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Hydrangeas are ready-made bouquets

If we’re honest, there is a teeniest bit of greed underlying our love of the hydrangea. Think about it. It’s like we don’t just get one flower when we cut a hydrangea blossom to take indoors, we get a whole bunch of little florets held together in a ready-made bouquet. It’s the best of both worlds – a big showy blossom on one level, but when you look closely, you’ve a fistful of hundreds of small but perfect mini flowers. (And yes, if we get all technical and listen to the botanists, these flowers are technically modified leaves, but it doesn’t matter to most of us because they look like flowers.) To celebrate the hydrangea, let’s take a look at these lovelies:

1.The classic mop head: this is the hydrangea we usually think of with its clouds of cheer-leading pom poms. But this one is better than any hydrangea bush we may remember from our grandmothers’ gardens because this Tuxedo® Hydrangea in red doesn’t grow into a rangy beast, it has been bred tough and is rarely affected by pests or disease. Best of all, its dark foliage is flushed with purple and black.

2. A blue punch: any gardener appreciates a good blue flower which makes this hydrangea worth its place in a pot by the back door or planted out under deciduous trees. It’s one of the gift hydrangeas and it’s called Blueberries and Cream™, which makes a lot of sense when you look at it up close because its lace cap form is made up of cream-coloured buds surrounded by those brilliant blue fully opened flowers. Pretty enough to eat.

3. A gift in a pot grows into a garden dream: the thing about Gift Hydrangeas Blueberries and Cream™, and Strawberries and Cream®, they start life looking very lovely indeed in a pot that’s the right size to hand to your mum on her birthday – a neat mound of foliage, covered in blooms. Better still, when your mum has enjoyed having it sit on the kitchen table for a week or so, she can then take it outside to plant into the garden where it won’t take long at all to grow into a sizeable shrub which will put on a flower show year after year. A gift that keeps on giving.

4. A sophisticated Tuxedo: yes hydrangeas had a reputation in the past for being romantic old-word garden plants. And then Tuxedo® Hydrangeas arrived and everything was turned upside down by their extraordinary foliage tinged with purple and black. The flowers are everything you’d hope for: luscious mop heads or lace caps in red, pink or purple. And the latest addition to the family, hydrangea Tuxedo Black Tie, has the inkiest foliage of them all (see below). Whichever you pick, they open up opportunities for creating contemporary bold massed plantings or dressing high focus settings like atriums or courtyards.

Best plants with colourful foliage

Let’s talk about colour bias in the garden. Go for a walk, take a good look around and what soon becomes obvious is that most of us like our flowers to be colourful and our foliage to be green. Which begs the question: are we missing out? What follows is a short hit list of the best plants with colourful foliage. Honestly, they are gorgeous and we’d be small minded idiots not to think about introducing them to our gardens…

1. Festival™ cordylines (known as Fountain™ cordylines in the southern hemisphere): these clump-forming cordylines are remarkable on several fronts. Apart from never forming a trunk and being easy to grow, they’re available in three gorgeous colours (which includes a vibrant lime green). The raspberry version (above) is the most radical choice and is absolutely gorgeous, and the burgundy option (below) is equally lovely in a more sophisticated way.

2. Tuxedo® Hydrangeas: the thing that stands out about these great hydrangeas is not just their impressive flowering heads but the colour of their leaves. Instead of the usual green, Tuxedo® hydrangea is named for the deep purple to black flush of the foliage. Lovely even when not in bloom, these hydrangeas are equally well loved for their boldly coloured mop head or lace cap flowers. How much fun is it to have a hydrangea foliage colour option apart from green?

This shot of a Tuxedo® hydrangea in bud shows how different the foliage colour is when compared to the usual green of standard hydrangeas glimpsed in the background. It’s also known for its sturdy tight form.

3. Pacific™ Coprosmas. Here’s a brilliant moment to shake up the usual green vibe in the garden. Box hedging is brilliant but commonplace. Imagine planting a hedge that was just as dense, clipped and well behaved, but instead of green, it was alive with glowing hot pink or vivid red foliage highlights? If you’re keen, look out for the Pacific™ Coprosmas – Sunrise and Sunset – and plant yourself something very special and super low maintenance.

4. Cordyline Burgundy Spire™. One way to introduce some foliage colour and textural impact to the garden is to whip out the non-descript green shrubs at the back of the garden bed and replace them with a stand of the oh-so-glorious Burgundy Spire™ cordylines. They’ll reach ten to twelve feet high and carry chocolate burgundy blade-like strappy leaves from tip to toe.

A close-up of the Burgundy Spire™ foliage which looks good enough to eat.

5. Tropicanna® cannas. Perhaps the ultimate foliage colour plant there is, Tropicanna® canna is a marvel. The original is carnival striped in pinks, orange, gold, red and green. Its sister Tropicanna Gold canna is striped in green and gold, and their cousin Tropicanna Black canna is purple black with subtle stripes hinting at red. For those keen to embrace colourfully leafed plants, canna Tropicanna is absolutely the plant to bring your garden to life.

Sunlight in the garden

Sunlight plays a big part in how a garden feels. Too little means it’s dark and gloomy: too much and you and your plants end up being scorched and exposed. How the sun rises and sets also has an impact. Even how light shines on or through what we plant. The power of sunlight in the garden is a brilliant tool to harness and here’s three easy ways to do just that.

1. Back lighting. For most of the day sunlight shines down, bathing our plants with the light they need to grow. Which is fine but have you ever noticed how garden photographers tend to take their pics early or later in the day? That’s because light that shines at a low angle is more powerful and atmospheric. As an example, take something like the Tropicanna® Canna. With its high colouring and hot coloured rah-rah stripes, it looks fabulous enough when spot-lit from above at high noon. But when the early morning or late afternoon sun shines through from behind, those broad leaves become magnificent. So think about where the sun rises and sets at your place as you choose and position your plants. Any of the three versions of Tropicanna canna are an obvious choice, as is a clumping grass like Miscanthus. Try hollyhocks, single form roses, Iceland poppies and Christmas lilies. Like a fine porcelain plate held up to the light, if the sun can shine through, it will work beautifully.

2. Gloom reduction. At some point every gardener faces a dark corner in the garden. It’s usually the area under an evergreen tree with neighbouring fences helping to block out the light. There are plenty of plants that can thrive happily in that setting, but it can still be too gloomy. The trick here is to let more light in – if you can – and to add in plants with colourings that make them look brightly lit. Starting with the tree, have an arborist or clever gardener friend in to selectively prune the canopy so that the sunlight can shine more freely and reach the ground. If you can, try to lighten the fences by removing solid panels and replacing them with airy slats. Then source pale plants – white impatiens, astilbe, pale leaved hostas – and when these are planted as an understory they’ll help bounce and reflect the limited light. Gloom is banished and replaced with magical.

3. Know your compass points. Boring as this sounds, go outside and work out where the sun rises each day (East), where it sets (West), and, where it spends most of the day travelling across the sky (South: assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere). Now apply these two simple hacks. First, any trees between your home and the all-day sun need to be deciduous so that you have delicious shade in hot summertime, and after the leaves fall, winter sunshine reaching in through the windows. Hack two: plant tough easy-care performers on the western side because they will keep on looking good when the day’s end is a bit of a scorcher. Likewise put your more delicate treasures facing towards the East because the start to most days is softer and more kind.

Be Impulsive – Grab your Tuxedo hydrangea

Here’s something we’ve all done – been impulsive and brought a plant home from the garden centre. It was sitting there looking very special and before you know it, you’ve decided to treat yourself. Home it comes… to brighten your day, or week or, if you’ve hit the jackpot, you have years of loveliness to look forward to. And if you happen to spot a Tuxedo® hydrangea to bring home, you will have years of joy ahead. For these reasons…

1. It has inky black leaves. Hence its name. The foliage takes equal billing to the flowers which is a major bonus because it looks very, very good both before it flowers as well as afterwards. Depending on the light levels where you grow your Tuxedo hydrangea, the leaves will vary in how much black and green you get, and if you want the darkest option, look for Tuxedo Black Tie.

This is Hydrangea Tuxedo® Black Tie early in the season before it has put on its red flower show. There is a hint of green in the veins of the leaves but the foliage is unquestionably dark.

2. Tuxedo hydrangea’s flowers are in your face. In a good way of course. They come in both hydrangea flower formats: the mop head or the lace cap where the central bracts are held in tightly closed buds. They are large. They come in gorgeous colours – hot pink, red and purple. And they are produced from early spring.

3. This is a neat and healthy hydrangea. Tuxedo® hydrangea knows how to behave and will never grow into a tall, gangly, rangy beast. Instead, it forms a dense mound of foliage and flowers around three feet high and across. Hydrangea Tuxedo has also been bred so that it’s rarely affected by pests or diseases. So by being impulsive you are rewarded in a big way!

Shopping for shrubs

Picking a shrub to plant is a little bit like choosing a tree – it’s something that’s going to be in your life for many years. Which is why you might want to do a little background research before you start shopping to make sure it’s going to be a happy decision. Common sense says… find something beautiful and dead easy to grow. It’s all about smart shopping for shrubs. And it’s simple really, especially since we’ve given you the how-to steps here…

1. Look at these lovelies. To start you off on your online shrub shopping search take a look at lilacs, camellias, Mexican orange blossom, Fairy Magnolia® magnolias (formerly michelias), Flower Carpet® shrub roses (also known as Showpiece roses in the southern hemisphere and Canada), rhododendrons, bottlebrushes, Daphne Perfume Princess™. The full shopping list of potential candidates will be thrilling and daunting. Luckily you’ll soon find you’re able to shrink it to a manageable size based on how cold it gets where you live. After applying the climate filter, to produce a workable short list is easy – from what’s left, choose what you like the look of best.

2. Easy to grow. With your short list in hand, continue your shrub shopping by getting the answers to these simple questions. Does your plant have a reputation for being eaten by bugs or infected with fungus? Will it need attentive watering to survive and thrive? Is there some sort of complicated pruning regime you’ll need to get up to speed with if it’s to stay looking bushy and producing flowers. And if it needs full sun, deep shade, or protection from the roaring forties, is the spot you plan to dig its hole ok? Apply these further filters, then it’s time to bring home the winning candidate.

3. How to plant. This will sound soooo obvious, but there are advantages to refreshing your plant planting theory before grabbing a shovel. (Planting anything that will grow in your garden for more than five years is worth five minutes skimming through the basics online.) In short form: water your plant in its pot; dig a hole as big as the pot and then some; pop the plant out and set it into the hole; back fill and tamp down gently; water; and if possible, do all of this early or late in the day when weather conditions are often gentler.

Who doesn’t swoon when offered a face full of lilac? Any garden could do with one or more of these to perfume the air with its astonishing scent. (pic Yates)

Tips for choosing roses

If you’ve ever grown a modern rose, you’ve probably wondered why some people are still nervous about growing roses? We’re talking about that whiff of fear that still lingers, inherited from a past time when there were rose specimens so fussy and delicate that they could make a stately home’s head gardener weep. Happily since then, a lot has happened. Modern rose breeders are a practical bunch, and they’ve tackled the issues that needed to be dealt with. Thanks to them we now have a list of care-free options to choose from, with the best of these being the Flower Carpet range of roses. Having said that, you do want to keep your eyes open as you pick your rose, so here are some tips for choosing roses…

1. Feast your eyes. The reason you’re planting a rose – let’s be honest – is likely to be all about the flower so take a good look around and see what leaps up and hits you in the heart. This is not an overstatement because roses are special: maybe because they are so entwined in the culture that washes around us? So make a short list of rose crushes then move onto the next step…

Just look at this foliage – no wonder it’s produced so many blooms. Do your research and relax knowing your rose isn’t going to be tricky. (This is Flower Carpet® Fragrant Shrub Rose Berry, or Showpiece™ Berry rose in the southern hemisphere and Canada.)

2. Background checks. Due diligence never hurt anyone and where roses are concerned, this is definitely worth doing. And that’s because there are still a lot of lovely old fussy roses out there being offered to people who don’t mind a challenge and uncertainty. What you want to do is take a look at each of your rose options in turn, checking that they don’t have a reputation for being difficult. Look for words like, robust, easy-care, lush, disease free, bullet-proof, and (if you’re a very new gardener) idiot-proof. If it turns out that your candidate has a dodgy performance report card, don’t be distracted by descriptions like gorgeous, delicious, luscious because if you have trouble getting the rose to grow well, you’ll probably never have a chance to see a bloom.

3. Take a hot tip. And now for the best tip of all when it comes to choosing roses. It comes from the people whose roses these are, but know that these roses have also been industry awarded and have a significant, happy following amongst un-washed gardeners around the world. Here it comes… plant a Flower Carpet rose. More specifically, plant one of the Flower Carpet® ground cover roses, or one of the Flower Carpet® fragrant shrub roses (also known as the Showpiece™ Roses in the southern hemisphere and Canada). There are five different colour options available in the fragrant shrub roses, and a further twelve amongst the ground cover roses to choose from – in other words, oodles of choice. Flower Carpet ground cover roses grow wider rather than taller, producing hundreds of smaller blooms and the Flower Carpet shrub roses are a bushy shape and produce larger blooms that are fragrant. Whichever version, Flower Carpet roses have a proven track record for being disease resistant, lush, easy to grow and producing many flowers. Of course this makes sense because they’ve all been bred by Noack Rosen (Germany) which is a hugely respected family of plant breeders.

Must-have magnolias

If you’ve seen a magical Jury Magnolia in bloom it’s a safe bet you’ve fallen in love and are making plans to plant one yourself. Which you’ll be pleased to know is also a smart decision because these are expertly bred, bullet-proof performers. Think high pedigree combined with the gorgeous looks of a supermodel. Also, they are small trees, which makes them super-easy to find a place for. In fact, the only tricky part is deciding which one of these must-have magnolias to choose. To make this simple, read on. And once you’ve brought your very special new Jury Magnolia home, make the effort to settle it in well* and then relax, because the brilliant plant-breeding know-how of the Jury family (of New Zealand) means these magnolias know how to look after themselves.

1. Magnolia Felix™... tends to get the most ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ simply because it is so big. Not the slow growing compact tree – which grows to a very manageable, upright sixteen feet or so – but the flowers. These are a whole foot across…. honestly…. and very luscious given their hot pink colouring. If you want an astonishing display in late winter and early spring (when exactly, depends on how cold your winters are), pick Magnolia Felix.

Magnolia Felix™ produces the largest most luscious flowers.

2. Magnolia Burgundy Star™... is for anyone who’s looking for something different. The flowers are like large star bursts of claret red held up on upward-reaching branches. Five inches across, they are also lightly fragrant. And if space is tight at home, this is your solution since this tree grows only three feet wide and ten feet tall.

3. And then we have the wonderful tulips… Magnolias Black Tulip™ & Honey Tulip™. To be honest, you either love this goblet shape or not, but for all those fans it’s brilliant to know there is a choice of two colours. One has flowers that are a gorgeous purple-black and the other has golden honey. Both trees grow to around eleven feet and the flowers of both are the same size (six inches). Which means it comes down to colour and what sits best with the plants already growing in your garden.

The goblet shape of Magnolia Black Tulip™ makes you think of a glass of deep purple Beaujolais wine.

Magnolia Honey Tulip™ has wonderful warm golden highlights that also hint at a glass of Chardonnay.

* How to plant a tree: water your magnolia in its nursery pot before you do anything else; then pick a spot and dig a hole about two feet across and as deep as the pot your magnolia is growing in; if the soil isn’t crumbly make sure you loosen it up so the new roots can grow through it more easily; drive a sturdy stake into the hole (slightly off centre) then tip your magnolia out of its pot and position it up as close to the stake as you can; back fill the hole and gently but firmly press the soil back around the tree’s root ball to help anchor it in place and create a slight bowl to help hold future waterings; using something flexible, soft but strong (like pantyhose) tie the tree to the stake figure-eight-style; then water the magnolia in very well; and water regularly once a week for the next few weeks. Easy.

Tips for choosing the best tough plants

It doesn’t matter where you live, if you’re deciding what to plant based on weather forecasting you may as well buy monthly lottery tickets and expect them to pay the rent. Not that we’re taking a swipe at meteorologists. Even with their insights things are usually a bit up in the air. While one coast is being warned of a drier summer, the other is being given a heads-up that it’s going to be soggier than normal – and everywhere in between is told things for them could go either way. So if we can’t predict and control the weather we can at least apply our secret super power – informed plant choice. That’s right, we can assemble our own A-Team of tough plants that will survive and thrive whatever happens. Here are some tips for choosing the best tough plants:

1. Look local. First step in recruiting plants that will be able to look after themselves in your garden, patio or balcony is to pop on your walking shoes and go for a wander around the neighbourhood. When you see something you like that’s obviously thriving, take a quick photo to help identify it if you don’t recognise it already. And when you are online fact checking, type in your location and search what plants originally grew wild in your area. Climate shift may be messing us around but local plants still tend to be best adapted to grow well on their home turf.

2. Read the reviews. Just like anything, look for reviews to see what plants have a reputation for being proven performers. Pick a plant you like and start searching: you’ll soon find comments from gardeners telling it like it is, and you may even come across your plant on a site listing it as an award winner – usually a sign a plant’s organisation has put it through the hoops and it’s come up as garden worthy.

3. And if you can’t be pure…. But what do we do with our tender treasures – those plants we just love but which are fussy and prone to dying at the hint of drought or flood? The good news is there is a way to keep them in our lives. Plant them into containers and keep them where you can keep a closer eye on them and tend to their needs. If a scorcher of a day is forecast, move your pots into the garage or off the balcony and into your air-conditioned living room. Or if more water has fallen from the skies than set Noah afloat, bring them under cover, make sure they’re draining freely (no saucers) and space them out so that the air can circulate freely to avoid mildew.

Pop this espaliered Fairy Magnolia® Blush magnolia on wheels and roll it out onto your balcony, and when the heat wave looms, relax and just wheel it inside.

