More and more to see as spring kicks in!

I always say that early spring is schizo around here – all colour and no green. Bleached by winter cold and drought, grasses are blonde and trees are grey. Suddenly colour arrives like a rash on the first azaleas: one looks at it in fascination and surprise. Of course the first blossoms on the trees are magnificent, and of course – almost grudgingly - I get pleasure from those first azaleas, but it is only a few weeks later when the many trees start pushing young leaves that spring becomes overwhelmingly beautiful to me!

The pictures above – a view and two details – I took yesterday from the veranda of the big house.  As I’ve been living there since early September rather than in my own house due to my mom’s health, I’ve been able to observe the daily – make that hourly as the light shifts! – changes that make this view so rewarding. Here for instance is a view on the 13th, when suddenly the afternoon backlighting caught the young leaves on the first of the oaks to green up. It gives some idea of how much changes in two weeks!

The view from my house has been the subject of a few shots too: I do get to take the occasional walk, and my dogs sleep at home and so get let out every morning at ‘photo time’!  This is the one month in the year when I consider giving the bridge a fresh wash of white – surrounded as it is by flowering cherries and almonds, azaleas and Viburnum plicatum, it seems a little drab. For the rest of the year I like its ‘dull white’ look.

Here is another shot of the icon of my garden, taken a few days earlier from my front door. The bowl of scented freesias stands on the stone plinth in line with the bay window. In our sheltered valley reflections are often near perfect.

This early morning view shows the quality of the reflection and the greening of the trees across from my home; the centre of the view from my big bay winow is in line with the left edge of the photo.

To continue the theme of greening (or in this case reddening – or wining?), this opposite view from the above one, taken nine days earlier, shows the first silvery brown leaves on the Acer palmatum atropurpureum. The grass of the meadow which only days before waved between the house and the water, has been cut and the dogwood (Cornus florida) in the right foreground is flowering properly for the first time this year. I grew it from seed off my own trees!

To end off, a view up from Alfred’s Arches to the big house. One morning one wakes up to a garden that is no longer wintery; Erigeron karvinskianus with its white daisy flowers from pink buds self-seeds most beautifully all around my garden and contributes hugely to the blowsy, accidental overlay of the formality which I so love. Down the steps to meet me comes Doubly, the Border Collie.

 

Weekly pic: September week 5

 

End September sees the greening of the valley, the first wet weather and above all – the chorus of frogs!  This morning all were noticable from the veranda of the big house…

 

Weekly pic: September week 4

I know I know I know my last two posts were also about the Wisteria Arbour, but of all the myriad flowers in my garden at the moment – blossoms, azaleas, rhododendrons and even the first roses, it is the wisterias that give me the most pleasure!

I peered through Alfred’s Arches to get this view, photostitched from two vertical shots. It helps give some idea of the unusual shape of the arbour. Talking of arbour – I’d been wondering what the difference is between an arbour and a pergola. Then the October issue of  Fine Gardening arrived all the way from America. (www.finegardening.com) There Brady Halverson explains that an arbour is like a doorway, a pergola is like a ceiling and a trellis is like a wall. How simple! That definitely makes this an arbour, even once the wisterias have grown to cover the structure more fully for, as he explains, “An arbour with a deep passageway adds to the sense of arrival that comes with passing through it, comparable to arriving in a home through a foyer rather than simply entering a door.” That helps me to understand why I enjoy this design so much!

 

Wisteria in the Anniversary Garden

I laid out the Anniversary Garden for my parents to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary – it  lies below a tall wisteria arbour (the building of which was more difficult than my house!) and contains gold and mauve roses. Here is a photo taken in the last rays of the sun in November 2007 to show the mix of yellow and gold roses.

Truth be told, many of the roses have been unsuccessful and the garden is due for a major rethink, with the range of plants in the two outer beds being considerably extended, but continueing the mauve and yellow theme using shrubs and perennials and self-sowing annuals. The two central beds, flanking the rosemary-lined path, need a bit of tweaking only. Most successful have been the David Austin roses Molineux and Graham Stuart Thomas, Amber Queen and a marvellous new rose marketed as “South Africa”  here ( KORberbeni) – one of the most trouble free roses ever.

But at this season, with the roses still pushing their new shoots,  it is the wisteria that dominates, and it is these photo, taken today, that I really want to share with you. The first gives an overview of the garden. The arbour is long and narrow with a rounded edge on the garden side making the centre substantially narrower than the edges. There is a central path lined with rosemary and from the edges of the arbour paths lead down to the focal point at the end of the central path, thus dividing the garden into 4 triangular beds. It is a successful design and a potentially successful garden, but there is a vast amount of tweaking and improvement of maintenance needed before it will come into its own…

Just for the hell of it, here are a few more archive photos of the Anniversary Garden, starting with Buff Beauty grown against the reed fence under the arbour, seen through Veichenblau, the subject of the next photo. This old rambler is remarkably close in colouring to Rhapsody in Blue which is planted in the two central beds. This marvellous new rose has unfortunately not proved vigourous in my wet climate and sandy soil. To end with – the robust rose  we call South Africa.

 

Weekly pic: September week 3

Spring is definitely here! Blossoms multiply and all over trees are in leaf. The oaks have limy green flowers and are buzzing with bees. Again I cheat, with two photos this week – one a detail of the other.

