Strolling through the garden...

How lovely it is to see our customers take pride in their gardens. Our customer Helen Rodda  has built her magnificent garden up with large Shade trees, lovely flowering perennials and box hedging.

Helen's garden is called " Camelot Garden Stroll"and is situated at Kadina on South Australia's York Peninsula. Helen's Garden was open to the public in October and attracted over 300 people and helped raise funds for the local cancer council. Well done Helen, what a beautiful garden.

Take a look at the wonderful photos Helen sent into us...

Teak Garden Sculpture Balls from Serenity Nursery where strategically placed in a section of the garden.

Helen said "Everyone fell in love with them".  Comments like “Who made them”,  “Where did you get them from”,  “ I’ve got to have some of them”, to ‘I’ve never seen anything like them before” kept coming all the time.

Serenity Nursery's statue of Rose is enveloped by blooming roses and a metal garden arch.

Small wooden hearts from Serenity Nursery hang from the weeping mulberry tree.

Helen put together this nostalgic little nook. An old washer, washboard and basket

 complete the quirky display.

Pruning Standard Lilly Pilly...

So the hot weather has past and left us with some scorched plants...It's time to clean up and prune any burnt new growth off your lilly pillys ( or any plants in the garden that copped it).

 

It is important to start with a good pair of garden shears. I have a quality pair of Wiltshires from Serenity Nursery. Keep them sharp with a sharpening file and clean them after each use with bleach or disinfectant, this will help prevent spread of disease.

 



This is my lilly pilly standard. It barely resembles a topiary as woody growth towers towards the sky and it has lost it's shape due to a little neglet. Lilly pillys are extremely vigorous growers and if planted in the ground can reach  up to 10m tall, so it is important to prune them regularly...guilty!

 

 

I always like to start by pruning some of the woodier branches with the hand secateurs. It is easier to get a cleaner more controlled cut with them. These branches can be cut in towards to middle of the topiary allot harder than the finer new growth, to prolong the time in between pruning and prevent the shrub getting too tall and woody in general.

 

 

It is always easiest to prune the finer new growth with the shears. I round the top first and then continue around the bottom. Here I have prune under the right side quite significantly to show how visually important it is to the form of the entire topiary. Prune right up to the main trunk to help create the sphear form.

 

 

Work around the topiary taking little bits off at a time. Stand back from time to time to assess the form from a distance and from all angles. One thing I learnt from my sculpture classes in art school was to leave the project and come back to it with fresh eyes, this may help you see the form better and see what areas need more pruning.

 

 

The finished product. I could probably spend another hour or so perfecting the shape..but this is a big enough improvement. Once I'm done pruning I give the shrub a treat...a good drink of liquid sea kelp to de-stress it after all of the hot weather we have had.

 

Enjoy your garden...

Krystal

Screen Queens

 

I was asked recently what a suitable screening plant was for a sunny position?
Here are my top 3 ...


1. Best "Grey Foliage screen" Westringia 'Wynyabbie Gem'
"Wynyabbie Gem" is a 1.5m tall x 1.5 m wide bushy shrub native to Australia. It is also know as native rosemary. This hardy shrub features grey/ green fine foliage. Pretty little mauve flowers appear in spring and throughout the year. I think it's a little under-used in today's gardens. There are so many great reasons to grow this screen. Team it with grey, silver and black foliage for a muted modern palette or use it as a back drop in formal gardens.

2. Best "Tough as Boots Screen"- Viburnum tinus.
I rave about this plant allot. It's an old fashioned shrub that can grow over 3m if left unpruned, but easy to maintain at a medium height. Plant viburnum in a row about 1m apart for a brilliant evergreen hedge or screen. The screen can be kept as low or tall as you like. The lush foliage is covered in clusters of white flowers with a flush of pink in spring. People will knock on my door asking "what is that screen?". It always looks lush, even in the hottest of weather.

3.Best "Red Hedge"- Lilly Pillys.
Pop into Serenity Nursery and you will see several varieties of Australian native lilly pilly. The lilly pilly come under three botanical names- Syzygium, Acmena and waterhousea.  If you are wanting a taller growing screen plant Lilly Pilly Backyard Bliss. It will grow 2-3m tall with magnificent red new growth. This particular lilly pilly is popular as it is psyllid free- so there will be no dimpled foliage in sight.  "Backyard bliss" responds well to pruning and can be pruned to any height.

Hope this will help solves your screening needs...Krystal

New Release Plant...

Look out in the garden centre for the new range of  Hellebore's. This one pictured here is " Penny's Pink" also look out for "Winter Sunshine" and " Ivory Prince" all @ Serenity Nursery now!

With their domed shaped flowers and soft muted colours, these hellebore's are they perfect way to add elegance to your winter garden. Plant these low growing plants in a shady nook or under tree canopies. Create a magnificent effect by planting them in glazed or earthy pots.

Check out our new pots for inspiration here.

Image via Plants Management Australia

Glam Gardening...

Bring out your feminine side with PGA's new plant release "The Princess Lavender".

It is so pretty you have to visit us a Serenity Nursery to see it!!

The Princess lavender features large, vibrant pink flowers and a long flowering time. The main flower flourish will be in Spring and will continue to flower through out the year. This is a compact lavender growing approx 70cm x 70cm. The foliage is aromatic and the cut flowers are ideal to use in arrangements.

