Interesting ways with cacti & succulents...

Bright lolli pop cacti give this planter bowl wow factor.

 

Plant a variety of cacti in a low dish. Choose brightly coloured grafted cacti like the "lolli pop" type shown here. We have a great mix of cacti & succulents including cacti in pink, yellow, purple and orange in the garden centre for around $6 ea.

Place your display in a well lit room in the house, patio or veranda.

 

I thought this was a great idea to plant succulents in the crevice of each step. The green life really does soften the hard edges and creates an interesting visual display.

 

Happy Gardening Krystal xx

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

A modern statement with Aloe Trees.

This garden is amazing. The architectural trees emerging from the decking are aloe trees and we actually have these available at  the nursery and they also grow well in large pots. Surrounding the over sized concrete slabs are cordylines, agave's and a variety of succulents. In the top picture you can see the blue chalk stick succulent, which is a low growing blue statement plant.

The garden accessories are bang on. Love the stark white swing chair, table and single seat.

 This garden works because there is a variety of flooring materials used. Timber and concrete slabs in varying sizes combined with earthy mulch add texture add interest. varying the levels in the garden is a great way to a sense of style to a small space.

Enjoy. Krystal

Image via Real Living Magazine

Soft touch foliage

 Come instore and see our Kalanchoe tomentosa is a wonderful succulent with a velvety fur-like covering. When they came into the nursery the other day I couldn't help but touch them. This succulent will reach 45cm and is a great landscaping plant ( see picture above). Kalanchoe tomentosa is also a good container plant and mixes well with other succulents to create different textures and colours in your garden.

I also love the huge natural stones in this garden. we have similar in now

See you in the nursery soon.



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

Plant Now- Plum Gorgeous

Plum Gorgeous spilling over a blue pot.

I am always on the look out for plants with interesting foliage and I think this new release plant will be a hit this year.

Loropetalum is commonly known as Chinese fringe flower and this particular one is called "Plum Gorgeous". It has deep purple foliage and it will hold this brilliant colour all year round.

Raspberry coloured tasseled flowers will appear in Spring and Autumn. It is an easy to grow plant and will take full sun or part shade. It  will grow to a height of 1m by 2m spread. Perfect for pots or retainer wall planting. In the nursery now.

Images via Plant Growers Australia

Front verandah make over...

This weekend I set out to make over our front verandah with some pots and plants. I have had the two cream glazed urns for a while now, we were growing cherry tomatoes in them in the back yard this summer. I  pulled out the tomatoes and planted two standard Murraya paniculata ( commonly known as Orange Jessamine)  and placed them either side of our front door. Murrayas are evergreen shrubs ideal for hedging with creamy white fragrant flowers. The cane chairs were an op shop find and go well with my green/ cream semi tropical theme.

I did a little garden centre shopping ( at Serenity Nursery of course) and picked up this large tapered cream pot and advanced philodendron .  I also had to grab one of Serenity's terracotta frogs which is now at home under our frangipani tree.

images by Krystal James

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...

The height of Blue and White

 A snippet of blue and white lace cap hydrangeas, a dreamy blue gate way and blue gorgeous house that Marian and Rod visited this week.

 The blue milk can, cane chairs and bird cages were nostalgic elements found around the house and garden.

 Marian Loved the use of this blue glazed pot and said the hydrangeas and fuchsias were stunning.

 Love this look.

People from all over came to visit this pretty place.

Mum and Dads New Zealand adventures continued as they explored another beautiful house and garden. Laden with pretty cottage plants and magnificent established trees this place put a twinge in their heart.

Images by Serenity Nursery

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

Yucca Flowers & Gargoyles

I am in awe

 of the wonderful yucca flowers

 that I have seen popping up

 all over town this Autumn.

I discovered these ones today while wandering

 around the garden centre.

 Our hand-made

 lantern is spot on

 next to the

 giant

 architectural

yucca

 plant.

I pieced together this little display

 for the garden centre today.

I've used Dad's hand-made

 old finish gargoyles.

 A suar stool made from teak,

 stone steppers

 &

 striking canna plants for a rustic/gothic look.

Photos by Krystal

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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