Gardens help sort out our stress

Why do we go out into the garden when we’re stressed? Pandemic, financial security, work deadlines are just three jolly topics that might send us outdoors. But then when we are out in the garden we’re faced with unpredictable Mother Nature. Seeking respite where we don’t have control doesn’t make sense…until you scratch the surface to reveal that gardens help sort out our stress, it’s garden-magic…

1. Living with stuff that’s beyond our control. That statement could double as a definition for gardening. Experience has shown us gardeners that when we plant something, most of the time if we choose well and keep an eye on things, we get a happy-ever-after ending to meet our hopes and expectations. But experience also tells us that factors outside our control will sometimes mess things up. And yet in the garden we accept this – hungry deer, drought, cold snaps, whatever – and when things go south we just deal with it and start afresh. It’s this reassuring cycle that helps build resilience for the things that trouble us in life.

Keep your garden kit where you can find it fast: it’s your passport to being outside in the garden to help sort out our stress.

2. Being outside. Everyone knows what to do when the baby starts crying. Pop him in the pram and head outside for a walk. You’ll get supportive smiles as you walk along and before you know it, the baby settles and all is calm again. Most of us feel the same way: we feel better for being outdoors especially if the sun is shining, a gentle breeze is blowing and there’s some greenery to enjoy. Even better then if you’re out in your own green space pottering around doing a bit of deadheading, pulling a few weeds or rearranging the containers on the balcony. If you were clenching your teeth before you headed outdoors, take note of how much more relaxed you feel as you finally head indoors again. Gardens give you a primal reset opportunity, a real chance to help sort out your stress.

3. Taking the focus off yourself. There is something else gardens give us that’s less obvious. The garden is a place where we can lose ourselves. Before we grab our secateurs and gloves, our heads are full of our lives. And we all know what ‘full’ can feel like. And then we step out under the sky and begin to wander around, taking stock. Our plants are players in a soap opera of sorts and we soon become immersed in their lives. A snip here. A garden stake added there. A soaker hose repositioned where it’s now needed. Mental notes taken to rake the grass or sweep the path. So that while we’re in the garden, the part of our brain that’s tied up with the good and not-so-good bits of our lives, that part is forced to stay quiet. And often everything seems a lot less full on when it’s time to go back inside and listen to our heads again.

The history of plants

Who gives much thought to where a particular plant comes from, its history? It’s sitting there at the garden centre with a handy pot label telling us all we need to know about how much sun and water it likes. What’s never on the label is the plant’s back-story – where its ancestors grew. Were they clinging to the side of a mountain in China when discovered by western plant collectors? Or were they growing wild in North American woodlands when a fresh wave of settlers arrived in the 17th Century? For a bit of fun, here we reveal the history of plants…

1. Take everyone’s garden favourite, Phlox, for example. Do the gardeners who plant it know that a few hundred years back it was growing wild in the United States, a native to New York right the way west to Iowa, and south to Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas? It was such a lovely plant, that when settlers from the old world arrived, they quickly sent samples of it home where its exotic beauty could be admired. Thomas Jefferson himself – one time US President and keen botanist – brought Phlox into his garden at Monticello, Virginia. Imagine if he could see what plant breeders have achieved with phlox varieties over the 200+ years since, to produce the robust, sturdy no-need-for-staking options (like Volcano™ Phlox) that are available to us today – lush, rich in colour and the most easy-care – Volcano phlox is the best phlox around.

There are many Volcano™ Phlox varieties and they all know how to thrive in the garden, with the best disease resistance of all modern phlox. They’re each lovely in their own way – this is Volcano™ Phlox Pink with Red Eye.

2. Given Bird of Paradise is the official flower of Los Angeles, you might think it comes originally from that part of the world, but it doesn’t. These astonishing plants are a tight knit family with only around five species recognised. And they all come from Africa. It’s very likely Birds of Paradise arrived in Britain around the time botanist Joseph Banks was officially advising King George lll, helping His Royal Highness to create the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The clue is in the botanical name they were given by western botanists – Strelitzia – named after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, George’s wife, who had a keen interest in botany and the new gardens.

plants back-story — This watercolour of a Strelitzia is thought to have been painted around 1850. Notes to the bottom of the study suggest that it was cultivated near a warm stove – possibly in a domestic kitchen or more likely as part of a horticultural set-up. (Credit: Wellcome Collection)

3. Fruit trees are so valued that they have been carried around the world for people to grow and enjoy probably from the moment we started to plant gardens.The Apricot is a good example – it’s grown in so many places around the world, it’s almost hard to believe that apricots (a prunus species) originally grew wild in China and central Asia. These days modern hybridisation, on top of centuries of selective breeding, means gardeners have brilliant options when choosing a small, pretty flowering fruit tree covered once a year in delicious fruit.

4 fragrant flower garden ideas

Daphne Perfume Princess™ packs an impressive punch in terms of perfume power. This one is the classic pink version and it’s easily the easiest daphne of all to grow.

Music and perfume pack the most powerful punches when it comes to emotional hooks. Remember dancing under the stars on a jasmine-scented evening? If you hear that song and catch the same perfume on the breeze, you’re transported straight back in time. Rather than wait for chance, it’s easy to create your own happy-scented-memory bubble just by growing perfumed plants – on a window ledge, balcony, patio or in the soil. Here are 4 fragrant flower garden ideas to get you started: then just plant and take a deep breath….

1. The one and only Perfume Princess. In the cooler months there’s no other flower that has the same intense perfume as a daphne. And of the daphne options you’ll find at the garden centre, no daphne compares with Daphne Perfume Princess™. There’s a snow white version, and a classic pink and both have the waxy, almost crystalline florets in larger-than-normal clusters. Daphne Perfume Princess is versatile too: being happy to grow in a container and stay relatively modest in size, or to grow into a very nice bushy shrub if planted directly into the soil. With this much flexibility it’s easy to position your daphne right where your nose can enjoy the perfume: in a pot on the balcony; or planted in the garden right beside a welcoming garden bench.

Daphne Perfume Princess™ also comes in crystalline white with just as much perfume power.

2. Spring bulbs that catch our breath. Who doesn’t stop to put their nose into a pot of flowering bulbs in springtime. It’s super easy to plant your own to have on the balcony or even to bring indoors to sit on the table at lunchtime. In late winter, just pick a container, fill it a third full of free draining potting mix, then tuck your bulbs in and cover with the rest of the potting mix. Sit it out where it will get rain and sun, and before long you’ll spot little green spikes nudging upwards. Which bulbs do you choose? Perfumed ones of course, like the small narcissus aka jonquils. In yellow, cream, splashes of orange and soft pinks there are heaps to choose from. Or freesias, with their trumpets of scent that come in rainbow colours. Hyacinths are lovely and their fragrance is why people sit them on their kitchen windowsills in late winter. To see more options go online and search with ‘perfume’ and ‘bulbs’…

Some of the best and simplest spring bulbs to grow are the narcissus aka jonquils. These are paperwhites and they smell delicious.

3. Fragrant Roses are brilliant. And probably the easiest, best performing perfumed rose to plant and grow these days is the Flower Carpet® Fragrant Shrub rose (known as the Showpiece Fragrant Shrub rose in the southern hemisphere and Canada). These roses don’t need expert pruning or spraying, they grow into a nice green bushy bush and produce fairytale, large, fragrant roses. There are five colours to choose from (with more on the way), and you can grow them in the ground or in a container. Again, a terrific option for balcony, patio or a whole easy-care rose garden full of them.

4. Wisteria wonderland. If you want to create a springtime scented show-stopper moment, nothing beats wisteria. Purple (over white) packs the most fragrance, and you can train it so that the flower racemes dangle just overhead in a scented cloud. Look around your place and plan where you’ll train it as the vine grows. Up and over the back door; over a pergola to shade the patio; along the balcony’s balustrade so that you’ll be wrapped in a shawl of perfume and be screened from passers-by.

Hanging clusters of dreamy-scented flowers – what’s not to love about wisteria?

A rose for everyone

Ever wondered why roses have always had such a big fan club? Or why the rose is cast as the hero flower in so many fairy tales? And why private and public gardens are created to be filled with just roses? (Not to be rude but have you ever heard of a daisy garden?) Yes, the rose is the accepted queen of flowers and this is why roses are for everyone…

1. Roses have lovely faces. It’s probably hard-wired in us, that we feel happier looking into a rose bloom. It doesn’t matter if it has an open face with a ring of golden stamens, or it’s a fully ruffled like a cabbage – a rose bloom stops us for a moment and makes us feel wonderful. There are rose bushes which produce several massive blooms, and others that cover themselves in hundreds of tiny cherry sized flowers. And it’s this variety of rose flower forms that makes roses all the more appealing simply because there’s a rose to suit everyone’s taste.

Some roses (like this Flower Carpet® Pink ground cover rose) cover themselves in a sea of ruffled blooms from late spring through to early autumn.

2. Roses come in many colours. From arctic white through creams, pinks, yellows, oranges, reds and violet-blues: there’s a colour option for anyone. Not to mention roses that have candy striped petals or those that change colour while they’re blooming on the bush. Roses are the flower that gives us a full box of watercolours to work with when playing around with a bit of garden planting design.

From striped petals to blooms that change colour on the bush, roses come in many colours: Flower Carpet® Pink Splash ground cover rose looks like candy and Flower Carpet® Amber ground cover rose reminds us of a medley of citrus sorbet flavours.

3. Rose bushes come in different formats, which is incredibly valuable for anyone who plants a garden. There are roses that are low and mat forming (Flower Carpet® roses), those that grow into mounded shrubs (shrub roses), others that are grafted and trained into topiary shapes (tree or standard roses), and others that grow like vines. Put them all together and you could in theory be immersed in roses with blooms at your feet, at your waist, at face level and above.

4. Roses perfume the air. Just as roses can look very different, from their flower through to the form of the plant they grow into, they also have different degrees of scent. For some, they give the breeze a light crisp scent while for others the fragrance is rich, fruity with spicy overtones. It all comes down to personal taste, but like everything to do with roses, it’s what helps make them as universally loved as they are.

4 reasons to plant hydrangeas

hydrangeas are it — Hydrangeas bring a lot to the garden: this explosion of colour and texture is the lacecap form of the inky foliaged Tuxedo® Red.

How does a random plant – like the hydrangea – suddenly leap out of last century to become the It plant? (If you don’t believe us, visit Pinterest.) Yup – Hydrangeas have definitely moved on from being a granny-garden relic to being über popular and here are 4 reasons to plant hydrangeas…

1. Hydrangeas look lush. Just looking at them makes you feel like you’re being pampered. Their foliage is ample and the flowers are over-the-top. As a plant they somehow exude generosity, opulence, luxury. No wonder we want them: after all we’ve just come out of a few years tight with uncertainty and risk. Having a hydrangea in the garden, in a pot on the balcony or in a vase on the table: it’s a treat we all deserve.

2. They have brilliant flowers. Anyone with a vase of fresh flowers wants them to last as long as possible. That’s definitely on the agenda if you’re buying them from the florist, but it also makes sense if you’re growing them yourself. Which is why choosing garden plants with great cut-flower staying power is something to think about. Hydrangeas are legendary when it comes to vase-life longevity. You cut them, plunge their stems into a vase of water and then leave them be. The water will eventually evaporate and you’ll be left with a dried arrangement that’s doesn’t quite have the living loveliness of the early days, but is very special in a different, still-life sort of way.

This is one of the Gift Hydrangeas and it’s called Blueberries & Cream™ because that’s just what the flowers look like. You’ll see it looking this good even in a small container ready to be gift wrapped: plant it out into the garden later and it grows into a decent-sized shrub, covered in flowers.

3. Hydrangeas look romantic, (and we all love a bit of that). Hydrangeas and Regency era romances seem to go together: it’s probably the ruffles looking like a hydrangea bush in flower. All that lace at the hero’s throat and flounces on the bonnets of the heroine. (No wonder the two types of flower form are known as the lace cap and the mophead: one has a combination of opened and unopened florets and the other is a fully opened ball.)

4. They are easy to grow. Any plant that is easy to grow soon becomes popular. If anyone can pop one in the ground, water it, then stand back and watch it turn into something wonderful, well that’s a winner. And before someone says they need too much water, remember that we’re very water savvy these days. We know how to group the plants together that want more frequent drinks. That way we put the water where it’s appreciated and don’t waste it. And if you plant hydrangea varieties like Tuxedo®, Strawberries & Cream® or Blueberries & Cream™ you’ll be growing plants that like a bit of water to get established but from then on, a little will go a long way.

A mop top in full splendour: Hydrangea Tuxedo® Pink livens up a dark garden sideway.

How to quickly transform your garden

Without these Festival™ Raspberry cordylines (known as Raspberry Fountain™ in the southern hemisphere), you’d have a very ho hum landscape of clipped hedge, standard roses and bluebells. Adding strappy plants is a fast make-over.

How to quickly transform your garden… just add some strappy plants. It’s the simplest way to take dull, outdated plantings and lift them into being described as edgy and lovely. It doesn’t really matter which strappy plants you decide to add to your existing garden, but picking something easy-to-grow and good-looking makes a lot of sense. Here are two of the best – one tall and broad-leafed and the other shorter and finer foliaged. Both are easy to find and will do a terrific job with no effort from you, apart from planting them.

1. Burgundy Spire^™ is a cordyline, and like any cordyline, Burgundy Spire has strappy leaves. These are special, thanks not only to being a gorgeous deep burgundy but they are broad and blade-like, and unlike many other cordylines, the foliage covers the truck right down to the ground. Even more impressive is the plant’s height – ten to twelve feet tall and around three feet wide. There are also purple flowers in spring, produced on branchlets 20 inches long. This is a plant to stand out and be noticed and these are the ways to use it best. It’s tall so plant it towards the back of the garden bed. Where structure is needed, set a regimented row to stand behind a loose planting in the foreground. If you want to make something of the entry into your garden, plant cordyline Burgundy Spire on either side of the path to act as sentries. Or if you have a long garden bed filled over time with plants added with no plan, add a couple of clusters of three along its length to give the landscape some intent. To grow cordyline Burgundy Spire, it is best to dig a hole for it somewhere there is full sun, and water it in. Keep it watered for a few weeks then relax.

Standing tall and glorious, with skirts to their ankles, these Burgundy Spire™ cordylines in a trial garden clearly outshine another variety (far right). Up close (below) the foliage is broad-bladed with a lustre.

2. Festival™ cordylines are just as special and stand-out good looking as cordyline Burgundy Spire, but for different reasons. They are smaller – they grow to a little over three feet tall and wide – which means they have different super-powers. They don’t grow a trunk but instead look a lot like a clump of grass. Their foliage is narrow and more cascading (hence the name Fountain™ cordylines, as used in the southern hemisphere) and they too have branchlets, of soft pink, softly scented flowers. But their real stand out is their foliage colour options: Cordyline Festival Burgundy is a deep glossy burgundy; Cordyline Festival Raspberry is a striped combo of burgundy and raspberry pink; and Cordyline Festival Lime is a bright lime green. Armed with these options it’s easy to give a very ordinary garden a massive lift. Tuck a few clusters of three into any existing planting and the whole garden bed will suddenly look intentional. Plant a row along one side of the garden path and the rest of the garden will pick up some design intent by default. Or plant them into containers set out onto the patio and the garden will act as the backdrop and your potted lovelies will take all the attention. Which color to use is up to you: take your cue from the existing plantings or ignore the garden and plant what you like the look of best. To grow a Festival cordyline, dig a hole for it anywhere there is full sun to part shade. Set it low in the hole and water it in. Keep it watered for a few weeks then relax.

Cordyline Festival™ Burgundy (also known as Red Fountain™ in the southern hemisphere) in flower is surprisingly lovely (above); Festival™ Raspberry is gloriously, deliciously colourful (below).

Foliage plant ideas

The original, larger-than-life Canna Tropicanna® is a spectacular and colourful foliage plant.

Fashion flip flops – we all know that – and gardens go through the same cycles. Go to a garden show and you’ll see that last year’s geometric pavers have been overshadowed by this year’s natural gravel and stepping stones. Planting schemes shift in the same way: wild and blowsy to tight and clipped; cool flowering blues and whites through to tropical hot pinks and oranges. Some trends are longer-lasting simply because they do a job well – like using small-leaved plants to make boundaries seem further away to therefore make a garden space seem bigger. But like any trend, there’s a moment when it’s pushed the other way. Look around and you’ll see large-leaved plants being flaunted, for some big foliage fashion. They’re all about celebrating nature, marvelling at the architecture of the leaf and in some cases, the riot of colour on show. So let’s meet some of these big leafed beauties for some great foliage plant ideas…

1. Canna Tropicanna® is the first plant anyone thinks of for foliage that’s big, bold and seriously fun. We all know the classic version with its clown-pants striped rainbow colouring on those pennant leaves – a gorgeous sight in the sunlight. And there are two other versions: one with more stripes but in lime greens and gold, and then a mysterious dark one where the stripes are just discernible as licks of purple on black. These are brilliant planted anywhere because they look wonderful.

2. Monstera – the plant with a cool name is also super easy to grow. It’s a great solution to areas where there’s not much light and the space to grow is more vertical than along the ground. A narrow sideway can be transformed by a planting of these with subtle lighting at night to accentuate the wild foliage shapes.

3. Agaves are funky and regal in the same package. They are fleshy but crisp, large plants in that great grey-green that makes your garden look professionally planted. Drop three into any existing bed and the look will instantly look designer. And when they flower, you’ll find out why they’re called swan-necked: they put up massive arching flower spikes for several months. Very “wow!”

4. Elephant Ears (Calladium) have a serious following because they are big, beautiful and, if you pick the right variety, colourful. They’re also an indoor option for gardeners where winters are real. Fill your glassed-in space with these and you’ll feel like you’re on holiday in Rio.

Great plants for flowers and foliage

This mophead red beauty is the complete solution in a pot: gorgeous flowers and equally gorgeous foliage. It’s a Tuxedo® hydrangea.

Ever wondered why sometimes something you’ve planted ends up looking really good? And it’s not just you that thinks that: other people are pointing at it saying, “That looks fantastic”. The reason is really simple – it’s not just about the flowers; the foliage is working just as hard. It’s just like a good flower arrangement where the florist spends time pulling together great flowers and lovely leaves. But hey, not everyone has the florist’s natural gifts to bring to their gardening, so here’s a tip: grow plants that have the foliage and flowers in a pre-packaged combo on the same plant. Following are a few plants to hunt down online or the next time you’re out drifting past plant stands at the garden centre to give you that great flower-foliage combo…

Black is always good looking: and that’s probably the biggest reason Tuxedo® Hydrangeas look great in a pot, or in the garden. These hydrangeas have lush foliage – green flushed with black – and they have a dense mounded form. And when they put out glorious, showy flowers in red or hot pink they look remarkable. There’s even the choice of whether you want the classic mophead (aka oversized pom pom) style blooms or the more textured lacecap version. Great planted alone, Tuxedo Hydrangeas look equally good in a large container planting teamed with strappy plants like black mondo grass or black New Zealand flax, and a few punnets of petunias in red or hot pink to suit.

great flower-foliage combo — This is also a Tuxedo® hydrangea, this time in hot pink, and instead of a mophead, it’s a lacecap version.

