New for Out doors..

Assorted Rustic benches are rolling in at Serenity from Tim and I's overseas buying trip.

We love this one! Thanks Tim and Ken for lifting it into the ivy hedge for this photo shoot!

Green Eyes...

New handbags, home decore and arm chairs in our giftshop today.

New rustic urns & canvas art on show in our pavilion.

Terracotta garden frogs that we imported are a fun garden gift idea.

Bright Now.

Bright Red, Orange, Yellow and Green pots to add a pop of colour to your home or garden.

In store now @ 25% off. ( Offer until 30.6.12)

New Wall decores, cushions and furniture...

Our "Spider Man" chair comes as a set of two with a matching coffee table.

Love Love Love the bamboo woven round wall decores, just in.

Recyle me pretty.

Make your own pretty pot plants with recycled tin cans.

Here's How:

1. Remove the label off the can
2. Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage.
3. Paint the outside of the tin with house paint or any acrylic paint. You may need to paint 2-3 coats.
4. Once the paint has dried fill up with a premium potting mix such as Plants Plus Terracotta and Tub Potting Mix.
5.  Fill with any in season annuals like pansies or snap dragons.

Makes a cute hand made gift.

Enjoy! Krystal

Image via Makapar

Something Pretty...

Pretty Polly

Tu Tu Mauve

Royal Highness

Just a few of the roses due to arrive in the garden centre very soon.

Have you got your rose order form yet?
Order your roses here for 2012.

 

For the Country Music Fans..

Slim Dusty Rose



A Country Music Icon.

This is a wonderful tribute rose to an Australian icon. This rose is adored by all who love country music and the legend himself, Slim Dusty. The Slim Dusty rose is a coppery orange reminescent of the colours of the outback that Slim loved so much. This rose has a sweet tearose fragrance and would make a lovely gift for a country music fan.

First Image via Treloar roses. Second image here

Black Caviar Rose

Black Caviar a magnificent commemorative rose.

We are so excited about the Black Caviar Rose due into the nursery very soon.

The gorgeous burgundy red flowers colour through to black purple in the centre. This rose has the most divine fragrance. Think old world roses meets honey and jasmine. The fragrance is intoxicating.

Black Caviar rose is repeat flowering and will perform well in full sun.

Image 1: Knights Roses. Image 2: Photo by Jono Searle Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

The Peter Brock Foundation Rose

The Peter Brock Foundation Rose. A magnificent red rose due for release this season.

This rose is a growing symbol that honers the legacy of Peter Brock and all he stood for. Living Life and follow your dreams.

This bright red rose is a hybrid tea and will reach a height of 120cm x 80cm. It features glossy dark green leaves and spiralled lightly fragranced blooms.

Images via Knights Roses

Pope John Paul II Rose

Pope John Paul II Rose

I would describe this rose as pure and elegant. This luminous white rose grows in the Vatican's private garden and is a stunning tribute to one of the world's most beloved leaders. This elegant rose has won trophies and medals all around the world for fragrance,

vigour and superior disease resistance.

Rose Type: Hybrid Tea

Today...

The garden centre is still very colourful coming into winter. Lots of cottage plants and potted colour to make us smile.

Image

Let's get creative...

 What a cute little idea. When the kids grow out of their gumboots turn them into garden art.

 What an innovative way to recycle plastic bottles. I have also seen old gutters mounted to walls and used as herb gardens.

Have some fun outdoors with this clever idea.

First two images here. Last Image here.

Deluxe Nectar

 ...Our new terracotta birds and pink lanterns are the perfect garden accessory.

Mother's Day is the prettiest time of year in our garden centre. Pink lilliums, orchids, hyacinth, gerberas, cyclamens and camellias are in bloom. We go mad with our deluxe plant gift wrapping using the prettiest printed papers.

ChrysantheMUMs

Double dusty pink.

 Mauve pink

Double fluffy white

Our Chrysanthemum plants are so pretty. I photographed these ones in the nursery today. The mauve pink has an amazing form and the ones with

 double petals are just so voluptuous.

