time of the year to pot up heaps of things to sell at future open days or replant as needed. 

It`s such a cosy warm spot to hide when it`s windy and cold.

And the veggie patch is growing loads of winter goodies, all protected from the cabbage moth by netting - ORGANIC practices here people - no chemicals for healthy home grown goodness. We`ve got mini Cabbages, mini Cauliflower, Broccoli, Spinach, Corriander and Kale.

We are eating loads of Rhubarb desserts while iv`e got so much...mmmm Rhubarb and Apple with healthy crumble, and yes - Icecream!

Now I just have to work out what to do with all this winter crop of Lemons and hopefully get around to making sweet chilli sauce - there`s heaps

So that`s what`s been going on around here - I`m staying inside today...I might do some cooking.

Hope you enjoyed this winter visit - make sure you come back in Spring..

Lachenalia - such little show-offs

Lachenalia bulbs, or `Soldier Boys` as my nan called them, are such bold little flowering bulbs...I just love them. Like so many things I grow in my garden, these remind me of my grandma and her beautiful garden. As a little girl, my nan would take us around her garden and show us all the bulbs emerging, surrounded by swaythes of frothy linaria flowers. She would point out all the little pansy faces watching us and entertain us with the moving beards of snapdragons. Yes, it`s no wonder I turned out a gardener - we all did. So when a friend of mine offered me some Lachenalia bulbs whilst showing me around her large country garden, I jumped at the chance.

I started off with just a handful of bulbs which have quickly multiplied over the last 5 years, so this year I sent a parcel of them to my mum! 

As you can see, I just pick out all the big healthy bulbs to replant, after all, how many do you need. Each bulb makes lots of baby bulbs each year and will overcrowd your display. So when I dig them up at the end of each season I just put them in a seedling tray with an onion bag laid out and let them dry out. Next season, I give the whole lot a good shake to loosen the dirt and baby bulbs, then pick out what I want to keep and share each year and toss out the littlens. You know when it`s time to take action planting, when they start to shoot.

This year Iv`e put them in a big sandstone trough on the verandah. I just add some milled cow manure and some slow release fertiliser to the potting mix then pop them in. They don`t have to go very deep cause they`re only little bulbs, but I put lots of them in for a great display. 

I always get excited when the foliage starts to appear. Up close, you can see the foliage is marked with lots of little dark spots.

This was last years display in a wide urn that has a statue in the middle. 

Worth a bit of mucking around each year as they really are a set and forget bundle of bright and bold cheeriness on a dull day - one that you can share as they multiply!

Thanks for visiting - see you again...

It 's Zygo Cactus time - do you want to see my Schlumbergia?

Autumn is Schlumbergia time - yes that`s right - Schlumbergia! and mine are looking great this year.

It`s one of those great words that you have to say over and over, just to hear it roll off the tongue. Go on, give it a go - you know you want to ... SCHLUMBERGIA. Zygo Cactus is its common name, bit easier to get your tongue around, and like many cactus - it`s all about the flower.

Most of the year these plants can be a bit bland - just lots of segmented, tender cactus foliage. Most hang in a pendulous manner and make great hanging baskets although there are a few with a more upright habit. I tend to move them back into the greenhouse or tuck em away when not in flower and bring them all out at flowering time.

And because they are in the succulent family, they need little care and certainly little water. I just use a cactus/succulent potting mix for good drainage and throw on some slow release fertilizer.  I gave my daughter her first hanging basket full of apricot and cream flowers. I`m sure this will make a long lived and hardy hanging  plant for her patio.

How about this fabulous orange one!

They make easy cuttings to produce more plants - just break off the ends and plant a few in another pot. They are slow to get going but you rarely lose any. I collected lots of the broken bits when I worked in a retail nursery - what a great way to increase my collection with new colours.

The pot of cuttings at the front are one year old - they will take off in spring. The rest are two years old and flowering for the first time. If you want a big bushy pot full, just plant lots in the pot!

When you are a gardener with plenty of space, you can see how easy it is to start collections of plants. A cutting here and there over the years and voila - you`ve got a collection. 

Thanks for visiting Bloomfield`s Blog - leave a comment about your favorite collection.....

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Camellia Hedge - just beautiful

Sasanqua Camellias make a great hedge. They`re tougher and faster growing than their relatives, the slower growing, more formal, Camellia Japonica`s. This was always a must have, when planing the garden many years ago, and the perfect spot was right along the driveway. Even when not in flower the rest of the year, the hedge is a neat green screen that requires only occasional pruning and feeding - so relatively low maintenance. I hedge with sharp hand held hedgers, which give a neat clean cut, about three times a year, so not too much trouble. They are relatively pest free as well.