With enough ‘rah rah’ to stand on a stage: Tropicanna® Cannas have it all. Their flowers are gorgeously hot coloured in tangerine, bright yellow and red: and their foliage is broad, bold and in your face (in the nicest way). To plant a Canna Tropicanna is to expect compliments especially for the classic rainbow striped version, but also for the green and gold option or the more subtle inky black one. Plant these cannas in a clump and you’ll soon have a nice big statement planting, glowing with vibrant plant charisma.

This plant looks like a flower arrangement: weirdly, but wonderfully, it’s all natural because it’s just the one plant. Rock & Roll® Alstroemeria is flashy enough before it breaks into flower because it’s one of the best-looking variegated foliage plants around. The masses of red flowers arrive to sit on top of white stems, and there will be a lot of them. If you grow this wonder of a plant in your garden, it will settle in quickly and become a dependable source of cut flowers to take indoors or give away. Team it in arrangements with its own foliage and everyone will think you’re using some other plant to set off the flowers. (Well done Mother Nature.)

Strappy foliage is always a style winner: which is one of the reasons why Storm™ Agapanthus is the complete ready-made package to plant. The flowers are a florist-favourite with their tall straight stems holding up long-lasting flower heads in variations of blue or white. The mass of flowers sits well above clumping mounds of thinly strapped green foliage, which is also why – apart from the flowers – this plant looks so good.

How to use foliage plants

glamorous foliage — This is Coprosma Pacific™ Sunrise – proof that glamour doesn’t demand flowers.

Are we so shallow to think a plant must have flowers? And that a foliage plant is just a work-horse in the garden? Hopefully not – because we’d be missing out. Bred in Europe, the Pacific^™ Coprosmas are certainly as dependable and solid as a work horse. Plant them pretty much anywhere and they will deliver what you want: healthy, lush growth with no effort on your part. Flowers aren’t their thing however, so can these fantastic foliage plants also be a glamorous addition to the garden? Stop and read on below to see how to use foliage plants in the garden and you’ll quickly answer “yes”…

A great looking pot plant: when a gardener plants something in a container, it’s like they’ve turned on the spotlight. The pot usually sits somewhere noticeable – like beside the front door or out on the patio – so whatever’s in that pot needs to put on a good show. And it goes without saying that it shouldn’t die, but instead thrive and keep on looking good for as long as possible. Enter the Pacific Coprosmas. Plant either one of them and you’ll be very confident that they’ll put on a lustrous performance thanks to their tough constitutions and glossy, painterly foliage.

Worth a place in the landscape design: take a look at the work of any good professional, and you’ll soon work out that they don’t tolerate time-waster plants. And by time wasters we mean plants that promise a lot but aren’t great on delivering without a lot of pampering, something a professional horticulturalist hasn’t the time to deliver. No surprises then that Pacific Coprosmas get used a lot. They have substance and a good ‘form’ (aka shape and bushiness), they deliver a colour punch where needed, and they demand pretty much zero maintenance. Copy the professionals and dot them through a mixed planting or use them to create a sweep or block of colour in a massed planting.

Dotted through or planted in sweeps, these professional plantings make good use of Pacific™ Coprosmas.

And if you need to plant a hedge: Pacific Coprosma offers up an interesting option, where the hedge can be planted to be a feature in itself. The glow of these coprosmas means that you can edge a path or create a wind break, and instead of it being a standard invisible green hedge, it becomes part of the forefront in the garden picture.

The best roses

only 2 roses you need — It’s new but it looks old-fashioned. This is the easy-to-grow Flower Carpet® shrub rose Blush (or Rosa Showpiece™ Blush) in all its voluptuous, perfumed splendour.

We humans are smart enough to avoid reinventing the wheel. So when we find a great restaurant, doctor or garden rose, we tend to head back to the same source when we’re looking for another delicious night out, some good health care or lovely, bullet-proof roses. Which is why it’s worth sharing this bit of industry knowledge with anyone who already has Flower Carpet® roses growing in their garden: there’s a new fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub rose (known as Showpiece™ roses in the Southern hemisphere and Canada) – in five great colours – created by the same rose breeder. Which means that, while the shrub cousins are a different look and style to the original Flower Carpet ground cover roses, when it comes down to being lush, healthy and super easy to grow, these fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses are as wonderful as those first and innovative Flower Carpet ground cover roses, again, both thanks to Werner Noack of Noack Roses, Gütersloh, Germany. So let’s have an executive summary of each to remember why Flower Carpet ground cover roses are so universally loved, and see why their shrub rose relatives are heading steadily in the same popularity direction – and why these are the best roses and the only 2 roses you need…

The rose that brings joy: Before we get down to the nitty gritty, go stand in front of any Flower Carpet® ground cover rose when it’s mature and in full bloom and you’ll feel the joy. Firstly, because these roses are astonishing when in flower, but secondly, if the rose that you’re admiring is blooming in your own garden, you’ll also appreciate that you didn’t have to do anything to help the Flower Carpet rose produce this moment. It’s thanks to Mr Noack that we have these ridiculously easy-care roses, to which, after planting and giving them a bit of attention with a watering can for a week or two, we’re no longer needed. No pruning. No spraying for bugs or fungus. No feeding. Of course you can trim your Flower Carpet rose back if you want, but throw away your rose pruning guide and treat your rose instead like you would a leggy lavender or daisy bush. And if you want, by all means toss some slow-release fertiliser around the base of the plant in spring and then in fall. And now to the facts and stats. There are more than 10 different Flower Carpet ground cover roses available; they’re called carpet roses because they tend to grow into low, dense bushes that flatten out at about three feet once mature (professional landscapers use them a lot in massed plantings); they’ll cope in part shade but love the sunshine; established plants cope well with dry spells; and they’re happy in USDA zones five through to 10.

Old style meets today’s expectations: This is the best way to sum up the fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses (also known as Showpiece™ roses). Werner Noack and his son Reinhard bred these deliberately to give us perfumed roses that looked old-fashioned, but were easy-care. Just like a lovely old house, restored with all the modern comforts slipped in behind the scenes. So when you plant a Flower Carpet® Shrub rose you’ll get what you want: a thick, bushy rose bush that covers itself in large, romantic, fragrant rose blooms. The sort you can pick to take indoors. With a Flower Carpet® Shrub rose, you’ll not only have a great looking plant in the landscape, but you’ll be gazing into the faces of classic old-world style roses, complete with the folded petals, ruffles, variation in the shades, glossy green foliage and fragrance in the air. These roses will produce the most flowers when they are planted in full sun; they don’t need to be pruned but if you do, cutting them back to a foot high will promote even more flowers. They don’t need to be sprayed for bugs or fungus, and after planting they only need watering for a few weeks to settle them in – they’ll become drought tolerant as they mature. Best of all, there are five different fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses to choose from and they’re all happy to grow in USDA zones five through to 10.

3 flowers for your spring garden

Hooray! We’ve turned the cold-weather corner! We’re standing in the spring sunshine! Can you feel your heart skip a beat – in a good way? Yup – it’s that time of year when the garden magic happens, and here are 3 flowers for your spring garden…

1. The magician’s bouquet: first, walk into your nearest garden centre where you’ll spot some seriously good-looking Hydrangeas called Tuxedo®. There they’ll be, sitting in their pots picture-perfect, ready to be gift wrapped and carried out the door like a bunch of florist’s flowers. You could give them to someone, but this time, treat yourself instead. Take your Tuxedo hydrangea home and pop that glorious living bouquet smack in the middle of the coffee table, or on your desk, or beside the front door and enjoy it. Then, to make the garden magic happen, a few weeks on, take Tuxedo hydrangea outside and plant it into a large container or out into the garden itself. Then stand back because it will quickly grow into a glorious, black foliaged three-foot-high bush which will give you flowers for many years to come. Your potted bouquet just transformed itself into a proper permanent garden shrub. Garden magic.

2. A shade shifter: there’s a rose called Flower Carpet® Amber. It’s pretty special even before we start talking about its magic secret, because it grows fast, stays green (USDA zones 5-10) and flowers from spring through to autumn. But what makes Amber really special is the way it looks like it’s more than one rose. To explain, just say you went out and planted Amber. After it had spent some time settling in and establishing itself, it would come into flower. And being a Flower Carpet rose, it would be covered in flowers. First the buds would swell – hundreds of them – and they’d be a lovely deep orange. These would open progressively into sherbet-shades of orange-yellow blooms. And then these flowers would settle into shades of soft pink and peach. So at any one time, the one rose bush looks like there are at least two very colour-complimentary roses growing together, one orange and one pink. Garden magic.

3. Bare earth to wow: this is the classic spring surprise moment. It’s a wonderful thing to do with children who will probably love gardens from that point on (if they don’t already). Get some bulbs – daffodils, narcissus, freesias, tulips, whatever – and gather together a container and some potting mix. Shake in the potting mix to about half way up the side of the container, and pat it down. Then have your young assistants place the bulbs the right way up across the entire surface of the ‘soil’ (use the internet to help you work this out, or if in doubt, lay the bulbs on their sides). Cover everything gently with more potting mix and again, pat it down. Then keep your pot damp (but not soggy – watch out for overenthusiastic young waterers) and have everyone keep a look out for those first, miraculous spikes of green. It only gets better as colour and fragrance follow. Garden magic.

Garden magic — If you plant your bulbs tightly together you’ll not only get a great display like these tulips, but the flowers and foliage will help to support each other.

3 reasons to use Strappy plants

Here’s something you might not know about strappy plants – they’re a brilliant fix when you find yourself faced with a gardening disaster. Take these 3 reasons to use strappy plants. We’ve all been here: this is how strappy foliage can dig us out of the hole (pun intended)…

1. Inserting some style: at some point the most rigid landscape design loses its edge. Plants grow. Or they self seed from somewhere else. Or we find ourselves with new plants – gifts or brought home from the garden centre on a whim – and we tuck them in amongst the rest. Some gardeners are happy with this d-evolution but for too many of us, we wander out one day and it suddenly hits us that our landscape has shifted. It’s become blurry. It may be charming but it has lost its punchiness and style. The fix is simple. Find a strappy plant that you like the look of, something you know will perform without fuss like a Festival^™ cordyline (known as Fountain™ cordyline in the southern hemisphere). Position a few where you think they’re needed (they’ll add texture and focus), then plant them into the garden. Problem solved.

2. The tragic granny-look mixed planter: if you are a container gardener – a keen collector of pots filled with lovely plants – it’s tricky maintaining a stylish or even funky vibe. There are a few tricks you can use, like growing whatever you like but in matching containers… all classic terracotta, or glazed blue, or modernist concrete. (The flipside version of this looks awesome too, but it is a bit boring for hands-on gardeners: an eclectic collection of pots but with the same plant growing in all of them.) The most common problem is the big container filled with a mix of plants which is starting to look like you’re minding it for your Great Aunt Bernice while she’s in hospital. The fix is easy. Pop in a strappy foliaged plant and your mixed container’s edginess will be restored. Problem solved.

3. The ugly view: surely every gardener faces this problem at some point? We are charged with blocking the view of the neighbor’s ugly garage, or too-public hot-pool. And to make things more difficult, we often don’t have much room to work with – literally. So the next time you’re faced with a very narrow planting footprint and you need something to leap out of the ground and provide cover fast, embrace something like the strappy tower Burgundy Spire^™ Cordyline. Not only will your functional problem be solved, but you’ll have done it with a flourish of design flair.

Tips for decluttering your garden

Love gardening? You probably have a garden full of treasures, all screaming to be noticed and appreciated. Which is fine until you realise that every time you walk outside you feel like there’s way too much going on. It’s visually exhausting; there’s nothing to focus on; there’s no hierarchy like we see in Nature. Making this landscape mess was too easy. Happily, it’s just as simple to fix the garden clutter by digging and planting your way out of it, and here are some tips for decluttering your garden:

1. a standout plant: picture a garden bed full of bits and pieces that you love because they are bright, pretty, fancily foliaged, perfumed – whatever. What they may not have is the magical ability to blend harmoniously in with their neighbors. No problem, just nudge them apart and make some room to plant a new focal plant. Pick something that is visually strong – tall enough, bold enough, strappy enough – to stand out over all the rest. Hop online and look at images of things like the Swan Necked Agave, Canna Tropicanna® and New Zealand Flax. Just one is enough to restore style to an oversized mixed planter. You may need a few clumps across a larger garden planting. Give your ‘focals’ a month or so to settle in and then the magic will happen where a higgledy-piggledy plant collection turns into a horticultural landscape that feels right. And voilà, you have fixed your garden clutter!

fixing garden cutter — Even a patio filled with pots can get messy: imagine this collection without the style-life produced by Canna Tropicanna®.

2. a bit of digging: the other way to achieve this effect is to walk out into the buzz of your visually noisy garden with a spade in your hand. Your task is to group together those plants that are alike. If you have Agapanthus, move them all together. Same with the Shatas, Sedum, Phlox, Lavenders and Coneflowers. This somewhat crude system of tidying up is very effective and, if it’s done in late autumn or early spring, doubles as a rejuvenation exercise – a bit of garden housekeeping that we should all be doing but rarely get around to.

Plants for shaded areas in your garden

Finding something special to plant in a garden’s dark & shady spot is tough. The usual list of candidates – ivy, hostas, ferns and palms – are OK, but sometimes (ho hum) that’s not enough. Here are some plants for shaded areas in your garden…

1. Graphic relief: one of the tricks to dealing with a low light area of your garden is to give it a punch with some highly visible plants. Monsteras, philodendrons and fatsias are great examples. They lift a gloomy position just by being bold with foliage that’s oversized with graphic shapes and cut outs. Stick to one type for a statement, or mix up a few species for more of a collector’s vibe. And if you’re planting in a light well or courtyard, consider painting the walls white to emphasise the leaf textures.

2. A dark horse: strange as this sounds, planting dark foliaged plants in a shaded area in your garden is a clever way to build mood into a garden. Something like the Tuxedo® Hydrangea is a perfect example of how you can create a vibe that’s distinct from the rest of the garden. It’s a professional landscaper’s trick done deliberately to make a garden seem much bigger than it is because it breaks the space down into mood zones that feel quite different from each other. Tuxedo hydrangea’s purple and black flushed foliage is glossy and stylish, and when the flowers arrive in spring, the whole space is transformed by the massive mop head or lace cap flowers in vibrant pink or red.

3. The fragrant surprise: dark garden corners rarely offer up a lovely surprise – instead they’re usually filled with problem solving plants like ivy, planted as a ground cover around the base of a shading tree. You can resist the default and add a bit of “ooh!” and “ahh!” by mass planting some Daphne Perfume Princess™. This particular daphne is a solid performer that it will give you green leafy cover, and in late winter and early spring, its pink or white flowers (there are two options) will pump the air with that glorious daphne scent, making the dark and mysterious part of the garden well worth visiting.

Lift the mood of a shady space with a gorgeous punch of fragrance from something like this Daphne Perfume Princess™.

Great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs

When did bushes & shrubs step out of the spotlight? Remember when they were part of the holy trinity of garden plant types – trees, bushes, lawn? The point is, the bushy plant well-deserves its place. Here are some great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs and how to use them cleverly…

1. Bushes buffer breezes: Bushy plants are essential core building blocks in any garden. Because the foliage grows thickly, they are dense enough to reduce breezes. This may not sound exciting – until you get clever with it. Imagine you have a nice spot in the garden, except the wind whips around the corner of the house and makes you and your more precious plants feel very uncomfortable. Each time you go out there to enjoy the view or read a book, you find yourself standing up and moving somewhere more comfortable, leaving your plant treasures to suffer alone. But if you plant a few bushy plants into the right spot, the wind will be deflected and broken and your outdoor space will be a haven to enjoy, where your more delicate plant treasures can thrive.

2. Blocking views & directing traffic: These are such key reasons to have bushes working for you in the garden. Imagine you have a front path that no-one likes to use and instead they cut across the lawn or garden to get to your door. It’s a common problem because we are a lazy bunch, but it’s easily fixed with a low line of bushy plants – aka a hedge. It doesn’t need to be a tall hedge as people tend to stick to the path rather than risk stepping over a line of shrubs more than knee height. And if you have an ugly network box, pool filter, or air conditioner visible outside, you can distract or hide it from view by planting bushes & shrubs in front of it. This isn’t rocket science but it’s surprising how many people build a cupboard around something like this which makes it even more of an eyesore.

3. Six good shrubs: Use this list to do a little online research. Then take this list with you when you go to the garden centre because it will make your life easier when you’re surrounded by an often overwhelming amount of choice. First is the very worthy Pacific^™ Coprosma. Easy to grow and gorgeously coloured, these medium sized bushes (3ft x 3ft) are good at directing foot traffic, filling in gaps in the landscape, or just looking good in a pot. Lavender is a forever favourite because it has attractive grey foliage and those lovely scented flowers. Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata) is a good mid-green tall shrub that has white fragrant flowers in spring. It’s tall enough at 10 feet to block an ugly view. Rosemary (the herb) is another good bushy plant because it is a brilliant garden bed edging, and being edible, looks great framing the vegetable garden. An Australian favourite is Westringia or costal rosemary. It’s not edible but it is clip-able, and the landscape designers down under love to trim it into funky spheres. And finally if you need something to softly hide the dog house, plant a Spiraea thunbergii. Note the name because there are a few Spiraeas around and this is the one that grows to five feet high (and wide) and in spring and summer covers itself in white flowers.

If you’re looking for a plant to do a job, why not pick one that looks fabulous. This is Coprosma Pacific^™ Sunset.

Stop! Appreciate the foliage

Look past all those flowers for a moment and take notice of and appreciate the green foliage and nicely shaped bush. These are the flower-free reasons Flower Carpet® roses are so garden worthy.

