'Our Backyard Festival'

Wollongong Botanic Garden played host today to the second annual 'Our Backyard Festival' on what was a perfect sunny warm day. It was a terrific event with lots of fun stuff aimed at young visitors and stalls promoting everything for developing a sustainable productive organic garden.

Dark red Ranunculus

 Dark red Ranunculus asiaticus

Corsican Mint, Mentha requienii

 Cheers to spring with Le Grasshopper cocktail

made fresh with Corsican mint

 Corsican Mint, Mentha requienii

Recently I have been hanging out at some French websites and blogs looking for information on this, one of their native plants. I was able to discover the history of the man behind this mint as well as a terrific recipe for mousse au chocolat which uses Corsican mint as an ingredient. 
I grow mine in a pot with a saucer of water underneath. It likes a cool shady spot and pictorial labels at nurseries will often claim it can be grown as a ground cover between paving stones and walked on, however the climate here is too dry and variable for this to be achieved without sub-surface irrigation and a lot of spare time to weed amongst the "carpet". Good luck to those who try. In a pot it can be kept on a table where it can be stroked like a pet cat to release the fragrance from the leaves and to recall the eminent Frenchman Esprit Requien (1788-1852) who grew up in Avignon and had a great passion for the natural world of plants and animals found in his region. He is forever remembered in that city by the natural history museum he helped establish, Le Museum Requien at 67 rue Joseph Vernet, as well as for his conservation efforts to save the medieval parts of the town from demolition during the 19th Century. As a young botanist he travelled to Corsica, documenting the flora of the island, and naming many new species. Imagine his delight at discovering this mint and how pungent and fragrant the leaves would have been to his senses especially if the day was hot and he had found a shady spot to rest. Requien obviously fell in love with the island and died at age 64 at Bonifacio, a town in the extreme south of Corsica, a place where the language merges with the Italian of Sardinia just across the water.

Buste d'Esprit Requien, Botanic Garden, Avignon

photo: Veronique Pagnier

Requien was one of the first scientists to develop the concept of "phytosociology" in his work with the flora of the famous Mont Ventoux describing how different plants and animals are associated with different altitudes.

 

Esprit Requien (1788-1852)

Recently the Museum Requien held an exhibition on Australian fauna and flora. I am sure he would have found this country a fascinating place to visit.

Coecogyne cristata

 Coecogyne cristata

About eighteen months ago I was given this pot containing an unidentified orchid as a thankyou for doing a plant delivery. I placed it in a semi shaded spot, and, apart from the occasional watering, it hadn't received much attention. Then a week or so ago I noticed a couple of long stems hanging over the side of the pot, two streamers of flower buds. The buds were enclosed in a curious coffee stained envelope which made me think it had been sunburned or damaged by the wind. Then this 'keel' fell away and lovely fragrant white flowers emerged. It turns out to be a cool climate epiphytic orchid from the Himalayas and a 'good variety for beginners' which is just my ticket. Apparently it flowers when winter snow is melting and can tolerate quite a wide range of climates, being popular as a houseplant in Europe for that reason. In Germany it goes by the name of schneekonigin or 'snow queen' which makes it sound like a brand of ice-cream.
While I am not about to bitten by the orchid collecting bug, it is nice to have a few varieties in the garden as part of the spring flower scene especially as they demand so little attention to make them look fabulous.
 I don't have any 'how to grow orchids' books but I can recommend these two as good 'who-done-it' adventure style mystery books on the subject. Susan Orlean's funny and sad The Orchid Thief was made into the terrific movie Adaptation which had Meryl Streep playing journalist Orlean and is a must see for anyone who collects plants or who runs a plant Nursery.

Eric Hansen's Orchid Fever is a real eye-opener into the bureaucratic world of 'CITES' plant conservation/protection and the obsessive world of plant collectors who pay big dollars for the truly rare and exotic.

Geranium x monacense 'Muldoon'

Geranium x maonacense 'Muldoon'

Not another 'bloody cranesbill' I hear you say; to use a really bad horticultural pun. I have been growing this geranium for about a year and this is the first time I have had flowers from it. I have to admit to being a bit underwhelmed by the flower colour which could be described as a muddy purple, though the centre white circle does bring it to life somewhat. I 'photoshopped' the colour to make it more of a cerise pink so you will have to take my word for it. This plant is a hybrid between G. phaeum and G. reflexum ,so has the tall wispy flower stem of the former and the reflexed petals of the latter. It is an absolute shade lover and only flowers in spring and early summer. By mid summer expect it to look a bit scruffy, as mine did last year, so perhaps this one is really more suited to a fairly cool temperate climate. The lobed leaves have an interesting purple black mark on their edge and mine is showing a bit of white variegation though this may disappear over time. 

 I can only really muster faint praise for this Geranium as it has little to offer compared to varieties such as G 'Khan' or G 'Rozanne' with their showy cupped flowers.

Geranium x sanguineum 'Khan'

 Geranium x sanguineum 'Khan' syn. 'Wisley Hybrid'

Sounds like Englishman Allan Robinson had a bit of a fight on his hands with RHS Wisley when this Geranium came to be recognised as his own discovery. It is thought to be a hybrid between G. sanguineum and G. wlassouianum and was named for his beloved cat (Genghis) Khan. The flowers are very telling such is their brilliant magenta colour and for their appearance well above the 40cm mound of neat leaves. "Look at me.....look at me!" it screams, especially on a dull day.

 Up close the buds are very hairy, but are pussy cat soft and not bristly stiff.

 Ten out of ten for this Geranium as it fights for my attention from the dwarf Bougainvillea 'Zulu' which is also in flower at the moment.

Geranium sessiliiflorum x traversii 'Sea-Spray'

Geranium x 'Seaspray'

 It's sea-spray of the the wild north of Scotland variety which is where this little Geranium hails from; the Orkney Islands to be precise, a place with a climate tempered by the Gulf Stream which means it stays consistently cool but not freezing. Ground hugging as a defense against wind and with pale pink flowers on short stems and pewter coloured scalloped leaves this is a delightful garden plant for a partly shaded garden spot or as a hardy pot plant which can cope with drying out.

I grew this many years ago and have decided to give it another go because the colour combination of the foliage and flowers is quite unique.