It helps when the hedge is 45 metres long! Yep, bigger definetly has more impact when it comes to a flowering hedge. It`s taken about 10 years to get it to this stage - not because they grow slow, oh no, because my naughty puppy Golden Retriever- Sally, slowly dug up the first hedge one by one and chewed them to smitherines! So at great cost I planted for a second time, warning Sally it`s the pound for her if she dug this one up!                                                            

Now believe it or not, the two photos above are the same hedge -no trick photography - just taken at the beginning and the end of the flowering season. You see I planted the hedge with two varieties of Sasanqua Camellias - Paradise Jessica, a pale pink and Paradise Caroline, a deep pink. The pale one starts flowering first then becomes intermittent with the darker pink which then takes over for the grand finale. They have been flowering for over two months and still have more to give. And look at the beautiful pink carpet underneath.

It`s all about early pruning to get a nice compact hedge - there is nothing sadder than a straggly hedge showing it`s kneecaps. The trick is to tip prune from the day you plant. This will force the side shoots to grow, creating many more branches which means way more flowers of course.

Iv`e got lots of other camellias around the yard including the later winter flowering Japonica`s, but it`s the hedge that really makes a statement - especially when there`s not a lot of colour in the garden at this time of year

Hope you enjoyed my hedge as much as I do - perhaps you have one to brag about too. I love a clean crisp green and white flowering hedge too and there are so many new varieties to try - just where to put another hedge? hmmm

Hunter Valley Gardens, Massive Christmas light display 2014

Whilst recently visiting relatives in the Hunter Region, we decided to stay overnight at the Elegant Sebel Hotel -like a bygone era complete with an English Breakfast Conservatory overlooking a private rose garden and fountain, surrounded by winery country as far as you can see! Lovely.We caught up with some local friends for dinner and they suggested we go and see all the Christmas lights - 1.5 million of them!, artfully draped throughout the `Hunter Valley Gardens` after dinner - so that`s what we did!

The Hunter Valley Gardens are a spectacular during the day, but transform at night throughout December, into a truly amazing display of Christmas Lights.

There were sooo many families enjoying the night. Kids and parents had flashing head lights and wands. Little girls with their pretty fairy dresses, prams, teens, and grandparents, the lot. We were a little surprised at the entry cost af $25 per Adult, and only 3yrs and younger were free, making it an expensive treat at Christmas for the family. However, from the looks of awe and wonder on their little faces, it was well worth it.

We pretty much just followed the crowd in one direction from beginning to end, along concrete and fine gravel paths. Took about an hour with a few stops to ogle the lights.

Above are the `Storybook` gardens with all the nursery rhymes lit up!

And of course the `Lollie Land` lane was a bit hit.

It was such a beautiful balmy night for a stroll after dinner, and what better way to get in to the Christmas spirit

Nothing like an Eiffel Tower display to top off the night!

Merry Christmas everyone and hope you`ll visit this blog next year

Collectors Plant Fair - Look what I bought!

Yes - this was the weekend for the 10th Collectors Plant Fair. It`s Autumn here and the best time of the year for planting, so what a great time to host a fair who`s sole purpose is to bring together 54 Specialist Growers to purchase from. Hooray! It`s one whole weekend that you can peruse all the amazing plants you generally only see in specialist mail order catalogues.

My girlfriend and I go every year. She buys the tickets, I drive and get the coffees mid morning.
You`ve got to whip around quickly to snap up some of the more rare, unusual and interesting plants, then go around again at a more leisurely pace, to peruse at length the individual stalls that really caught you eye.  You can also attend a guest speaker session which is always fascinating.

My friend led us directly upon entry to the Specialist Begonia stall where I ought these beauties.I love the colours, patterns and texture of these foliage plants - the flowers are a small bonus.We both have a small collection of the beautiful leaved Rex Begonias and were looking to find something special, which of course we did. I`m glad we got in early because they had sold out of the most interesting by lunch. There were so many choices, but of course the rarer a plant the dearer! It`s quite easy to spend a lot of money as you get carried away at the endless photo labels of hundreds of perennials promising flushes of the most amazing flowers. The lush displays of Bromlaids and Carnivorous plants and Orchids, Roses,Bulbs, Exotic Fruit trees - all there to buy!

Yes my friends, I had a a great spend up. I find a quirky pleasure at spreading out all of my treasures and admiring them. Then working out precisely where I`m going to plant them - where they will perform best. Like a lot of avid gardeners, I like to think I can grow most things, even when they are out of their own growing environment. I don`t always succeed, but I having a go. In a large garden like Bloomfield, there is always a spot to squeeze in another plant. I was looking for tough dry Shade plants this year, for a garden bed under trees. I think I`ll keep the Begonias in pots though as they are a bit tender for our winter. I like to group types of plants around the place for effect and ease of care.

This lovely red specimen is a small 2m shrub with the most amazing Autumn foliage called
Enkianthus Campanulatus. It will have cream lily-of-the-valley type flowers amongst lush green foliage in Spring and will need a dark green backdrop to showcase the foliage at this time of the year.







Now this lush beauty is a Climber! It`s called Bignonia Magnifica. The lady explained how she keeps hers as a shrubby mound, and just prunes of the tendrills occasionally - which is what I now plan to do as I`m running out of climbing structures and fences. I bought another climber as well, an evergreen perennial called      Cobaea Scandens or Cathedral Bells. It has large purple cup and saucer shaped flowers.
                               