Strange as this sounds, one of the reasons why Flower Carpet® roses have become every-gardener’s-best-friend comes down to the leaves, so sometimes we need to just stop and appreciate the foliage. That’s right – not the flowers but the foliage. Let’s be clear: no-one is saying that the flowers aren’t the main reason that the Flower Carpet rose has such a big fan club, and that’s because the flowers are the main reason. But it’s the green part of the plant that’s priceless in a behind-the-scenes way…

1. Looking healthy: Flower Carpet® roses look like they’re bursting with good health. Whether you’re standing in front of one in early spring admiring all those buds, or mid summer being wowed by the show of open blooms, or even during the colder times of the year when it’s easier to focus on the foliage, the result is the same. Pretty much year ‘round, these roses have robust, shiny green leaves that look like they’re hardly ever bothered by bugs or disease. Which is a fact, because part of the reason why Flower Carpet roses have been given awards by the rose boffins, is because their foliage is so healthy. Awards aside, it also means we home gardeners don’t need to worry about fighting off the aphids and black spot that attack our other roses. Plant a Flower Carpet rose and the battle is over before it began – we’re free to stand back with nothing to do.

2. Hanging in there: The other major bonus factor to do with Flower Carpet® rose foliage is the way it hangs around in most gardens all year around. If you’ve grown other roses you’ll realise that this is a massive tick in its favour. As gorgeous as any old style rose bloom is, there’s no getting around the fact that for a few months each year in winter, most rose plants look like wet cats. They are all bony and have no ‘fur’ aka foliage. In short, they are ugly. Not so the Flower Carpet rose. In winter, it sits in the garden as a very respectable green bush, as pretty as any evergreen shrub. Of course their wow moment comes in the warmer months when it’s flower time, but they never look as terrible as a gangly granny rose. We should say however that there are two situations where Flower Carpet roses aren’t catwalk ready: 1. the day after you’ve given your Flower Carpet rose a casual all over trim with the hedge clippers, and 2. if you live somewhere where winters encourage the menfolk to grow beards, as growing in these regions even Flower Carpet roses will decide to shed their leaves in winter.

Appreciate the foliage — The great thing about Flower Carpet® roses is that they look this good even when they are not in bloom.

Planting small flowering trees

How often do you find yourself bent double or crouched down in the garden just to see a flower up close? It’s not surprising given a lot of the plants that make a garden lovely live below our knees. Pansies. Daffodils. Zinnias. Gardenias. We all have our favourites, and we can’t hold their short stature against them. But it does hint at an opportunity to enjoy a glorious flowering show without bending over… simply by planting a small flowering tree so you can appreciate their beauty at eye-level…

1. Timing: there are lots of very nice small flowering trees to choose from so to make the job easier, decide when you’d like to enjoy an arboreal flower show. Winter? Spring? Summer? Depending on where you live, late winter is a terrific time to have your spirits boosted by an astonishing show of a Jury Magnolia. Or maybe you crave the cool shade of a white or pink crepe myrtle on a warm summer’s day. Once you’ve worked out when you want your new little tree to perform, you can narrow down the search to the next step.

2. Evergreen or deciduous: Step two involves deciding between these two formats. In other words, do you want your tree to have leaves on it all the time (evergreen), or are you keen to have it bare in winter (deciduous)? Ask yourself, do you need the sun to shine through bare branches to warm a patio or brighten up indoor spaces? Or is it more important to have the foliage year around to screen an ugly view? Again, once you’ve made this decision, the list becomes even tidier.

3. Colour: Now it’s time to think about the rest of the garden because your new tree is joining an established gang. If your existing plantings are mostly green, you can pick anything from the deep purple of a Black Tulip™ magnolia to the brilliant yellow of an Australia wattle. But if you already have a colour theme, check what will be in flower around the time your new trees comes into bloom and pick something that will complete the effect (rather than clash or compete). This sounds complicated but it isn’t – it’s like making sure you invite the right guests to your table for dinner so everyone has a great night.

4. How to: And once you’ve decided on your new small flowering tree, planting it is as simple as watering your new plant in its pot and remembering to water it once it’s in its new hole. To get your tree to establish itself faster, try digging a hole that’s twice as wide as the container your new plant came in, and loosen the soil at the bottom of the hole a little. Two things not to do are: don’t buy a baby tree that’s been in a pot so long that its roots have been forced to grow around and around in a death spiral (before you buy it, tip it out of its pot and take a quick squizz): and don’t plant the new tree too deep (just keep the top of the root ball level with the surrounding soil).

A mixed planting at ankle height leaves a lot of room in a garden’s upper stories to add even more flowers…

How to plant a flowering hedge

A close up of Fairy Magnolia® White: plant this as a hedge and you’ll have hundreds and thousands of these flowers in spring.

Meet your end-of-summer garden project: a four-step guide on how to plant a flowering hedge. So, why plant a hedge? And why plant one that has flowers? The answer is obvious: all gardens need some hedge-screening; and a screen of lovely flowers beats a wall of green leaves any day.

1. Hedge power: Hedges have super-powers. They can hide something ugly. They can stop people looking in at you. They can soften blustery winds. They can direct foot traffic so people stop taking a short cut across a lawn or through a garden bed. Take a look around and it shouldn’t take you long to work out where your new super-power hedge will be planted. Step one is complete.

2. Hedge selection: Step two involves picking the right plant for your hedge. There are two ways to go about it. Take a good look at the site you’ve chosen and note its conditions – sun, shade, wind and soil – then do a bit of research to find a plant that will be happy to grow there. Or you can keep it simple and search for Fairy Magnolias®, a series of Magnolias which is tough enough to thrive anywhere and is absolutely gorgeous. It also comes in three colours. Now to step three…

how to plant a flowering hedge — This is the sort of flower show that Fairy Magnolias® produce, which is why they make such brilliant hedges. This is Fairy Magnolia® Cream.

3. Hedge planting: Follow these instructions and you will have success. Dig a trench, not individual holes. Yes it’s more work, but your plants will grow together and be happier. Work out how many plants you’ll need all up: FYI Fairy Magnolias should be planted three feet apart. Go source your plants then water them in their pots, letting them sit for half an hour before tipping them out and setting into your trench. Aim to match your levels… the top of the potted root ball should line up with the surrounding garden bed. Backfill the trench and water everything in well. Now to step four…

4. Hedge care: In the early days, just keep your new plants well-watered. After they’ve settled in they won’t need much more than a timely drink during a hot summer, and a handful of slow release fertiliser in spring and autumn. As for trimming, it depends on the look you’re after. Do nothing and you’ll have a loose natural hedge that will grow somewhere between nine and 12 feet tall. Clip away if you want something groomed or shorter. Simple. Project complete.

Fairy Magnolia® Blush was the first and is still the best choice for that bit of wonderland magic at the bottom of the garden.

3 essentials for garden design

There’s a simple secret behind the great gardens – they hook us in via our senses. If you think your garden is a bit ho hum, here are 3 essentials for garden design that will transform your garden into a joyful space full of fragrance, movement and colour.

1. Perfume: Even blindfolded, you should be able to tell that you’re in a garden. You should be able to enjoy the plants growing around you via deep, delicious breaths. Take a few good lungs-full and if you can’t detect a perfumed breeze, better head off to the garden centre. To make your life easier, spend ten minutes doing some internet research to put a list together of perfumed plants like lilac, roses or viburnum. Can’t be bothered doing the research? Then just ask for the queen of all fragrant plants, Daphne Perfume Princess™. Daphne is a small evergreen shrub that covers itself in waxy super-fragrant flowers in late winter and early spring. Daphne Perfume Princess is the extraordinarily well-bred version of a daphne, one that every garden should include because she’s luscious, lovely and easy to grow. Oh, and you’ll be completely astonished at the heady perfume she’ll toss out onto the breezes.

Nothing makes as big an impact as walking through a fragrant garden and a plant like Daphne Perfume Princess™ will completely transform a walk down even the most ordinary garden path.

2. Movement: Each time you look out the window at your garden, does everything look like a pic rather than a video? Nothing’s moving? Even when there’s been a wind warning? There are a lot of gardens like this simply because static landscapes are usually low maintenance if also pretty dull. So if you have a space filled with topiary, yuccas and succulents, here’s how to make that cardboard cut-out landscape dance. Plant strappy plants. Grasses, cordylines, agapanthus. Whatever looks good to you is fine as long as it’s flexible enough to wave around in the breeze. Dot them through your landscape and when you next look out the window, you’ll be looking at a garden that’s come to life.

3.Colour: So many gardens are filled with a predictable set of green plants as part of a plan to be safe and inoffensive. Which is fine until you start to feel starved of colour. This is the easiest garden fix of all. Drive to the garden centre and fill your car with whatever takes your fancy. Seedlings will give you instant colour even if they only last a season: pansies, poppies, sunflowers, marigolds and sweet peas. Flowering shrubs will hang in there for the longer term: roses, camellias, bottlebrushes, hibiscus. Or use foliage colour rather than flowers: coleus, bromeliads, cannas (Tropicanna® cannas are the best). Plant your new bright plant friends in wherever there’s room and the original green framework will help bring the look (and the various colours) together.

Canna Tropicanna®, with its bright, multi-coloured foliage, is sure to add colour to your garden.

Garden centre tips

If walking into a garden centre overwhelms you, this is what’s going on and here’s how to sort it, with a few garden centre tips. To start with, there are a lot of plants to choose from. Then it’s about the fact that plants are living things and no-one wants a fail (aka dead plants). And finally it’s about wanting to choose plants that will look good. So, yes, your buttons get pushed, but here’s how to deal with it…

1. Break it down: When we walk into a garden centre we’re faced with a sea of plants. With too much on offer, where do we start? The trick is to take a deep breath and remember everything is organised to make everyone’s life easier. All the trees will be together, the shrubs, the pond plants, indoor plants, the seedlings. So find your area of interest and don’t worry about the rest. Now for the next step.

2. Good looks: To stop yourself taking home a boring plant, or worse, something that’s just ugly, take a good look at the selection on offer. A really good look with a bit of internet cross checking via your phone. For example, say you’re after something like a coprosma to plant into a container beside your front door, you could pick up a standard green version, something old-school which is ok but tends to grow into a rangy mess over time. Or you could spot the Pacific™ Coprosmas that have two-toned really gorgeous foliage and a great growth habit. Now to step three…

If you take the time to look, you can find beautiful options in amongst the sea of plants on offer at a garden centre. Why settle on the basic green of Coprosma repens (left) when you could have Coprosma Pacific™ Sunrise (right) instead.

3. Take only the strong with you: Be sensible and leave the delicate fussy plants to the experts or the nurturers. Your mantra should be survival of the fittest, so whip out your phone again and do a bit more online checking to see if the plant you’re considering will happily thrive with minimum care. For example, a quick search with ‘Pacific Coprosmas’ brings up phrases like ‘super-low-maintenance’ and the fact that they can be planted ‘in positions with high wind or salt spray’, both signs that these plants are not only lovely to look at, but tough too.

Gorgeous and tough enough to look this good on a hot, dry front stoop: Coprosma Pacific™ Sunrise at left and Pacific™ Sunset at the right. Bred in the United Kingdom, these coprosmas are compact in height, hold their shape well, and keep their colour year round with their pink or red highlights glowing brighter in the colder months.

How to create the perfect garden

Do you ever dream of having a garden, like our grandparents, that’s filled with flowers and perfume? The surprise is that creating the perfect garden that looks and smells like the real thing is as easy as one, two, three…

1. Start small: don’t tackle the whole forty acres but pick the areas where you’re going to notice the most change. The garden nearest the front and back doors. The patio, courtyard or balcony. It doesn’t matter how big or small the space you’re working with: it just needs to be somewhere you spend time. Take real or mental pics of the space you’re working with and if you’re handy with a pencil and the back of an envelope, do a quick sketch plan of what’s already there. This helps you prepare for what comes next.

Always pick plants that have been bred to be un-fussy like Volcano® Phlox. This one is pink with red eye, and there are eight other colour options to choose from.

2. Something has to go: you usually need to pull old plants out to make room for the new. Move your evictees to another spot or give them away if you hate waste, but the idea is to give your gorgeous new plants enough soil space and head room to thrive without having to fight for fresh air and moisture. Now mark the gaps on your sketch (or take fresh pics) then head down to the garden centre.

Volcano® phlox in white and pink with red roses and orange daylilies added to the mix make for a real, scented, colour-filled garden complete with a path to take you to your secret places.

3. The fun bit: at the garden centre, take a look around. From your pics and sketch you’ll know how many plants you’re there to buy. As for what to get, here’s a great list to start with. You want easy care, scented, colourful and bullet-proof. Roses. Phlox. Lavender. Heliotrope. Daphne. Honeysuckle. You get the idea. But do a quick check online to make sure that the plant in your hand is one of the well-bred varieties (you don’t want a fussy old variety that won’t deliver). For example, look for Volcano® Phlox which is sturdy, long flowering and super tolerant of powdery mildew that plagues other phlox.

And that’s it. Collect and tuck your real garden plants into nooks and crannies and your garden will give you as much pleasure as a child’s visit to their grandparents’ place.

How to keep your flowers fresh

The only downside to cut flowers is the certainly that a week or so after you popped them into the vase, you’ll be throwing them out. So whether you fork out the cash or cut flowers from your own garden, the incentive is the same – having fresher flowers and making them last longer. Here’s how…

1. Start fresh: just like fish, it’s best to get hold of the freshest possible. So when you’re shopping, look for half open buds and fresh green foliage. Avoid anything that looks limp or has brown tips. If you’re picking from your own garden, go out early in the morning with a bucket of water in one hand and a sharp pair of secateurs in the other and, as you cut the stems, pop them straight into the bucket. Then keep your bucket of flowers – bought or home picked – indoors in a cool spot for an hour or so before you start arranging them. This sounds pointless but it will add a few days to their longevity.

2. Pick cleverly: when arranging flowers, what you choose to work with can add even more to their vase life-span. Foliage hides its age well so think about the sort of colour and texture that foliage can add. Succulents make graphic focal points and they’ll last weeks – possibly even putting out roots, which means they can be planted out later. You can also buy or grow flowers which make it easy to fill a vase and hold their own: hydrangea, bird of paradise, agapanthus and kangaroo paw. Tuxedo® Hydrangeas have the bonus of purple-black washed foliage, and Storm™ Agapanthus have loads of flowers and much nicer thin strappy leaves than the older types.

Keeping everything clean means bacteria won’t shorten the lifespan of your flower arrangements.

3. Housekeeping: it’s a boring fact, but good housekeeping will make your flowers last longer – a clean vase, clean water, clean cutting implements. Put a few drops of bleach in the water and wipe down your blades. It’s also worth finding out about any special needs or hacks. For example, if you grow hydrangeas and enjoy them often as cut flowers, then you’ll need to know that they exude a sap when first cut that can block the stems and stop the vase water from keeping the flower heads plump. The fix is to recut the stems once you’re indoors and hold the stem ends in freshly boiled water while counting to ten. Then arrange as usual in a clean vase filled with fresh cool water.

4. Living flowers: the other way to have fresh flowers for extended periods is to side-step the cut flowers altogether and think of living, growing flowers. There’s always a range of potted colour choice available and it’s easy enough to nestle a pot into a cache pot or wrap it in something funky. Pansies have sweet ‘faces’, petunias and marigolds are ideal in summer, and all these will live for weeks and should keep flowering if you remove spent blooms. For something longer living, look for plants like the Gift Hydrangeas which will look lovely for months and then grow happily in either a larger container or planted out into the garden.

How to use bold foliage

Bold coloured foliage in a garden can be tricky to get right. But you’ll get wow results using these three little bold foliage tips to pack a punch. Be warned: if you’re a fan of pastel hues and safe mid-greens, what follows may surprise you…

1. Shake it up but keep it linear: in other words, grab a stack of plants with coloured leaves but make sure they are all strappy plants. Think cordylines such as Festival™ Burgundy (also known as Red Fountain™ in the southern hemisphere) and Black Knight. Or lomandra Lime Tuff and dianella Cassa Blue. In a perfect world you’d be starting from scratch with a completely empty garden bed that you could fill with a mix of these. Whether you plant them randomly to create a patchwork effect, or in blocks of colour, in a few short weeks the results will look stunning.

Here, tones of gold dominate in a strappy-only-planting scheme: fine lomandra with broader leafed phormium.

2. A colour punch: how punchy obviously depends on your personal taste but start with something like the burgundy hues of a hero plant as an anchor-point, then pick a flowering favourite to plant smack up against it. Great colour combos to consider are: red and white (cercis Forest Pansy and white Flower Carpet® roses), deep burgundy and silver (Burgundy Spire™ cordylines and silver birches), or any burgundy foliaged plant against an acid pop of yellow. This type of treatment is perfect near an entrance where planting tends to get a lot of attention. Consider painting your front door to pull the whole look together.

3. A pop feature: if you’d like to dip a toe into bold plantings, but don’t really want to rip out part of your existing garden as an experiment, this pop option is perfect. You simply apply some of the above theory but plant it into a large container or garden urn. Create something startling, then when you position it in the garden, it will hold its own against your existing plantings. Your newly planted container is the star so think about elevating it on a plinth, column, or a handy garden retaining wall.

3 tips for roses in your garden

Celebrity status comes with a sting. The greater your celebrity crush, the higher the pedestal you’ve built and the more unattainable the subject of your fandom becomes. This happens to gardeners who are rose fans. Being the celebrity flower since ancient times, the rose is the mega-star in the garden. Everyone knows who the rose is and there would be few people who wouldn’t want a garden dripping with rose blooms. And like most celebrities, with roses there’s a lot of rose myth and gossip going around, enough to make anyone new to gardening roll their eyes and run screaming from the garden centre in fear. So here to help us all grow famous roses beautifully are 3 tips for roses in your garden…

1. Roses are just plants: they may be the queen of the Plant Kingdom but they are just green growing things like every other plant. Which means that if you know what plants need to grow happily, then you’ve got them sorted. They want sunlight, fresh air, water and soil. So when you pick a spot to plant your new rose, look up and around and if it seems like a sunny, airy spot, go for it. Start digging the hole and if the soil looks a bit unappetizing, dig in some compost to lighten things up a bit (maybe buy a bag from the garden centre). Then once your plant is in the ground, water it in well and set a reminder on your phone to water at least once a week for a few weeks (more often if it’s hot).