The view into the arboritum from my parents’ front door, with azaleas and blossoms making their spring statement. I am so pleased that I planted sparaxis, an indigenous spring bulb, in the two pots at the entrance this year. We’ve always had miniature or pot roses there, moving them to open ground every year or three. Roses would not be making a show now, and my mother gets endless joy from these flowers, close enough for her to enjoy when we wheel her into the sun for a few minutes…

 

Spring green

Many of the oaks are a limy yellow and abuzz with billions of bees tending to the fleeting flowers; the willows and swamp cypresses glow against the light, a green so clean it can only be spring… (sorry; corny moment; it reminds of a poem I loved to teach about  trying to write a poem that doesn’t rhyme, but it keeps rhyming. Should find it and post it!

This afternoon from my parents’ veranda I took the following picture…

Backlit afternoon view from my parents' veranda

The driveway crosses just beyond a narrow strip of lawn. A little further the main lawn lies below a brick retaining wall. To the left of the picture a pair of box plants in pots mark the top of the staircase that divides the  Upper Rosemary Border into two. To their left a clipped Abelia ‘Francis Mason’ and beyond them a strip of clipped endemic Hypericum; beyond that the swamp cypresses on the water’s edge. To the right of the swamp cypresses is a witch-hazel in full flower. It stands alone on the lawn. The various plants to the right of it are part of the Upper Rosemary Border

 

Early spring in the arboritum

Three or four warm days, and blossoms and flowers multiply. Where a week ago there was barely promise, there is now  profusion. And so spring gains momentum.

Looking across from the arboritum towards the big house; camellias and pears.

Yesterday morning we took an early and rather chilly walk into the arboritum to explore the changes. The arboritum is the most ambitious project in our garden by far. It covers over a hectare on the opposite side of the valley from the houses and replaced a pine plantation. We – that is my father with my assistance and support – started planning it in the early 90s and by 1998 he was celebrating recovering from a heart bypass by planting the trees we had collected and the azaleas we had propogated. Every evening in Johannesburg I would get a progress report and a tally… ’17 trees and 48 azaleas today, that makes it 94 trees and 530 azaleas…’ It was a lesson to me in listing what had been achieved , not what still had to be done!

Two massive white stemmed gum trees, already impressive when my grandfather bought the farm in 1951, anchor the view of the arboritum from the big house.

Situated on a steep east facing slope, the arboritum’s aspect helps protect the trees from the extreme heat possible on a summer afternoon, but is not ideal for the camellia blossoms that are exposed to sunlight soon after frosting. However now that the bushes are growing larger and more solid, more and more flowers are lovely, even in cold weather.

Looking up the valley from among the camellias. Higher up the valley lies Cheerio Gardens, first opened to the public in spring in the 60s and a great inspiration to us in starting to garden on Sequoia in the early 80s.

Cheerio Gardens, our neighbours higher up the valley, are known especially for their azaleas and flowering cherries; in both these plants they were South African pioneers. Most of our azalea stock comes originally from them and in sourcing trees for the arboritum we scoured the country for different blossoms to add to the cherries bought from them.  Our focus on autumn colour distinguishes us most clearly from the neighbours – that and a formal approach to aspects of the design, even in the arboritum, where there is a huge swath of azaleas flanked by tulip trees marching up the slope at an angle. More on that later in the season when those azaleas flower and the trees are in leaf!

What we call an 'apple-blossom pink azalea' against a juniper. A limited number of fine conifers add solid contrast to the arboritum in all seasons.

We are not terribly scientific about our azaleas. We know few by name. Most are evergreen azaleas of Indica and Kurume type. Athough evergreen, some of their leaves turn to laquered shades of red and yellow in autumn. One of our favourites doesn’t fit the mould, it is mauve (rather than white, pink or red) and is closer to the decidious azaleas; besides being slightly scented, it all but looses its leaves in winter.

Our much loved mauve azalea.

After a lovely walk we head down past the Makou Dam and up to the big house to find out if my mother has had a good night… Despite all the spring about us, the look is still wintery.

 

Weekly pics: September week 1

1 September is Spring Day in South Africa - usually cool and miz after some great weather in August. But this year all is by the book, and it is a glorious day. So which of the many Spring Brides to show you? No douts: Prunus cerasifera 'Hessei' the tri-coloured Prunus. Her flowers are minute, single and fleeting. But they are plentiful and she has the most unusual and distinguished leaves of them all. Also she caught the sunrise before I dashed of to work this morning, so I could photograph her. Besides, surely the days of demure brides who only later show their true colours are not completely over...

Breaking the rules slightly, here she is again, this time in full leaf,  from the website of Plantentuin Esveld at Boskoop in Holland; Boskoop is well worth visiting if you have a passion for plant propogation! Visit the nursery at http://images.google.co.za/imgres?imgurl=http://www.esveld.nl/plantdias/59/59937.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.esveld.nl/htmldiaen/p/prches.htm&usg=__i_Zn177nQjo6D8E086r51SBF9Oo=&h=600&w=800&sz=148&hl=en&start=37&sig2=3vVN_PInuwEmmgLvMrtARA&tbnid=tYhBF2hpKgC39M:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvariegated%2B%252B%2Bprunus%26imgsz%3Dsvga%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26start%3D20&ei=EQSdSqGuMIzH-QbzvbiPBA

Here she is again, photographed last week (cheating!) after some very soft rain. Each flower is only about 1cm across and shy to open fully. If you can find her, plant her. Prunus cerasifera 'Hessei' is slow to establish because of her low chlorofil count, but a dependable and trouble-free shrub or small tree thereafter. At the risk of being bashed over the head - with a saucepan - this blushing bride makes a good wife!