I think the traditional chrysanthemum plant is a must gift every Mother's Day.

Potted flowers last longer than a bunch of flowers because once mum has enjoyed them indoors for a while she can then plant them out in the garden.

My designs in store now.

 

If you have been in the nursery lately you may have seen my circular ball pendant hangers made from teak branch off cuts. They can have globe lights fitted in them or they can simply hang as an art piece. I have two sizes in store at the moment. The largest has a 90cm diameter and

 small about 60cm diameter.

Hanging Tough

Our timber carved jackets arrived today.

Eclectic Style with my fave finds.

An eclectic Visual merchandising display with new home ware finds.

Two of my favourite finds on our buying trip were the teak timber deer wall hangings and cow hide stools. I had purchased them for my own home, but I was so excited to show them off I displayed them in our lifestyle pavilion today. The teak carved bench was also an overseas find.

Great heights

Our lifesize giraffe was one of the first things to make it into the garden centre.

You just have to see him in person.

Help us name him by going to our Facebook page.

Roll up, Roll up...

The Container has landed.

My husband Tim and I had an amazing time in Indonesia this year buying garden art and furniture for the garden centre. Things have got a little crazy at Serenity Nursery today as our 40 foot container finally arrived from overseas. Now we know we are getting known as being more zoo-like than garden centre, with our life size elephants, hippos and horse sculptures. Well, we have more quirky animals to add to the collection, a life sized giraffe sculpture was the first piece to make it in store today. Despite the pouring rain today Tim, Dad and the team worked hard to unpack the container and for us girls in the garden centre it was like Christmas unwrapping all of our unique finds. Stay tuned as I post photos of our new things on here, facebook and our website.

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

Pretty Much Picasso

Paint a pretty garden with this new flowering plant " Pretty Much Picasso". The lime green edge and dark purple center of these flowers will definitely turn heads.

Pretty Much Picasso is a vigorous petunia hybrid ideal for pots and hanging baskets. Available at Serenity Nursery now.

Happy Gardening.

Edible Flowers

Edible Chive flowers

Today in the garden centre I spoke to a friend who often visits our nursery for our diverse range of unusual herbs and vegetables, which she uses in her catering business. Being a foodie and a keen grower of all things edible she joked about the pansy punnets she was buying. It was unlike her to buy a purely decorative plant. However we did laugh when she pointed out to me that the pansy flowers were in fact edible and she had used them to decorate sweet dishes in the past.

It got me thinking about edible flowers and how they can be used in our home cooking. When I was in Sydney recently I ordered a pizza that was topped with zucchini flowers, it was amazing visually and tasted great. Zucchini flowers can also be stuffed with a variety of fillings like creamy ricotta and then baked. I love salads and I always try to add different colours and textures with my greens. Include vibrant coloured flowers and petals to a salad for an unexpected look and taste.

Pansies in pastels or brights are in flower right now and can be frozen into ice cube trays, use the ice cubes in your favourite drink for a pretty visual treat. decorate your next cake with sugar coated pansy or viola flowers.

Try these edible flowers in your home cooking:

Flowers of chives and garlic chives.
Calandula and marigolds.
Nasturtium flowers
Tulbaghia flowers(society garlic)
Citrus blossoms
Tuberous begonias
Pansies
Flowers of pineapple sage
Rose booms
Zucchini flowers

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

The Pothole Gardener

 Pot hole before

Pot hole after.

Holes of happiness.

I stumbled across this quirky idea today. When you have no garden why not hit the streets with your green thumb. That's what Australian born Londoner and gardening guru Steeve wheen did with his 'The pot hole gardener' project. The left of field project is described by Wheen as an urban experiment and creative pursuit to bring a little greenery to the city streets one pot hole at a time.

Wheen fills East London’s problem potholes in roads and footpaths with soil and living plants, decorating them with miniature props to create gorgeous tiny worlds.

What do you think?

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...