2. Side-step the bad roses: there are lots and lots of roses to fall in love with but sadly, just like people, there are some impossibly beautiful varieties that are hard work. Keen horticulturalists who love a challenge are happy to tend to these fussy princesses but even these gardeners will often weep over too few blooms, chronic aphid infestations and the dreaded black spot. So the best approach for most of us is to be tough at the beginning and only plant and tend roses that aren’t fussy (check out the Flower Carpet® roses). I mean – seriously – who needs stress in the garden? If we pick roses that the industry gives the Big Tick, our efforts will be consistently rewarded.

Pick an easy to grow rose like these Flower Carpet® roses and you won’t be bothered by pests, diseases or the need for fancy pruning.

3. Pruning is scary: no it isn’t. Even if you have an ancient rose bush that your great aunt has asked you to prune, it’s hard to go far wrong. Use clean secateurs or loppers. Take two thirds off or just give it a light once-over. It’s a green hair cut and like hair, it will grow back. And each time you prune, you will have the confidence to play around a little more. There is only one tip to keep in mind: most rose bushes are a splice of one rose for the root section and one for the bush above. Without getting too far into the science behind grafted roses, it’s good to know because you want to keep your pruning above the bulgy graft mark on the main stem of the rose bush or you might lose the fancy rose that blooms on the top. And if you spot some serious sucker shoot coming out of the bottom bit – make sure you take them off. Having said all that, if you grow a rose like Flower Carpet® roses you don’t have to think about any of this because these roses are grown on their own roots – they are all one single plant so you can cut them wherever you like.

This is what a traditional graft looks like – the point where one type of rose root stock grows downwards into the soil and the other type of gorgeous flowering rose grows upwards into a bush. Tip: don’t cut everything off above this line or you’ll lose the fancy rose on top.

3 ways to make space in your garden

Has this ever happened to you? You’re walking through your plant nursery or garden centre and your eyes lock on to a fabulous plant. In that moment you know you have to have one. You’re stopped dead in your tracks, admiring the foliage of something like Canna Tropicanna® and at the same time another part of your brain is saying, how will I fit this in at home? Here are 3 ways to make space in your garden for new plants, even when you thought there wasn’t any…

1. Do a bit of thinning: take a brutal view of your garden. Look for plants that are spreading out and taking over. They’re still worth having, but maybe it’s time to thin them out a little. So dig up those monster-clumps and divide them, replanting smaller bits and giving the left overs to friends and family (or the compost heap). Not only will your clumps be refreshed, but you’ll have made some space in your garden for those new gorgeous treasures you’ve just brought home from the garden centre.

2. Try a bit of a shuffle: this is where you evict some of your container plants and move them on into the garden. Lots of plants that grow in pots will thank you for the opportunity to make the move into the soil where they’ll thrive and grow into refreshed good looks. The pots that have just been vacated should be given a scrub out if you have the time, before filling them with fresh potting mix (it really makes a difference, drainage and nutrient-wise). And there you have it – empty pots just waiting for your newest garden-centre-favourites to call home.

The simplest move when bringing a new plant home is to grab a pot at the same time. This is Flower Carpet® Coral rose, teamed brilliantly with a glorious blue glazed pot.

3. Buy more pots: of course you can always buy a container at the same time as you get your new favourite plant. Just be sure to get one that’s big enough – but not too big – to give the plant room to grow. If you haven’t a stash of potting mix at home, grab some of that as well. And if you like growing things in pots, it’s a good idea to make it a habit to check out the containers on sale each time you’re at the garden centre.

Design a fragrant garden

Gardens that look beautiful are certainly lovely to enjoy, but sweetly scented gardens take our enjoyment to a whole new level. Whether your outdoor space is simply a small deck, or a full sized garden and yard, here are some simple tips to design a fragrant garden.

1: Think big.

Flowering trees, simply because of their size, can add fragrance to an area 20 feet or more in diameter. Some great examples include lilacs, mock orange trees (perfect in climates where it’s too cold to grow citrus trees), Japanese fringe trees, Baby Grand™ Magnolia and Korean spice viburnum. For areas with limited space, you can’t go wrong with Fairy Magnolia^® magnolias. These bushy shrubs cover themselves with a blanket of fragrant flowers each spring but grow to only 9-12 feet high and 5-7 feet wide. Bonus: after they’ve completed their bloom cycle, they leave behind glossy green foliage and make a perfect specimen tree or full hedge if planted in multiples.

If you have the space and proper support for them, flowering vines are also a tremendous way to add fragrance. Imagine blooming ‘Scentsation’ Honeysuckle or old-fashioned sweet peas spilling over a fence or garden gate, or a gorgeous wisteria spilling over richly scented peonies.

2: Select plants with varying bloom times.

To enjoy lovely scents all season long, make certain to include a variety of blooming plants in your yard, garden, or even in pots on your deck. Perfume Princess™ Daphne is the earliest and longest flowering daphne, blooming from mid winter to late spring. Plant it near a doorway or under a window to delight in its delicious scent, both indoors and out.

Spring-flowering bulbs like hyacinths and paperwhites all bring back memories of our grandmother’s garden. Other early-blooming shrubs and perennials such as witch hazel, andromeda (Pieris japonica) and dwarf fothergilla and peonies all open the season with lovely scents, and then carry on throughout the summer and into the fall with attractive foliage.

Moving into the warmer summer months, you can always count on gardenias, summersweet , and lightly scented Flower Carpet^® Amber (seen above) to not only add fragrance, but also attract pollinators. A real butterfly magnet, Volcano^® phlox (seen below) bloom into early fall if deadheaded at least once in the season. They send off a light fragrance, both in the garden and as a cut flower.

For fragrant annuals, you can’t go wrong with clove-scented stock, with their gorgeous pink, purple red or white blooms. They’re wonderful in the garden and make great cut flowers too. Another later blooming option is aromatic Bluebeard spirea (caryopteris). Sending off tiny blue flowers from late summer into fall, this low maintenance shrub is also deer resistant and attracts butterflies!

3: Don’t forget the little guys

Even a few tiny lily of the valley stalks placed in a vase with violets can add fragrance to an entire room. Lavender blooms may be tiny, but with its soothing scent, this plant often appears on the “best-smelling flowers” list. And as a bonus, the more you cut, the more lavender blooms. Sweet alyssum (seen below, surrounding Strawberries & Cream hydrangeas), is grown easily and inexpensively by seed and emits a honey-sweet scent that beckons to pollinators. This tiny-blossomed annual looks delicate but it stands up to early frosts, self-seeds and works nicely as filler between other annuals or perennials and in container plantings.

4: Delight in Round-the-Clock Fragrance

If you enjoy spending time outdoors in the evening, don’t forget to plant fragrant night bloomers. Although easy-to grow annual flowering tobacco (nicotiana) blossoms are open much of the day, they wait until the sun goes down to release their incredible fragrance. (Hint: for the strongest fragrance, look for the old fashioned varieties like nicotiana alata or sylvestris). Night blooming Jasmine shrubs sweeten the air with their tiny white flowers that open in the evening and close in the morning. And, although it’s poisonous, it’s hard to resist Angel Trumpet’s alluring night fragrance. This stunning plant is ideal grown in a container and placed out of harm’s way on a deck or patio.

And finally, while enhancing your garden to delight the senses, remember to place your fragrant plants in areas where you’ll enjoy them most!

A guide to grow alstroemerias

We all like alstroemerias (aka Peruvian lilies). Alstroemerias are a florist’s favourite because they are lovely and last forever in a vase. They’re also low maintenance and look good in the garden. So here’s a guide to grow alstroemerias…

1.They’re idiot proof: anyone can grow them. Alstroemerias like soil that’s not boggy and not bone dry. They’ll thrive in full sun through to part shade, and if you throw a little fertiliser at them in spring they will give you more growth and flowers. Pick your spot, plant them, water them and enjoy the show when the flowers start in spring and keep on coming through to late autumn.

There are many different flower colours available thanks to the work of alstroemeria plant breeders.

2. The plant breeders have been busy: which is great because there are now many different height options and flower colours to pick from. That said, the current standout is the award winning Alstroemeria Rock & Roll®. It’s a nice shaped plant – compact, bushy and clump forming. The foliage is two toned, opening yellow and green then turning white as the leaves mature. The flowers are dark red and together with the foliage, make fantastic cut flower arrangements.

3. Deciding where to grow them: this is the fun bit. If you live above street level and have a balcony garden, plant them in a large container where you can enjoy them for months on end. Even if you have a large garden, containers set beside the front door will be show stoppers when you add Alstroemeria Rock & Roll to a mixed planting. Or if you’re after a long-term show of across the warmer months, planting them in a mass is a masterstroke move. Not only will your landscaping look phenomenal but you’ll be able to share the love with gifts of bouquets of flowers.

3 reasons to plant coprosmas

Here are 3 reasons to plant coprosmas and why the Pacific™ Coprosmas in particular deserve a spot in the garden:

1. Best cold colour: when summer is long gone and the days get steadily colder, it’s time for Pacific™ Coprosmas to shine. There’s a bit of science behind why this happens: as the temperature drops, the colour accents in the foliage begin to pop. Pacific Sunrise coprosma’s hot pink highlights dominate and the vivid red leaf centres of coprosma Pacific Sunset glow. Where winters aren’t too severe, they are a great plant to have in the landscape simply because they are putting on a vibrant show when most other plants are taking a break from performing. The Pacific coprosmas really are cold colour specialists.

2.Water miser status: as we’re all learning, dry spells where the rain doesn’t fall can happen at any time of the year. It seems counter-intuitive but just because it’s cold and wintry doesn’t necessarily mean that your garden is getting enough moisture. Which is why growing drought tolerant plants is always a good idea. Even better if the water misers you’re growing also happen to be gorgeous to look at. Like the Pacific Coprosmas. Stunning and definitely not thirsty.

3. Landscaper love affair: it’s not a secret but the professionals love the Pacific Coprosmas. Not just because they are great to look at but because they settle in quickly and need no fussy care. For people who create gardens for a living, this is a major cost-benefit because they don’t have to call back often to nurse or replace plants. The other reason landscapers use Pacific Coprosmas is because these showy plants get noticed, and when people admire your work it leads to new commissions.

A great example of a commercial landscape design where clumping grasses contrast against the brilliant foliage of the Pacific™ Sunset coprosmas.

How to care for your roses

You love roses. You’d love to grow your own roses, but you’ve heard roses can be tricky. Here’s some rose tips, so you can learn how to care for your roses, starting with tip number one…

1. The right spot: it’s a basic move and it makes sense. Roses prefer a sunny spot so put them in a sunny spot. Whether you’re planting them into a garden bed or dragging a planter into position, make sure there is plenty of sunshine for your new roses. The science behind plants means the more hours of sunlight, the more flowers you’ll be enjoying. The plants will also be bushier and healthier. So don’t fight the science – plant where it’s sunny.

2. The right rose: it’s a sad truth but many roses can be disappointing. They might not produce many flowers, and these may only appear over a few weeks. The plants themselves can often be an ugly shape as well as being prone to pests and diseases. (Do black spot and aphids ring any bells?) The best move then is to only grow roses that are disease resistant, bushy, and long flowering. To see what this looks like, check out the Flower Carpet® roses as a start.

rose tips for pruning — Looking after an easy rose like the Flower Carpet® rose means pruning is as simple as this dotted line – a fast cut back once a year.

3. No fuss or bother: keep plant care simple and manageable and success will follow. If you’ve followed rose tips 1 and 2 you’ll have picked the right rose, planted it in the right spot, and maintenance will be a breeze. Once a year you’ll cut your rose bush back (before winter). In spring you’ll toss a handful of fertiliser around each plant. And if your summer ends up being a bit dry you may do a bit of watering.

4. Maximise the rose vibe: if you’re growing roses it’s because you love roses. And with these tips on how to care for your roses you know which ones to plant and how to grow them with no effort. If you have acres of land, you can grow lots of roses massed in glorious beds. And if you have a tiny patio, you can still get that surrounded-by-roses feeling but you’ll need to be more strategic. Plant a rose that will flower for the longest period (this is probably the Flower Carpet® roses mentioned earlier). Fill three large planters with them and keep up the water and be sure to fertilise in spring. Arrange the planters so that your outdoor seating is surrounded, then when you sit down you’ll be neck deep in rosy blooms.

3 steps to choose the right tree for your garden

It’s a lucky gardener who gets to plant a tree. It’s also a biggish life decision – most trees live for decades – so no-one wants to make a mess of it. Here’s 3 steps to choose the right tree for your garden…

1: How big? A Great Dane puppy will outgrow a studio apartment and a forest giant will overwhelm a compact courtyard. If you’re new to this, it’s probably a good idea to look at smaller trees: that way you can’t go far wrong. Crepe myrtles, Japanese maples, Jury magnolias, crab apples, boutique eucalypts. Go out and take down a few measurements. Look up and make sure there’s nothing in the sky above which would be in the way of your future tree: other tree branches, power lines or the eaves of a building. Do a little research online and refer to your measurements to come up with your list of potential candidates. Now for step two…

2: Think about the sun. Trees have the power to change how a garden feels and functions. Evergreen trees – the ones that always have foliage and are never bare-branched – will provide permanent shade. Deciduous trees – the ones that lose their foliage in autumn – will provide summer shade and winter sun. Knowing this helps you decide what type of tree would work best for you. Do you want to permanently block an ugly view or gain some year round privacy? Then plant an evergreen like a citrus tree or an elegant eucalypt. Or do you want shade in summer and as much winter sunshine as possible? Plant a deciduous tree: a dogwood or a magnolia. Now to the third step…

Anyone who loves the classic magnolia will appreciate Magnolia Honey Tulip™ which has blooms that are a warmed up creamy golden colour.

3: A special bonus. Why not enjoy having a really special tree? One that’s more than just the perfect size and gives you the amount of sunshine that you’re after? If you do a little more research you can have one with flowers, fruit, even beautiful bark. If you’re keen on evergreen trees, a lemon is a great choice for fragrant flowers and all the lemons you and your friends could ever need. Crepe myrtles have lovely soft clouds of flowers but their bark is probably their greatest asset. And for glorious flowering trees, magnolias reign supreme, and the best of the best are the Jury Magnolias. When you’ve narrowed down to just a few options, make sure you pick the one that’s the easiest to grow with no fuss.

Wish for Fairy Magnolias

Magnolia wishes — Magnolia Fairy Magnolia® White

Magnolias make our hearts race. They’re luscious, scented and dewy. Those lovely blooms in the canopy of a large tree are great for parks, but what about home gardeners working with smaller spaces? We need lovely magnolias that fit into our lives. Lucky for us, the Fairy Magnolia® series of magnolias exists to grant our magnolia wishes…

First Wish: Please could we have beautiful, perfumed magnolia flowers but on a smaller plant and closer to the ground (and our noses)? Magnolia Fairy Magnolia® is your wish come true. It will grow into a small tree if you want, but it’s just as happy to be clipped into a dense bushy shrub. And in late spring the classic magnolia flowers cover the plants in a breathtaking display. Instead of one or two big blooms, these magnolias make your wishes come true with hundreds of flowers to enjoy.

Second Wish: Please could we have a magnolia that’s quick and easy grow even if you’re a beginner gardener? This magnolia grants your wish by being one of those plants that thrives all by itself. It will grow in full sunshine or part shade. It does like to be settled in with a few welcoming waterings when it first goes in the ground, but once magnolia Fairy Magnolia® has established itself it will handle drier conditions. One more tip, just after the flower show is finished, toss some slow release fertiliser around the base of the plant and you’ll get an even more flowers next time around.

Third Wish: Please could we have a magnolia that does more than look lovely? If your garden space is limited, it’s good to know that these evergreen magnolias do more than just put on a flower show. If you want a small but lovely tree, then you can prune it to grow into the shape that you want. If you need something to cover a bare fence or block an ugly view, magnolia Fairy Magnolia® can be clipped into a dense hedge-like screen. Or clipped into loose topiary forms… the list goes on.

Creating a sustainable garden

A variety of factors, including water restrictions and an uncertain economy, are making people more conscious of their water use and water bills. Then there are our increasingly complicated lifestyles, which make treating for pests and diseases or replacing dead plants an unmanageable time drain. Add to that the growing desire to do our small part to help the environment, and the result is a strong movement toward sustainable gardening – both in the landscape and containers. And creating a sustainable garden simply means using drought-tolerant and low-maintenance plants that offer season-long interest while requiring fewer chemicals and less water.

Beyond the usual suspects

Sustainable gardens don’t have to just look like cactus or desert scrub though. If you think roses are out, for instance, think again. Easy-care, drought-tolerant Flower Carpet® groundcover roses (seen above) can be a great choice for low-maintenance, season-long colour in beds or containers.

When planted en masse, Carpet Roses (which spread more horizontally than vertically and become covered with blooms) are also a great way to quickly fill in a large bed you’d like to turn into a more low-maintenance, sustainable landscape. They’re also ideal on slopes to help reduce erosion as seen below in the mass planting of Flower Carpet® Red in a California hillside planting.

There is nothing more dramatic than a sweep of one or two varieties such as ornamental grasses. Plus, beyond the visual advantages, the sound of ornamental grasses swaying in the wind adds another sense – hearing – to the garden experience. Other low-maintenance plants that are ideal for mass planting include rhododendrons, azaleas, astilbe, and hydrangea.

Cordyline Festival™ Raspberry interplanted with ornamental grasses adds interest and texture to a sustainable landscape.

However, mass plantings can be a two-edged sword, since a monoculture of plants is subject to being wiped out by a pest or disease. So if you do use one plant, make sure it’s a time-tested disease- and pest-resistant variety or perhaps a native or adapted plant that has proven itself in your area.

There are also plenty of sustainable plants offering architectural interest and texture. For instance, the Storm™ agapanthus series is good for mass planting because of its sturdy, multiple flower stalks, uniform height and multiple flushes of blooms, each lasting six to seven weeks. Between blooms, Blue Storm™ agapanthus still makes a statement with its freestanding cluster of strap-like leaves. And, Blue Storm™ is the only agapanthus that’s survived the Dallas Arboretum’s intense trials in the heat.

