The winter garden ...
It has been a wild ride this August. The apple and cherry orchards in the Valley are still dormant and the water of the Huon River is steel grey. We have had unsettled days in which biting wind and rain alternate with weak sunshine; we have had cold clear crisp days; we have had torrential rain which resulted in minor flooding all over the Valley; and we have had very cold bleak days. Today, for instance, started below zero and the sun has not made much of an appearance at all. We are therefore huddling around the log-burning oven drinking coffee and eating freshly baked, cinnamon-spiced apple teacake. Cold days do have some advantages!
Despite the bitter weather, it would be a mistake to think that all is bleak in the garden. In fact there are little pops of colour to be seen everywhere. My personal favourite is our hamamelis molis (Chinese witchhazel). I have always wanted to grow one of these shrubs but, alas, they do not thrive in the Queensland heat and humidity. It was one of the first major shrubs that we bought after our initial splurge on trees. The plant looks almost dead in autumn – just bare sticks – but then in mid- to late-winter these bare branches produce an array of spidery yellow flowers that are quite breathtaking. Our plant is still a baby, but it put on a show for us in its first winter and I have high hopes that it will be a cracker.
Elsewhere the daffodils (narcissus) and jonquils (narcissus jonquilla) are now starting to put on a show. Interestingly, daffodils are generally not scented while jonquils are very perfumed, and jonquils also only grow in yellow hues.
Supporting these mainstays of early spring are the hellebores, also known as the winter-flowering rose. We weren’t expecting much of the hellebores this year – they are known to sulk for a year or two after transplanting and given we took most of ours from Cath’s mum’s garden we were pleasantly surprised at the showing. A useful characteristic of daffodils, jonquils and hellebores is that they all seem to be unpalatable to the local fauna. This is a wonderful attribute as we do not have to provide wire cages for them, and the colour is thus clearly on show.
Winter is also the best time for planting bare-rooted stock and we have been pretty busy on the planting front. On the approach to the farm, we have planted 4 prunus nigra (ornamental plum) blossom trees. A further 2 have been located on the western boundary to try and provide colour and shelter from the wind. These trees are beautiful in late winter early spring. They are the earliest of the blossom trees to show and have a deep pink blossom that is awesome. We have also planted 4 ornamental crab apples along the southern boundary adjacent to our driveway: 2 malus yannanensis 'Wychwood Ruby' and 2 malus tschonoskii. The Ruby are shorter spreading trees with red blossom, while the tschonoskii are taller trees with white blossom. They are unlikely to show anything this year.
Finally, we have also made a start on our rose collection. There will be a distinct literary tint to the collection as one of the climbers goes by the name of `Tess of the D’Urbervilles’. We almost bought `Jude the Obscure’ as well, but there was only one left and we felt we needed to wait and ensure we got a good specimen.
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