Princess Lavender is easy to grow and requires little water once established.

Try Growing your Princess Lavender:

In your favourite container

As a small growing border

En Masse for great effect

Image via Plant Growers Australia

Step on it.

My front garden is very simple with low growing hedging box plants and a couple of patches of flat mulch. The mulch is fine as it allows the rain to penetrate into the ground and water the plants around it.I have been thinking about amping up the style and filling the mulch voids with some large format pavers and planting some low growing plants in between.

I found these images that gave me some inspiration...

I like this idea as environmentally it allows water to go in between each paver. Don't rule out using pebbles in between pavers either. Pebbles can act as a mulch by retaining moister in the ground and suppress weeds.

I plan on using the pavers  hand made at Serenity Nursery, they are 500mmx 500mm which is a large format paver and looks great in a small space.

Low growing plants that work well in between pavers:

Dichondra

Creeping Thyme

Dwarf mondo grass

Liriope

Trailing Succulents

Baby tears

New Zealands Earthly Delights

 A sculpture made from rustic barbed wire.

 In the shape of a sheep, of course!

 A place for the birds.

A Simple yet elegant cast iron urn draws in the eye.

I love the rustic vegy patch to the right and the stark white gazebo in the background looks divine.

 The contrast of neatly pruned box hedge and romantic cottage plants is perfection.

 Old fashion dahlias and sedems in the forefront add colour to the greenery.

 An espaliered beurre bosc pear tree is a great use of space. Dwarf Tahitian lime trees are planted below making it a mini garden of Eden.

 Standard Olive trees with silvery grey foliage compliment the green box topiary.

 Another espaliered tree. This one is an apple tree. Not only does it look good its produces lots of yummy fruit. Dad brought this idea
 back home with him.

 An espaliered Fig tree is a magnificent idea.

I love the use of this gorgeous teak garden bench. It becomes a practical focal point in the garden.

I was amazed by Marian and Rodney's ( Mum and Dad's) photographs that they took on a recent holiday to New Zealand. A few of you have asked me to post some of their garden tour snaps on our blog.. so here they are. I hope you get inspired and excited as much as I did when I saw these lovely  garden pics. Enjoy...

Marian's Marvel

 Marian ( Mum) sits along side the beautiful blue and cream house admirering the creek and garden views.

 Try Growing: Dahlias, Agapanthus, Guara, Zantedeschia and acanthus mollis which line the creek bed of this New Zealand garden. These varieties will grow in most Australian areas too.

How would you like snow top mountains in your back yard?

The gardens of New Zealand continue to amaze. This one was designed by a French couple who moved to New Zealand and fell in love with a vacant block with a creek running through it. They planted a vineyard and adorned the creek side with the most beautiful lush plants. Marian and Rod said it looked so effortlessly elegant and the bridge over the creek looked like Monet's Garden.

 

Images by Serenity Nursery

LIVE the OUTDOORS.....

Don't you just love the sunny days we have had lately. It has been the best time to potter around the garden and determine what needs to go, what stays and what new plants to bring in...
... It's just beautiful to dwindle the day away in your own garden oasis.

images via Pretty Stuff

Green scene

GO GREEN

When I designed my front garden  three years ago I was determined to have

an all green garden. Green foliage with a hint of white flowers was the plan. This theme would go with my mist green roof and cream timber posts on my little cottage.

Green plants that I used in my garden pictured above:

Frangapani- Cream flowers, large broad green leaves.

Buxus Faulkner- Green foliage, excellent evergreen border.

Cycad- Palm ideal planted in urns or pots.

Escallonia Iveyi- White flowers, dark green foliage.

Viburnum- Excellent screen, White flowers

Hellebore " Ivory Prince"- Cream to green flowers

Viburnum Laurustinis- One of the hardiest hedging plants around. Will grow 3m + and can be pruned to suit your location. Here I have used the viburnum to screen the fence line. I planted them 1m apart and prune the tops regularly to promote bushy plants. Doing so has paid off as they formed a hedge quickly. I like to use Neutrog SeaMungus throughout the year to keep the hedge healthy. Neutrog sudden impact for lawns is also great for leafy plants.

Hellebore "Ivory Prince"- A gem in the garden. I have planted my "Ivory Prince" under my advanced frangapani trees, they provide part shade for this amazing plant. The flower starts off cream and changes to green ( pictured above).

I have blogged this picture before, Its a favourite of mine. I think it must remind me of our garden centre, with all of the life size elephants roaming around.

Green Ivy walls. I would never get sick of this sight.

Grow Green. Grow your own edibles not only for eating but for visual effect. Try a border of green kale, creeping thyme as a ground cover or feijoa as a hedge.

It's a green life. I found this image on Martha Stuart.com. and thought I might share it with you.

I absolutely love this. Try it yourself, by placing a few pavers in the garden and envelope them with a sea of green.

Green Ideas for planting in between pavers:

Dichondra- A small kidney shaped leaf that grows close to the ground ( available in seed or seedlings). Dwarf Mondo Grass, low growing dark green foliage. Creeping thyme, will take light foot traffic and will be fragrant too.

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