Or, why not try blocks of colourful or textured foliage? Perhaps you could try a tropically hued block of the red, glossy, straplike foliage of cordyline Festival™ Burgundy (sold as Red Fountain™ in AU/NZ), seen below. Not only is this cordyline extremely drought-tolerant and pest-resistant, but its basal branching, low- growing structure allows for fuller, more compact clumps and a gently fountaining effect. (It also overwinters beautifully as a houseplant for anyone in cooler climates or USDA Zones 7 or lower, so you can replant it year after year).

Planning tips

When planning a new garden area, it’s most important to start with a site analysis, where you take the time to determine what areas of your property are sunny or shady, dry or wet – or perhaps both, wet in the spring and dry in the summer. Mass plantings are only sustainable if you choose the right plant for the right place. For instance, plants that require partial shade for maximum performance should not be planted in a sunny spot where additional watering would be needed. Combining plants with the same light and water requirements is key to a successful sustainable garden.

If you prefer the drama of planting en masse, you’ll need to remember that it requires buying and planting multiple plants at once, so it’s an investment of time and money. To help save money on plants, buy at the end of the season because many retail nurseries don’t want to overwinter plants and therefore sell them off at a discount.

It might also be wise, when dealing with a larger planting area, to hire – or at least consult with – a professional landscape designer. They can draw you a beautifully designed, well-scaled plan and properly specify quantities of compost, plants and mulch.

For DIYers, think about first drawing out a plan with new plants at their mature width, so you can calculate how much you’ll need in materials. If the idea of mass planting seems too risky or expensive, try planting a mix of three or four varieties—again, plants that all have the same watering, soil and other requirements. If the area is dry and sunny, for instance, try lavenders, coreopsis, daisies and black-eyed Susans. Wet and shaded? Try viburnum nudum, ferns, sambucus and sedges.

Whatever you choose, we hope the idea of sustainable gardening sticks, and that everyone out there thinks of sustainability like colour in the garden: a must-have.

Gardening tips for extreme weather

Garden experts list weatherproof plants that save time, money

As you’re planning and planting your garden this year, you’ll want plants that can stand up to weather extremes. With record breaking heat waves and ongoing destruction from droughts and flooding, it looks like extreme weather conditions may be here to stay, at least in many parts of the world.

Some plants, however, refuse to be taken down by Mother Nature – you could call them the ‘ultimate fighters’ of the horticulture world. So for each of the following extreme weather conditions, garden pros list some gardening tips for extreme weather, with some of their go-to plants:

Saltwater flooding/salt damage

“Storms like Hurricane Isabel in 2003, Sandy in 2012 and numerous tidal-flooding northeasters have given me considerable hands-on experience with salt-tolerant plants,” said Chesapeake Bay, Virginia-based garden writer Kathy Hogan Van Mullekom.

Her favourites include Flower Carpet^® roses, native wax myrtle, salt bushes, ornamental grasses, gardenias and bulbs. She also recommends big-leaf hydrangeas, rugosa roses, India and yedda hawthorn, osmanthus, bald cypress, Japanese black pine, Eastern red cedar, Hollywood juniper, live oak, yaupon holly and salt cedar.

“The saving grace is most storms include rain, which naturally washes the plants and the soil around them, reducing the salinity in the ground,” said Van Mullekom.

When it comes to resisting the corrosive effects of salt spray, Van Mullekom recommends hydrangeas, rugosa roses, Sea Pinks (armeria maritime) and ornamental grasses. As for the ice-melting road salt used in colder areas, she says thick-leaved plants fare the best, but you should still rinse the ice and salt off any affected plant and saturate the surrounding soil with fresh water.

gardening tips for extreme weather — Flower Carpet® roses survive the brutal winters and constant road salt in this northern New England landscape.

Heat

If we keep having summers like last year’s, it’s important to find heat-resistant plants that hardly blink at extremely high temperatures. But remember, heat-resistant and drought-tolerant aren’t the same thing. Those that survive the heat in northern gardens include heucherellas, some heucheras, phlox, daylilies, ornamental grasses, amsonia, sedums, artemisia, and some groundcovers. You can ask a local garden centre or botanic garden which varieties do best in your area.

Jane Schwartz Gates, of Gates & Croft Horticultural Design in the desert/chaparral area of Santa Clarita, California, uses heat-tolerant favourites like Jerusalem sage, guara, Flower Carpet® roses, cosmos, Storm™ agapanthus and Festival™ Burgundy cordyline (known as Cordyline Red Fountain™ in the southern hemisphere). Storm, the only agapanthus to survive the Dallas Arboretum’s famous plant “trials by fire” in extreme heat, is also favoured as a firescaping plant – along with Festival Burgundy cordyline (Cordyline Red Fountain) – in hot, humid regions.

extreme weather plants — Cordyline Festival™ Burgundy (Cordyline Red Fountain™) is stunning in a high-heat New Zealand garden.

Drought

Making certain your beds are well mulched is essential to dealing with any drought conditions. Organic mulches include softwood or hardwood chips, evergreen needles, straw, grass clippings, leaves, bark chips and even newspaper and cardboard. These mulches eventually decompose and can be incorporated into the soil. Inorganic mulches include rocks and stones, lava rocks, pulverized rubber and other man-made materials. However, stones and rocks absorb the heat and can warm the soil more quickly in the spring, but they also hold the heat, which can be dangerous to plants during periods of high, dry heat.

Van Mullekom vouches for the following drought-tolerant plants: milkweed, sedums, camellias (once established, if you live within their cold-hardy zones), nandinas, herbs, Verbena bonariensis, coneflowers, lantana, butterfly weed, euphorbia and ornamental grasses.

Year after year, Flower Carpet groundcover roses also get high marks for heat and drought tolerance from Tesselaar Plants’ home testers: “Even though we had temperatures of 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) for several days this summer, and no rain, all I did was water them very well once a week, and they performed beautifully,” reported Carrie Glenn of Howe, Oklahoma.

Flower Carpet® Yellow Gold roses withstand both high heat and drought in southern California, with extra help from a well-mulched bed.

Too wet/freshwater flooding

“Very few plants can tolerate standing water or soggy ground,” said Greg Frank, vice president of Ted Collins Tree and Landscape in precipitation-heavy Victor, NY (Zone 6a). “If the air pockets around soil particles are filled with water, the plant will suffocate.”

A full immersion while a plant is dormant shouldn’t hurt it, said Frank: “And once they’re growing in the spring, a 24- to 48-hour immersion won’t stress them that badly. But much more than that will stress and weaken the plant in a very short time.”

Frank said the following plants can tolerate “wet feet” (soil that’s mostly wet, even with a possible 24-hour period of standing water, but that still contains enough air pockets for roots to “breathe”):

Trees: red maple, Juneberry (serviceberry), locust, Kentucky coffee tree, larch, magnolia, sycamore, red oak and willow.
Shrubs: shrub dogwood (red or yellow twig and grey stem), summersweet, witch hazel, privet, bayberry and viburnum (arrowwood and cranberry).
Groundcovers: vinca and ajuga.
Perennials: hosta, astilbe, Japanese iris, liriope, bee balm, sedges and many ornamental grasses.

Jane Milliman, editor of New York’s Upstate Gardeners’ Journal, also likes her colourfully foliaged Tropicanna^® cannas, which she says are “amazing in their ability to grow quite literally with their roots in water.”

Cold/frost

Late spring and early autumn frosts are often disappointing to home gardeners. One frost in late spring can quickly wipe out a garden or container filled tender perennials and annuals. So, before planting, check with your local garden centre or extension service to learn when the approximate last spring frost date is for your area. To spare yourself disappointment, select flowering plants that are pretty tough in the face of inclement weather. Autumn-planted, spring-blooming bulbs (daffodils, tulips, crocus, etc.) definitely fall into that category. Columbine foliage will rebound from a freeze and make an attractive foil to the bulbs, while self-seeding pansies and violas and plants that wintered over from last year can take the frost.

In the autumn, the following plants will still look good after a frost (when the temperature dips below 36 degrees Fahrenheit / 2 degrees Celsius): Malva sylvestris (common mallow), heuchera (coral bells), Jacob’s ladder, and most roses including Flower Carpet roses, and hardy mums. Volcano™ phlox, a sturdy garden phlox that reblooms multiple times if deadheaded, also continues to bloom through a few early frosts. After a hard freeze (temperatures below 28 degrees Fahrenheit / -2 degrees Celsius), you can often still count on dianthus, alyssum, pansies, colchicums, golden sedum and grey artemisia. And as a bonus, many ornamental grasses turn gorgeous shades of gold, red and bronze after the first early frosts.

Many ornamental grasses take on glowing autumn colours after the first frost.

Natives, neighboUrs and the Net

When choosing extreme weather plants for your climate, said Van Mullekom, it also helps to “use a mix of plants native to your area, because they adapt to changing climate conditions.” Look around your neighbourhood to see what works well where you are throughout the seasons. With the plethora of information available online, it’s easy to do your homework before investing in a plant.

Why we love Daphne Perfume Princess

Let’s be honest… it’s easy to see why we love Daphne Perfume Princess. She’s a gorgeous, heady-scented Daphne and there is absolutely no way anyone could describe her as fine-framed or fussy. If you see a Daphne Perfume Princess™ growing alongside a traditional daphne you will be shocked: she looks like a buff supermodel sitting beside a seven year old wannabe ballerina.

Daphne Perfume Princess™ is an unapologetically lush, dense bush with larger leaves, larger scented flowers and more of them. It’s also ridiculously easy to grow since it thrives without any effort from us. When you know all this, it’s not hard to understand why this plant is massively popular, thanks to…

1: Those big flowers… which really are huge, being four times bigger than an old fashioned Daphne. Not only are the flowers themselves larger but they also grow along the stems in clusters. And while we usually enjoy Daphne over a few weeks in late winter, Daphne Perfume Princess produces her flower show from mid winter through to late spring. Strangely she sometimes flowers at other times – which is a bonus – but regardless of when, the Daphne Perfume Princess scent is heady, glorious and with a citrus undertone.

2: Those big leafy bushes. It’s a good idea to pay attention to how any plant in your garden looks all year around. Who wants an awkward, rangy plant with sparse foliage when you can have the same Daphne perfume hit from a better all-rounder plant? This is especially true when it comes to Daphne because we tend to plant them where we can smell them: near the front door or beside a garden bench. And since these positions are usually very visible, having a lushly foliaged green bush to look at rather than the usual underwhelming old style Daphne is a plus.

3: That lust for life. Daphne Perfume Princess is precocious – a fast developer. The nurserymen who produce these plants see this daily in the way young plants leap out of their pots ahead of other Daphne varieties, or even spring into flower when they are still juvenile. These plants get on with the business of growing into lusty, healthy flower swamped bushes from the absolute get-go. And they do it with very few demands on us. Water a new plant in once you’ve planted it, and then when it finishes flowering, throw a handful of slow release fertiliser around the base of the plant … if you remember.

3 steps to designing a container garden

As the popularity of outdoor leisure spaces explodes, designers are stressing the need for large container gardens. Not only do bigger pieces better match the scale of surrounding trees and architecture, experts explain – they soften the harsh lines and defined spaces of hardscaping. So here are 3 steps to designing a container garden:

Potted Festival™ Cordylines (also known as Fountain™ Cordylines in the Southern Hemisphere) soften the hard edges in this landscape.

STEP 1: Size up the setting

First, evaluate your surroundings. “Groups of big planters are useful for softening edges and corners of large spaces,” explains Todd Holloway, owner of Pot Incorporated, an award-winning container and landscaping company in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Singular, large planters can be used symmetrically at the corners of spaces to add height and boundaries that define architectural elements. Large bowls are being used more frequently as focal points or as companions to seating areas in outdoor rooms. And oversized containers can add an organic element against bare walls next to outdoor gathering places.”

When used appropriately, says Holloway, large containers can also direct traffic throughout garden paths. “Framing your garden spaces with large planters,” he notes, “is also a great way of incorporating color and interest as a trick to invite guests into the area.”

How tall should you go? A general rule of thumb, says Holloway, is to keep the tallest designs around the perimeter of a space and the lower ones around furniture and gathering spaces. When it comes to the proportions of the designs themselves, he advises using the “rule of thirds” – devote one third of the height to the pot and the remaining two-thirds to the plants, or vice versa.

Dan Benarcik, a horticulturist who oversees the Courtyard Gardens for Chanticleer (a famous public estate garden in the Philadelphia area), likes using big designs as doorway flankers and as anchors for the corners of patios. He also likes positioning pots so that “there’s an experience with them.” For instance, he places them so they’ll be backlit by the sun, giving colourful or variegated foliage a brilliant, stained-glass glow. One of his favourites for this use is the colourfully foliaged Tropicanna^® cannas.

Don’t get too worried about making your container garden “too tall,” says Benarcik: “People have more problems with achieving height than the other way around.” In the end, he says, it comes down to learning from experience and developing your own idea of what’s aesthetically pleasing.

STEP 2: Choose your plants

Next, choose at least one plant that will give you the height you need.

“When you’re going out to buy the plants to fill your containers, you really want to think in threes,” says the Massachusetts-based Dave Epstein in one of his Growing Wisdom videos on creating containers. “You want something that spills over the sides … something that fills the center … and something that’s the ‘wow factor’, or what some people call the ‘thriller’.”

The ‘thriller’ is where you can bring in the height, says Epstein, choosing the colourfully foliaged Tropicanna cannas, with white petunias as the spiller and magenta celosia as the filler.

“Tropicanna cannas are ideal for a couple of reasons,” says Epstein. “First, they are very forgiving. If you miss a watering cycle, the plants bounce back. On the other hand, they can stand wet feet to the point of being used as water garden plants. And since there are several leaf colours to the cannas, you can design almost any container and incorporate the canna into the middle or back of the arrangement.”

Benarcik is a fan of cannas, too: “Pound for pound, cannas are the best plants for large container gardens, and surprisingly drought tolerant,” he says. His other recommendations for big planters include cordylines, phormiums (New Zealand flax – “especially the dusty or brown tones”), bulbines, hibiscus, brugmansia (Angel’s trumpet), chenille plant, coleus, banana, alocasia, variegated cassava (tapioca) and larger bromeliads—especially the orange and burgundy tones.

In addition to cannas, bananas, alocasias and colocasias, Holloway likes using papyrus, bamboo (for a fine-textured, organic, modern feel), daturas, fuchsias and abutilon. He also loves interestingly shaped conifers, noting that large containers can be beautiful with just one plant – or as many as you feel the design calls for. “Using them in colder areas allows you to hold on to year-round interest,” he says.

Other plants that are stunning on their own—particularly when placed in attractive planters—include Storm™ agapanthus, agaves, bamboo, bougainvillea, Festival cordylines, ornamental grasses (Big bluestem is a great option), and coprosmas such as the new colourful Pacific™ series.

With the rising interest in growing food, large containers can also serve as an exceptional extension of your food garden to reduce just a few more food miles. Large-container edibles include: artichokes, twining pole beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and even squash vines. Fruit trees and berry bushes or vines can also be used effectively in large planters, with dwarf apples and pears, fig trees or raspberry plants serving as alternatives to ornamental plants in grandiose containers.

When it comes to mixing and matching plants, Epstein says it’s about echoing or contrasting colors and textures. For instance, the broad, flat, ovate leaves of Tropicanna cannas differ from the fleshy rosettes of echeveria, yet the two go together, since they’re both shades of burgundy. In that same pot, however, he notes how you can contrast the dark burgundy with either a white petunia or purplish-pink celosia. “And don’t forget the color of the pot,” he says, noting it also can coordinate or contrast with the rest of the design.

Epstein’s also a big fan of using Flower Carpet^® groundcover roses and Festival™ cordylines (Fountain™ cordylines) in large containers, for their natural pest and disease resistance, season-long interest and ability to withstand extreme climate conditions.

Flower Carpet^® Yellow Gold echoes the colour of the filler plants.

“If you want roses that stand up to hot, dry conditions in containers, the original Flower Carpet rose line is an excellent choice,” he says. “For hot, humid weather, the Next Generation Flower Carpet rose line – is your best bet.” Festival cordyline, he adds, is extremely architectural, with its graceful fountains of burgundy or raspberry, glossy, straplike leaves.

STEP 3: Pot and maintain

When it comes to larger containers, Epstein likes lightweight, synthetic pots mimicking the look of heavier materials that dry out quicker (like wood, metal or clay). If the pot doesn’t already have holes for drainage on the bottom, he adds them with a drill. For even better drainage, he then fills the bottom of the pot with rocks, shells, corks, and other organic matter) and then adds a soilless, lightweight potting mix. After filling the pot about halfway with the mix and working in a slow-release, granular fertiliser, Epstein likes to pot the tallest plant first, first loosening its roots. After the plants go in, Epstein adds a layer of mulch on top of the soil to help hold in moisture.

Larger plants also demand larger containers that can accommodate the roots of the plants’ ultimate size, says Holloway, adding that a larger volume of soil can also hold more water, longer. “At the very least, your container’s volume should be roughly a third to a half the size of the eventual volume of the mature plants,” he says.

If your mature plants are expected to grow to 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide, for instance, your planter should be no smaller than 1 to 1.5 feet tall by 1 to 1.5 feet wide.

Epstein recommends watering in the cool of the morning for less evaporation. “Make it part of your morning routine, like brushing your teeth,” he suggests. “Then you don’t have to think about it the rest of the day.”

First, he says, check the moisture level by sticking your finger 2 to 3 inches into the soil. Only water if it’s dry, to prevent overwatering. In addition to the slow-release granular fertiliser, you’ll also have to feed your large containers with liquid fertiliser for optimum growth and performance.

“It’s a hard truth – plants in containers do dry out quicker than those in the ground – and larger designs, especially, do require some maintenance,” says Epstein. “But with a bit of front-end planning and a few expert tricks, you’ll have magazine-worthy containers to enjoy the whole season.”

6 landscape solutions

How do you find the right plant for those less-than hospitable places in your yard or landscape? Here are a few such spots and the perfect plants for them, with 6 landscape solutions.

LOCATION: Driveway and/or side of road.

SOLUTION 1: Next Generation Flower Carpet^® roses for continuous, season-long blooms, road salt tolerance and outstanding cold, heat and humidity resistance. Flower Carpet^® Pink Supreme shown below makes a nice greeting for people as they come in from the road. Other heat tolerant plants for driveways include Angelina stonecrop, Silver Mound artemisia and creeping juniper. These can all be interplanted with Flower Carpet roses for a more textured look.