I`ve always grown Geranium Cransebills. This one is called Samobor or Black Widow. What wonderful foliage, and the flowers are a deep maroon to purple.
Over the years with drought and deluge I have lost many of these treasured purchases, so this is a great way to try some new ones.

Ive decided to grow some Nerines. Mum bought some a few weeks ago at the Melbourne Flower and Garden Show and of course now I want some. I bought this lovely red and a pretty pink one. And a giant Scilla bulb - a big Bluebells.

I bought a few interesting perennials of the Sanguisorba family -` Blackthorn` with ferny foliage and red flowers on tall stems and a smaller one with masses of red flowers held aloft like a halo called` Red Thunder`. Also an unusual type of Salvia - `Przewalskii`, with thick lush leaves and large velvety pink flowers. From the Friends of the Botanic Gardens stall, I bought some tube stock of Megaskepasma erythrochlamys. A great winter flowering shrub with raspberry bracts all over. No wonder it`s nickname is Brazilian red cloak! This is a great stall to buy from as the unusual plants are cuttings from Sydney`s various Botanic Gardens. I also couldn`t resist another picotee Hellebore to add to the collection around a tree, oh, and a hot pink Justicia as well!  I just couldn`t stop!

So I`m going to pot up a few till I work out where to plant them - give them a chance to grow up big enough to survive planting out in a large garden.

And before I sign off I wanted to show you one of the rare salvias I bought last year. It is in full glorious colour right now, so I couldn`t resist. This huge yellow flowering salvia `Medrensis` was just a tiny tube stock last year.....and look at it now, over 2m x 2m and growing!

Thanks for visiting ....leave a comment if you like .. and hope to see you next blog.

                                                                                                                       

Salvias, the last hurrah of Autumn

Its fair to say that summer is hot hard work here in the outer west of Sydney. So when Autumn finally arrives we all breath a sigh of relief and watch nature transform our gardens into a tranquil and gentle haven. I`m pleased to report that all the little birds have come back into the garden, something that has not happened for over ten years! The invasive Indian Mynor bird has scared them off, I thought, for good! How wrong I was. First the little native Finches flittered and tittered all over the place, then I noticed the Willy Wag Tails here and there and then lots of shy Wrens started hopping out of shrubs and bushes. To my greatest surprise and joy, the little Honeyeaters are back! Only once before have I seen one of these charming little fellows hovering at a sweet flower - but this year I have a whole flock of the busy little guys. They are too fast to catch for a photo (I spent hours trying!) but I did get some video footage. They have spent a great deal of time in all the giant Salvias.

This particular one I picked up at a Plant Collectors Fair. Salvia Guaranitica - `Black and Blue is a very large and fast growing variety, reaching 130cm and spreading along the ground where it`s thick canes sprout rootlets when it touches the soil.

This amazing fluffy pink Salvia was also purchased at the P.C.Fair. Salvia Iodantha - can grow to   3m x 3m so I have had to move it from it`s original position as it grew too big for the spot.

Salvias are great space fillers if you have the room. There seems to be one to fit every garden spot imaginable, even shade. Below is a relatively new release called Fionas Wish, and seems very happy in semi shade. The foliage is lusher than it`s hot dry relatives.

This Shade loving Salvia is a most unusual variety, hardly resembling the rest of it`s family. The large triangular foliage spreads by runners, and the flowers are a vibrant true blue. I`m sorry to say I have no record of this ones name. let me know

I`ve had this Salvia `Raspberry Sundae` for many years. It is a rich colour and always reliable. As with most Salvias, they tend to slowly spread until you must halt their progress with a spade.

There is a lot of pruning involved with these plants. Throughout the season you can let them go if you have ample room, although I tend to hack back regularly. Then at the end of winter it`s off with their heads! right back to the ground. A good handful of fertiliser and some fresh mulch then they`re off and away again.

Salvia `Waverly` is a purple and white bi-colour that never stops flowering. I love the crinkly textured foliage of this one.

This lush beauty is Salvia `Anthony Parker` and is one of the other sources of joy to all the little hummingbirds. I can see this one from my family room windows and often sit watching them frolic for sweet nectar.

All these hard working perennials (meaning we cut them back to the ground at the end of winter so they can renew themselves all over again) also play another major roll in my gardens - the endless source of pollen and nectar to my bees. Yes, we have a wonderful beehive in an old tree, way down in the farthest reaches of the garden.

Salvia microphylla `Margaret Arnold` has been growing happily for years in the garden. Quite a substantial plant, very heat hardy with strong upright stems. Like many salvias, it tends to spread by runners - yep, out with the spade when I need to slow its progress.

And these little beauties are this years purchases from the annual Plant Collectors Fair.

Salvia `Medrensis` was given to me by a friend who has a stall there. He promises me this massive growing variety is YELLOW! The other little fellow is Salvia `hians` and looks to be another interesting variety, short and hardy with large lush flowers - we shall see...

Please feel free to leave a comment, I`m always happy to hear from you :)