SOLUTION 2: Festival™ cordylines (also known as Fountain™ cordylines – seen below holding up to high heat along an elevated driveway planting) stand up to high heat and are ideal as a curbside or driveway planting in warmer climates.

LOCATION: Narrow space that could use some colour.

SOLUTION: Tropicanna^® cannas, which offer psychedelically coloured foliage all season long. Mix with a variety of annuals and perennials or plant “en-masse” for maximum impact. It looks great when interplanted as a tall backdrop with crocosmia (warm climates) and bright marigolds (cooler climates).

LOCATION: Dry, hot site

SOLUTION: Use xeriscaping strategies like mulching, soil amendments, turf grass reduction, land contouring to catch rainfall, irrigation control technology and proper plant placement and spacing. In the landscape and in containers, also use water-wise plants, like Flower Carpet® roses (shown below, thriving at a winery in northern California), the architectural Storm™ series of agapanthus and Festival™ cordylines.

LOCATION: Hot, sunny walkway that needs softening

SOLUTION: Storm™ series of agapanthus (including the deep blue-flowered Blue Storm and the white-bloomed Snow Storm shown below). If you’ve got a piece of hardscaping like pavers or a walkway, the ground around it tends to heat up even more. In these spots, the Storm agapanthus series is a great choice, especially if you’re looking for something different with an exotic, architectural look. Unlike other agapanthus, it also has a shorter, denser, clump-forming habit and has been known to rebloom two to three times a gardening season.

LOCATION: Slope or hill

SOLUTION: The simplest solution for landscaping a slope – which people often want to fill with something besides turf grass, because they don’t want to mow – is groundcovers. There are many foliage-only options out there, but if you want season-long colour and blooms, an excellent choice is Flower Carpet® groundcover roses. They root deeply and therefore provide erosion control. Salt and drought tolerant, they’re also perfect for slopes by the road that get sprayed with road salt in winter, and any slope in summer (since the water runs off of steep grades, making slopes very quick to dry out in the heat). And when planted in masses, Flower Carpet roses like Flower Carpet Coral shown below provide quickly spreading coverage.

LOCATION: Wet or damp conditions

SOLUTION: Use one of today’s modern, disease-resistant plant varieties that resist fungal problems thriving in wet weather, like Festival or Fountain cordylines, Tropicanna cannas (seen below) or the Storm series of agapanthus, for instance. Flower Carpet roses, meanwhile, have earned many All-Deutschland-Rose designations – the world’s highest honour for disease resistance against fungal diseases like black spot. The Next Generation Flower Carpet roses have been bred for even greater heat and humidity tolerance.

Low maintenance landscape ideas

Low-maintenance landscape ideas mean less work and more play!

The desire for low-maintenance landscapes just keeps growing while at the same time, our love for outdoor amenities like fire pits, grills, dining areas and seating shows no signs of slowing. So combining the two should mean less work and more play, right? California landscaper and North Coast Gardening blogger Genevieve Schmidt has some low maintenance landscape ideas, with fuss-free planting suggestions.

Whether you’re relaxing during a private moment in your personal sanctuary or are hosting a dinner party, you don’t want to come out to a tired, ailing landscape. The idea is to go for something that’s easy-care, with season-long interest, so you never have to worry about what’s outside your door.

Not-so-needy blooms

If you’re looking for less watering, spraying and pruning, flowers aren’t out. Schmidt regularly uses drought-tolerant, blooming perennials like catmint, hardy cranesbill geraniums, ornamental sages, Russian sage, lavender, lion’s tail, euphorbia, sunrose, artemisia and phlomis.

Landscape roses are another favourite of Schmidt’s, and she often turns to the Flower Carpet® roses series. Often called “desert roses” in the southwest, these shiny-leaved, colourful bloom factories can be a great choice for low-maintenance, season-long colour in beds or containers.

When planted en masse, carpet roses (which spread more horizontally than vertically and become covered with a blanket of blooms) are also a great way to quickly fill in a large bed while turning it into a more low-maintenance, sustainable landscape. The series has also won the most awards for disease-resistance, most notably, Germany’s coveted All Deutschland Rose (ADR) designation, the world’s top honour for disease-resistant roses. And, if you want roses in containers, which succumb to drought even quicker, Flower Carpet roses Next Generation line offers an additional 15 years of breeding.

Native and adapted plants (those that naturally grow or thrive in your area without using a lot of resources, respectively are also ideal. Schmidt notes: “Native plants are especially nice for outdoor leisure areas, because you’re inviting in the local cycles of wildlife and a balanced local ecosystem, which means wonderful extras like singing birds, the sight of butterflies and nature’s own methods of pest and disease management.”

There’s a native plant society for almost every state, she notes, and you can go to your state’s page to learn more about native plants in your area.

Fuss-free foliage

Low-maintenance foliage can also soften and character to outdoor living spaces. No flowers doesn’t have to mean no colour. The colourfully foliaged Tropicanna® cannas, which can handle wet feet, can be potted and set right into your favourite water features. It also works well in containers, both small and large.

And the dark-red, glossy, strap-like foliage of cordyline Festival™ Burgundy (also know as cordyline Red Fountain ™ in AU/NZ) is so extremely drought-tolerant, and pest-resistant, you’ll wonder if it’s real. Its basal-branching low-growing structure allows for fuller, more compact clumps and a gentle fountain effect – perfect for containers or colour blocking around your favourite outdoor living spots.

Festival, which is only hardy in USDA Zones 7 or warmer, also overwinters beautifully as a houseplant, so you can simply bring the patio pot in or out depending on the season, or replant it in the landscape year after year.

Schmidt loves the bright-red colour of Japanese blood grass, along with other low-maintenance ornamental grasses like maiden grass (miscanthus – although it’s considered invasive in some areas of the country), blue oatgrass, leatherleaf sedge, fountain grass and noninvasive dwarf or clumping bamboo. Favourites in other parts of the country include ‘Elijah Blue’ fescue, pampas grass (also invasive in some areas), Northern sea oats, blue panic grass, muhly grass (also extremely salt tolerant and prevents sand dune erosion) and little bluestem (hardy to USDA Zone 3).

Other foliage favourites include phormiums (New Zealand flax), nassella (needlegrass) and Mexican feathergrass and the new coprosma Pacific™ series. Succulents have also exploded in popularity – in containers, hanging baskets and even as wall art.

Of course, the plants themselves aren’t the only part of a low-maintenance landscape. There are also tips and tricks like mulching, grouping together plants with similar needs, efficient irrigation, reducing your lawn and maintaining healthy soil. But low-maintenance plants are a key ingredient.

“Some work in the garden is great if you enjoy it, but we all have tasks we’d rather not do,” says Schmidt. “I know I’d rather be doing artful pruning, potting up containers and deadheading instead of weeding or mowing. The idea is to reduce or eliminate what really feels like work so you’re free to focus on what really matters to you.”

Gorgeous coprosmas look after themselves

Question: if you had to choose between a great-looking plant that was complicated to grow, or an equally great-looking plant that was dead easy to deal with, which would you choose? Be honest: you’d pick the unfussy plant. In fact, growing pretty plants that are easy is one of the best ways to be a successful gardener.

Ok, so does that mean you should go ahead and fill your green spaces with the tried and true – lavender, rosemary, daisy – plants that are easy to manage but not exactly gorgeous? Of course you can, but if you have a little time, why not look at plants which are great looking as well as easy to deal with? Let’s take the Pacific™ Coprosmas as an example and see where we get…

1: Eyes shut – is it easy to grow? Before we even think about how good looking these plants are, we need to be certain that they are as straightforward to grow as any lavender bush. Of course they are, and that’s because Pacific™ Coprosmas are the descendants of the New Zealand mirror bush. You know the one: it’s that tough beast of a wind-break plant that thrives in salt spray and dry conditions. These survivor characteristics have been passed on down to the Pacific Coprosmas thanks to the skill of plant breeders, so that the gorgeous Coprosmas Pacific Sunrise and Pacific Sunset not only look great, but thrive hands-free.

2: Eyes open – how good looking is it? Now it’s time to open our eyes and check these coprosmas out purely on the basis of their looks. Remember, it’s good to have easy to grow plants but not if they are Plain Janes. These are both really lovely. Starting with Coprosma Pacific Sunrise, the leaves are small and slightly ruffled which gives the overall plant a really nice overall texture. The core of each leaf is chocolate brown but then the edges look like they’ve been dipped in pink. Add a bit of sunlight and you’ve a glowing moment. The Coprosma Pacific Sunset version is a bit more adult: it has the same ruffled foliage but this time the leaf is often a deep red with the edges dipped in chocolate. If you stand back and look at both plants they share the same glossy finish and both grow into soft dense mounds.

3: So do these coprosmas deliver enough to earn them a place in the garden? For lots of reasons, yes. Because they grow fast into a healthy dense bush without you doing anything. Of course you can clip them into classically crisp hedges, but you could also just as easily let them grow into hedges or bushes that are soft and natural. Another good reason to plant them is that they look good all year around, unlike some plants that look a bit invisible or just ordinary until they pop into flower for a few short weeks. And if you’ve ever wondered what garden structure was all about, it’s simple. To help a planting scheme look good all the time, it needs a framework of constant plants, things that will always look really nice. Pacific Coprosmas are a good example. There might be some fluffy plants coming in and out of flower, but if you have some of these dependable Pacific Coprosmas in the mix the whole effect will look very professional (no surprise really as landscapers make good use of them). One other thing to mention is that apart from giving them the courtesy of establishment waterings, these coprosmas don’t need feeding or spraying for bugs etc. And if you’ve mulched around them to stop any weeds creeping into the picture, they really are zero maintenance plants.

5 tips for picking the best plants

Have you ever bought something only to realise later at home that it’s a bit ordinary? It happens to us all the time simply because retailers do a great job making everything look fantastic and ‘must-have’. The same rule applies to plants: it’s too easy to grab a pretty little thing from the garden centre that ends up being disappointing. To prevent this ever happening again, arm yourself with these 5 tips for picking the best plants…

1. Look at the flowers: which you probably are anyway as most plants will be on sale at a time when they are in flower and looking their best. Ask yourself, is the flower interesting? Are there a lot of them on the plant and are there lots of unopened buds (aka future flowers)? Is there something special and different about the flower? Like lace cap Hydrangea Strawberries & Cream®; the mega-flowered Daphne Perfume Princess™; or the spotted throat of Alstroemeria Rock & Roll®. If you manage to tick just two of these boxes, you’ve found something that will hold its own once it arrives back at your place.

2. Look at the leaves: there aren’t many plants that flower all the time so it makes sense to check out the foliage. Again, ask yourself, what’s interesting about the leaves? Their color, shape, texture? If the plant has a good shape as well then it will keep you smiling year round. A list worth checking out: Hydrangea Tuxedo® for its purple black leaves; the glossy sunbursts of colour from the Pacific™ coprosmas; Tropicanna® canna’s rainbow of stripes.

Tuxedo® hydrangeas have brilliant purple-black foliage to fall back on when the buds or flowers aren’t in the spotlight.

3. Gift worthy-ness: take a hard look at the plant you’re considering and ask yourself, would I give this as a present to someone? If the answer is yes, then you’re probably making a good selection. Gift-worthy plants look good right now. They can be treated as living flowers to dress up the house.

4. A longer game plan: there is real satisfaction in bringing home a lovely plant, enjoying it in and around the home for a while and then being able to plant it outside in a container or into the garden where it matures into something even bigger and better. To spot those plants which will give you this option just take a closer look at the plant labels and punch any plant’s name into Google to find out everything you need to know about it.

5. Toughies are best: this is obvious, but why would anyone want to bring home a tricky to grow, fussy plant? Nope. Limit yourself to plants that are proven performers, healthy individuals that have a reputation for being bullet-proof to care for. Again, a quick squizz at the tag, a bit of online research, and you’ll know if you’ve spotted a toughie. Or check out any of the plants already mentioned above because they are all super easy to grow and are, quite simply, great plants.

Designing your garden with striped foliage

On the catwalk, designer Kenneth Ize uses the power of stripes and colour…

At last! Stripes are in – and that’s everywhere you look, from the catwalk to wallpaper, to the garden centre. Which is brilliant news, because stripes are fun. Stripes are easy to work with and get right. And stripes look terrific. So let’s cut to the chase and talk about how to go about designing your garden with striped foliage.

Technically, plants with foliage that’s striped are known as variegated plants. It’s useful to know this because it makes it easier to chase things down online. And if you ever see a plain-leafed plant you like at your nursery, you can ask the staff if it comes in a variegated form. (For example, there are nice every-day green leafed cannas and then there’s the astonishing in-your-face-rainbow-bright-striped Canna Tropicanna®). There are even special interest groups for variegated plants if you want to delve deeper into the world of striped multi-toned foliage.

designing your garden with striped foliage — Canna Tropicanna® in all its stripy, back-lit glory.

When you do start looking at fancy foliage plants (and you will), it won’t be long before you come across a warning: something along the lines of, “a little goes a long way”. This is a conservative take on things, a belief that foliage that contains more than one colour should be used as a freakish highlight amongst a more traditional landscape planting. If you agree, then follow this advice. Or you could be bold and gather together as many variegated plants as you like and plant them all together – in the garden or in a mega-sized container.

Honestly, having just one heroic stripy plant is also an ok move, just make sure that its supporting plants don’t steal the limelight. To make everything look terrific, the trick is to pick out the toning colours or shades and find plants in these shades to surround your hero.

And now, two practical housekeeping tips:

Often stripes and other variegation is brightest when the light levels are ideal for the plant. So do your homework, find out what light levels your plant really enjoys, then grow that plant in its happy spot.
Also, variegation is not often passed on from parent plant to child via seed, so if you’re keen to propagate more of your lovely stripy plants for yourself or friends, take cuttings.

Bold plants to use in your garden

Are you ready for what’s coming next in garden trends? The Big. The Bold. Textured via Leaf. It started indoors – remember when all those New York lofts filled with monsteras and elephant ears? Now it has spilled outdoors into the landscape where it’s looking even better. Here are some suggestions of the big and bold plants to use in your garden…

Q: What’s big and bold? A: Any plant that has the sort of foliage that makes you stop and take another look. For most plants, we’re usually interested in the flowers they produce: it’s the rose we remember not its leaves. The Big and Bold plant trend celebrates plants with tall stature, large leaves, and foliage with stand-out texture and/or colour.

big and bold plants — Classic mega-textured foliage plants like Philodendrons (left) and Monsteras (right) are great additions when giving your garden the bold makeover.

Q: Which plants to use? A: There are no firm rules here apart from two: 1. make sure the plants you select really stand out, and 2. that they are happy to grow where you plan to put them. (A bit of swift checking around online will confirm this.) Monsteras and Philodendrons are broad-leaved and super bold. Cordylines like Burgundy Spire™ and Festival™ Burgundy (also known as Red Fountain in the Southern Hemisphere) are brilliant ways to contribute punchy, strappy colour. Fatsia and bird’s nest ferns add different leaf shapes into the green mix. And there are always the Tropicanna® cannas to punch even more colour into the mix.

Q: How to go about it? A: If you’re planting from scratch, congratulations because you can go two ways. 1. Pick your favourite plant and fill your garden bed solely with that, like a staggered three-row deep planting of Cordyline Burgundy Spire filling a long bed beside the drive. 2. Or go crazy and grab a few of everything and mix it all up. This is especially good for a garden space on view from the living room as it will feel like being in an oversized terrarium. Of course if you already have a garden that you want to rev up with bold additions, that’s easy. Just add things in here and there, mixing it all up and keeping the bigger plants to the back. Aim for at least a third of the garden to be new additions or you’ll miss the mark.

Q: Any other tips? A: Not really, apart from two obvious ones. When you’re deciding which plants to use, check out their character references. In other words, are they easy to grow and will they look after themselves? And the other obvious tip is surprisingly often overlooked: if you spot a dead leaf, remove it just like you’d cut off a spent flower. Five minutes with the secateurs will work wonders refreshing your bold-foliaged garden outlook.

4 ways to start gardening

Something like this gorgeous Ruby Volcano™ Phlox growing at your front door makes everyone feel welcome.

Around the world, many people are staying very close to home. Which means they’re making their own fun right where they live. And a lot of that has been garden-related: from planting vegetable gardens to tending tiny bonsai trees. If you haven’t yet jumped on the green wave, here are 4 ways to start gardening…

Painting the front door in a bright, fun colour is one of the 4 ways to start gardening – surrounded by some great, flowering pot plants of course!

1: Friendly front doors: OK, so our front doors aren’t welcoming many guests inside these days. Instead the social interaction is taking place a few steps back from the doorstep. You hear someone at the door, fling it open and there, standing a healthy distance away is a friend, a neighbour, a delivery person. We give them a big smile and enjoy the social moment. Our front entrances are more important than ever so it makes sense to refresh them, to make these spaces happy and welcoming. It’s easy. Order some glossy bright paint, whip out a brush, and paint the door. Then drag two matching pots into place on either side and fill them with something bright, flowering and easy to grow – Flower Carpet® roses or Volcano™ Phlox are great. Toss out the tired old doormat and buy a fresh new one. Before we know it, these new mats will again feel the tread of many visitors’ feet.

2: Ways to have window boxes: Not many houses have window boxes ready to fill with glorious gardens in miniature. But since we’re probably spending more time looking out of our windows, it makes for a fun gardening project to rustle up a few temporary window boxes. If your window is on the ground floor, you can set a few bricks on either side positioned to hold up a board shelf. Onto this you can pop some pots or even foam crates that food deliveries arrive in. Make sure there are holes for drainage, then fill with potting mix and plant with flowering annuals, herbs or even vegetables like carrots, radishes, lettuce and cherry tomatoes. Stick a note on the fridge to remind you to water things regularly, which you can do just by leaning out the open window. And if your window is on an upper floor, just flip things so your homemade shelf is just inside the window. You may even be able to move your furniture a bit so one end of the dining table is wedged against the sill and all your lovely pots can sit down at that end. Indoor pots will also need watering, so protect your table with saucers.

3: Small gardens for young people: if you’re at home with children to entertain, a great way to start gardening is by making a garden in miniature. This is a brilliant idea whether you have an acre for a backyard or live in an apartment. You’ll need to source a big, shallow tray (check out cheap plastic storage containers), potting mix, and fine gravel (try aquarium supplies). You’ll also need some mail order succulents. Get your small gardeners to draw plans of their mini garden complete with any shells, special rocks or figurines they may have. Meanwhile you can put drainage holes in the container with a nail heated over the stove-top held in a pair of pliers. Then it’s all about putting in the potting mix, planting the succulents, covering the soil with gravel and adding in the rest of the garden features.

4: Rearranging the furniture: who doesn’t love moving the furniture around a room? It’s one of the best ways to recapture that just-moved-in feeling. It also lets you enjoy a familiar space in a fresh way. So if you have an outdoor garden space, and it has furniture, have a think how you could shuffle things around. Set things up for break away moments rather than large gatherings that are on hold for the moment. Tuck a couple of chairs into a shady corner with a place to put some glasses and a plate nearby. Position a solitary lounger out in the morning sunny sweet spot. Hang a hammock where someone can hide away from the household and get stuck into a book. And arrange chairs around a fire pit for an evening family moment where the starry sky reminds us that the world is still turning.

DIfferent ways to garden and the benefits

These are unsettling, confronting, coronavirus times. Apart from the uncertainty and anxiety, it’s a time when some of us are being run off our feet. Others are doing their bit by staying close to home doing less than usual. And this can mess with our heads. Which is why it makes sense to remember a small, green fact: that we all feel calm after spending a little time around greenery. Tending plants. Sitting under trees. Growing herbs. Whatever. The point is, gardening reminds us to look forward to something positive. It also makes us think about something other than our daily worries. And gardening makes us stand up, walk away from our screens and be active at a time when mental and physical fitness is important. So take a look at the following, to see the different ways to garden and the benefits. Here you’ll find ways to give yourself small moments of joy, whether your garden is the kitchen window ledge or a large house block with a lawn.

1: The window ledge: is such a small bit of space physically but it can be huge emotionally. The window’s view may be out over a parking lot, but if you set a row of small pots along it, whatever you plant in them will quickly frame the view and make it feel astonishingly different. Even if you’re new at gardening, these pots will do fine because the plants growing in them will get the light they need. Having said that, pots at the kitchen window always do best probably because they are near the sink which makes it super easy to water them, then let them drain on the draining board. Try growing funky succulents if you think you may be a bit forgetful when it comes to the watering. Otherwise pretty much anything is possible as long as it’s smallish. Flowering seedlings are really lovely: pansies, primroses, marigolds. Or grow something with culinary merit like parsley, coriander, chives, curry plant and dill.

benefits of gardening — Two pots of promise on the kitchen window ledge; sweet basil (left) and mint just beginning to sprout.

2: A garden in a pot: isn’t as limiting as it sounds. In fact it’s often a lot more successful than four or five smaller pots. The trick is to get one large pot, fill it with potting mix then plant it with an collection of plants that you like the look of. If your garden space is a balcony, this is a great approach because it produces a big hit of green yet takes up less space than a cluster of smaller pots. And if you need inspiration, plant a Flower Carpet® rose slightly off centre in your pot then fill the remaining area with flowering spring bulbs. When these die back you can refresh the pot by planting summer flowering annuals like petunias which will trail over the pot’s rim, or cheery geraniums. Or, if you’re limited on space, create an edible ornamental container, tucking a few culinary herbs next to your Carpet Rose.

3: Tackling a project: is probably a great way to be active and productive when you’re staying close to home. And if your home garden is large, maybe this is the moment: to rejuvenate the lawn; to clear the dead wood out of a tree; pave a path or grub out and completely replant a garden bed. If you don’t have a project waiting, here’s a good one that will lift the look of your home – do a nice planting of carpet roses on both sides of your driveway. Empty the beds, dig over the soil, then plant something like Flower Carpet® roses at close enough distances so that they’ll grow to form a cloud of blooms that fills the beds. Arriving home from the supermarket will be a moment of joy.

4: Guerilla gardening: is a bit of a cheeky move, but surely permissible in these unusual times. It begins with a packet of flower seeds such as zinnias, Jewel Mix nasturtiums or calendula tucked into your pocket. You then take your usual brisk walk in the park, pausing (when there are fewer people around) to sprinkle the seeds onto the soil and scratch them in. From then on, each time you pass during the coming weeks you keep a look out for signs of sprouting, steady growth and then a splash of colour when your secret garden begins to flower. If this makes you smile, you can be sure others walking by will also have spotted your garden and also be enjoying it.

How to garden through extreme weather

A frozen Niagara Falls in the early 1900s: it would have been a tough winter in the garden, real extreme weather gardening required!

What follows is NOT a doomsday-weather, climate-change rant. Here instead are some tips on how to garden through extreme weather. And it’s somehow reassuring to understand that there’s nothing radical here. It’s all common sense, tricks used by gardeners for as long as anyone can remember. Take a look and you’ll see it’s not a big deal to help your garden weather the tougher times…

tip one: works a dream but you will look slightly crazy doing it. To protect plants from being scorched by a heatwave do what you’d do for yourself. Sort out some shade. Throw old bed sheets over your vegetable or flower garden beds. This temporary barrier between your plants and the sun & wind will reduce temperatures, UV radiation and water loss through evaporation. Your plants will survive and bounce back faster when things calm down. Repeat as necessary.

It’s easy to prevent scorching (above) and keep your roses looking as good as this (below, Flower Carpet® Pink Splash)

tip two: you can use a similar approach to help your garden cope with extreme cold. Savage cold snaps usually happen either side of winter when plants have naturally slowed down. It’s the time they’ve usually had a cut back, which is handy because it’s then easier to heap wads of straw around and over things to insulate the plant and the ground. If you’ve got access to old carpet or newspapers, they can work too. Frost and freezing is reduced along with any serious damage. All should be good come spring.

tip three: we all know which plants are the tough performers. We also know which ones are more delicate. Under a scenario where extreme weather is likely to be more frequent, it’s time to do a bit of culling and grow more reliable plants like those Flower Carpet® roses that soldier on in heat and cold. Where dry stretches are likely, think about replacing struggling boxwood edging with Pacific™ coprosmas. Plants that demand sprays (fungicides or insecticides) should probably be let go too.

tip four: Build some clever hard-landscaping: a screen or fence to deflect desiccating winds; a shady pergola where the sun beats down hardest; a rain-garden to trap and use falling water; a permeable gravel path to capture run off; a water feature to store water; a shed to overwinter sensitive plants.

4 steps for bright coloured plants

Why is it that warm climate gardens look so good when they’re filled with hot & bright coloured plants? Is it the bluer sky? Do brighter hues look best growing beneath a hot sun? Whatever’s going on, these riot-of-colour gardens in warm places (think southern California, Tuscany, Sydney) make us feel happy. If you live somewhere warm, this is an easy way to make your garden look fantastic – like you’re on vacation at home year round. Here are 4 steps for bright coloured plants:

step one: work like a stylist and pull together the hot colours you want – purple, blue, red, orange, yellow, pink. If you’re nervous about committing to this ‘hot’ mix, just add in some white. Now take a look online for flowering plants, searching using each colour in turn. (You can also search for foliage colour too.) There will be lots of choice but keep in mind not all the plants you find will be fans of a warm climate.

step two: which is why you’ll need to narrow your list so that it focuses on those plants that do like a bit of heat. The easiest way to do this is to check each plant candidate to see if it originally comes from sunnier climes. Canna Tropicanna® is a good example. Originally spotted growing gloriously in a South African garden, its relatives thrive in warm settings. Or take the brilliantly blue-hued ceanothus which is a native Californian, so an ideal candidate. There are even roses that have been bred to love the heat, like the Flower Carpet® rose series.

step three: to sort out where to plant your new hot-colour additions, lay everything out and stand back to take a look. Your plants will be young, but you can squint your eyes and imagine them in a few months’ time. As for colour combinations, the trick here is to not sweat the detail because hot colours pretty much all look terrific wedged up against each other, any old which way.

step four: because you’re gardening in a warm climate, you’ll especially need to look after your new plantings until they have established themselves. Follow these rules and you’ll be set: plant before things start to heat up; water everything in well; be sure to mulch thickly to help hold in moisture and keep the soil cool; keep to a steady routine of watering until everything looks like it can look after itself; and if a bunch of weeds pops up, get rid of them before they start hogging the water and soil nutrients. A few handfuls of slow release fertiliser scattered about in spring and autumn is a good idea too. Simple.

New Garden Trends

Walking around the latest garden trade shows in Europe, it doesn’t take long to spot that something BIG is going on in the way of new garden trends. The format isn’t new, but how it’s being interpreted is completely pushing the boundaries…

We’re still seeing hedging plants – because they are still the best way to create screened garden spaces. Edging plants are also still part of the picture as well – plants that sit at the front of garden beds. And there’s also the bit in between which is filled with other plants. So far – so ordinary. But here’s where the rule book has been shut, and fearless experimentation has taken over.

To start with, the hedges are no longer demure green, subtle backdrops for the garden. No way. Think instead of plants which function as a screen but also have a lot more going on in the way of foliage colour or flowers. Red leafed Photinia. Flower spangled Fairy Magnolias®. Funky foliaged spinning gums and the strikingly bold foliage of Fatsia or Castor Oil plant. In other words, a background hedge that is bold and attention grabbing.

garden trends — A hedge of beautiful Fairy Magnolia® Cream magnolias.

Then the same sort of deal is happening at the front where the edging plants grow. Rainbow bright Pacific™ Coprosmas. Gorgeous new Hebe Surf™ series. Flower Carpet® roses. Again the new garden trend is for remarkable plants. So we’ve now got a lot going on in both the background and the foreground. But wait, there’s more to come.

The garden bed in between gets the same treatment, but here there’s complete freedom to pick whatever. Grasses planted with Heuchera. Brightly coloured annuals. Variegated ivy, ferns and barrel cactus. It’s almost as if someone’s decided they like this plant, and this, and also this and then popped them all in together without waiting to be told that’s not how it’s done. The results are bold, surprisingly good and inspiring…

Strappy against the big and bold. The trick is not to overthink things and be confident even when combinations are unusual.

How to make a garden framework

Here’s a brutal truth. Many home gardens look a bit ho hum. And it’s got nothing to do with the amount of love their owners give them. Nope. Most of the time it’s because they lack one vital thing – a garden framework.

But surely planting armloads of plants and tending them with care is enough? Maybe take an honest look at the results of your efforts. Plant by plant, you’ve probably achieved success. But looking at the garden as a whole you may have to admit it’s not what you’ve hoped for. Truly special gardens have lovely plants growing in a framework: the skeleton of the garden, the structure from which everything hangs. It defines garden spaces. It gives a garden character and feeling. It gives a garden depth. Put this all together with plants and you end up with outdoor spaces that make you feel something whether you’re standing in them or just looking out at them through the window.

So how do you make a garden framework? Easy…

What have you got already? Take stock of the things already in your garden that define and frame spaces. Fences and walls. Trees and hedges. The walls of your house, garage or shed. Existing paths, steps, and gateways. Do a fast sketch plan of what you have, then circle in the spaces that sit within this framework. Ask yourself the simple question: what does each of these spaces do? Do you sit here with friends and family? Do you look out from the house across this shady bed? Do visitors reach the front door by walking through this space?

Follow your framework. In other words, let those spaces dictate what you do next. If your home’s arrival zone is confusing to first-time visitors, do something to help make things simpler. Direct traffic along the path to the front door with a low hedge or massed planting of something easy to grow and good looking year round – like those Pacific™ coprosmas. If the planting in the shady bed is bitsy, dark and creepy, improve it by simplifying it. Use only three plants to fill the bed en masse, and be sure one of them has pale variegated foliage to lighten up the effect. And if your outdoor area feels tacked on, use the existing framework of your house walls to create an outdoor room. Containers filled with living flowers – Storm™ agapanthus are brilliant – set in a line between the paving and the garden will act as another living wall of your new outdoor room.

Don’t fight nature. When you look at those areas that sit within your framework, they’ll probably each have a different microclimate. Stand in each space and you’ll instantly know what’s going on. Where the wind’s whipping in from. How strong the sun shines down and for how long each day. Where the rain hardly dampens the soil because the eaves shelter it. Knowing your mini weather pockets helps when you plant because you can fill them with things that you know will thrive there. Not only is that an easier way to garden, but the garden feels more real. Flower Carpet® roses, lavenders and Tropicanna® cannas in the full sun. Astilbe, impatiens and hostas for shade. Aeoniums, coprosmas and grasses for where the salty wind does blow… you get the idea. Suddenly a walk around the garden becomes a journey from place to place. You have added depth and feeling to the beauty of the plants.

Canna Tropicanna® adds height and structure to this garden.

Flower garden stock-take time

If your gorgeous flower filled garden doesn’t thrill you any more, it could be time for a stock-take…

You’ve got bullies: this can be hard to spot, but a balanced mix of plants can go from looking astonishingly lovely, to dull, just because some of the plants in the mix don’t know how to hold back. Like loud, overbearing dinner party guests, they’ll dominate until the meeker plants nearby give up. The trick is to spot the pushy plants and either keep them pruned back hard or replace them with something similar that’s better behaved and willing to share the space: like the newer varieties of agapanthus (such as Agapanthus Blue Storm™) over the beasty old-timers.

Old style agapanthus (above) have a reputation for taking over. You’ll spot them easily because they have wide leaves and fewer flowers than the new varieties like Agapanthus Blue Storm™ (below) which has fine foliage, heaps of flowers and it knows how to share the space.

You’re working your fingers to the bone: every gardener has made this mistake at least once if not many times. We are seduced by the promise of a glorious floral show and we ignore the fact that some of the plants involved will need a lot of care and maintenance. Of course it’s all worth it for the first season or two, but after that, the joy is deadened by the reality of constant watering, deadheading, feeding, spraying, pruning and frost protection. Solution? Give the fussiest plants away to some other victim and replace with look-a-likes that are known for being easy-care.

Why fuss around keeping a classic-but-fussy daphne healthy, when you could have Daphne Perfume Princess™ (below) growing care-free instead?

You crave new friends: gardens are like relationships in that they’re constantly evolving, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. Plants that you found fascinating at first can, over time, be a lot less exciting once you’re exposed to them year after year. Other plants promised to behave in a certain way, then didn’t, simply because every garden offers a different set of growing conditions – wind, shade, too much sun, munching pests, whatever. It’s no-one’s fault, but maybe it’s time to build yourself some fresh friendships. And this time look for the plants that you know will like living where you do.

The sickies: this will sound a bit brutal but your flower garden may be less than lovely because there are too many weaklings dotted through it. When we pick a plant to pop into the garden, we’re usually looking at its lovely face and, even if we’re warned that it has a tendency to suffer from various pests and diseases, we assume everything will be fine. But individual plants get reputations for being sickly simply because lots of people have noted that they… well, get sick. Now’s the moment to be honest and either pull them up to toss onto the compost pile or bonfire. Or if you have a gardening friend who loves to nurse plants along, hand them over, then fill the spaces with something easier to care for like Flower Carpet® roses which don’t have a problem with pretty much anything.

A rose with black spot is almost pointless, especially when there are so many other super-healthy options out there like this Flower Carpet® Coral rose (below).

4 steps to create a lasting garden

Here’s a trend that makes complete sense – building forever gardens, ie. gardens that are long-lasting. Landscapes with quality features (paving, decks, fences, etc), and plantings that keep looking good, year after year. Why? Because a garden like this costs the owner and our planet less in the long run given they’re built and planted once. And don’t just assume this type of garden must be planted with boring, dependable, evergreen foliage plants. Not at all, because you can just as easily create a gorgeous flower-filled garden with flowering plants that can be counted upon to perform just as dependably. Here’s 4 steps to create a lasting garden …

step one – do a little planning: whether you’re tackling your garden from scratch or doing a garden refresh, take stock of where things could go. It’s easily done and surprisingly helpful to make a basic plan of your place then lay tracing paper over the top. Sketch ideas in pencil starting with the functional stuff like paths, patios, deck and driveways. When that’s all blocked in, start on the garden beds. Think about where you’d get the best views of your flowery garden – looking out from your living areas or walking up to your front door.

step two – get the hard stuff sorted: list the hard landscaping that needs doing (paving, decking, fencing) and either do it yourself (if you like a project) or find a good contractor. Wait till everything’s finished before you bring in the living part of the landscape – the plants.

step three – pick your favourites: there are loads of lovely flowering plants that are dependable garden additions but it’s smart to do a little research and stick to proven performers so that what you do end up planting will keep on giving you joy year after year without being demanding. It’s also a good idea to use plants that flower for weeks and weeks on end so that the garden is looking special through spring, summer and into fall. If you’re nervous about how to make it look good, use the ‘white-to-make-it-right’ trick: either plant only white flowering plants or add white flowering plants in with whatever else you’ve thrown together.

step four – take a look at these: to start you off on the right track, here are a few gorgeous, long-lived and easy to grow things to help you fill your forever flower garden. Firstly you’ll want roses. Flower Carpet® roses are a great choice because they’re virtually evergreen, they’re as easy to look after as a daisy bush, they cover themselves in masses of blooms and there are loads of colour options. Next are the salvias. These are super easy to grow and they throw up spires of flowers all summer-long, sitting well in any mix of plants. Then you have African daisies (Osteospermum). They’re a brilliant punchy classic daisy accent and they offer a blanket of different colored daisy flowers for weeks. Another trick to use is to vary what’s know as the texture of the planting by adding strappy foliage into the mix, and to do this, Storm™ Agapanthus are perfect. Their leaves are more refined than traditional agapanthus, and they will grow into sizeable clumps with bucket-loads of flowers held high for many, many weeks over summer. Another gorgeous addition is the rock rose or Cistus, with its soft green foliage and poppy-like flowers covering nicely mounded bushes. Then there are the brilliant sedums – a bullet-proof way to drop pops of colour through the garden bed, (no wonder they’re called Sedumspectabile). And just to throw in a wild card, there’s a brilliant candidate for the back of the flowery garden bed because it grows tall and proud, with both flowers and very special foliage. Tropicanna® canna’s bright tangerine flowers float for months over a riot of carnival striped broad leaves. When the sun shines through, it’s breathtaking.