Nigella damascena

Nigella damascena (Ranunculaceae)

 Earlier this month I tried to grow a batch of Nigella in 140mm pots as a commercial plant for sale in the nursery trade markets. This proved difficult as it is a plant which resents being transplanted once the seeds have germinated. Losses were high so I abandoned the project and it proved that it really prefers to hangout in a semi shaded garden corner in moderately rich garden soil where it can do its thing without disturbance, usually self seeding and returning each year if it happens to like the location. A cooler more temperate climate than mine may have helped in successful growing of it also.

The 'Persian Jewels' mix of Nigella contains some wonderful colours including a true sky blue , a deep purple, a crushed strawberry pink and of course white as shown here. The bonus with growing it is for the seed pods or capsules which are also decorative and these can be picked and used in dried flower arrangements.

Common names abound for this plant and include the English, Love-in-a-Mist or Devil-in a-Bush, the latter name referencing those horny little protuberances which top the flower. Other common names reference the veil of delicate, spidery or lacy foliage bracts which surround the flowers. It is a true texture or 'stroke me' plant ideal for sensory gardens. The German Venushaarige braut im haaren (Venus haired bride) or Jungfer im grunen (bridesmaid in green flower) paint the picture nicely of this fennel like foliage.

The other species of Nigella which I have yet to grow, N. sativa, yields the seed which is sometimes goes by the name of black cumin.The aromatic and pungent seeds are more commonly used in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine. The Indian panch phora is a mixture of nigella seed, cumin seed, fennel, fenugreek and mustard seed.There is also a tradition of using the seed as a topping for bread especially in eastern Europe where the heavy rye style loaves, which weigh a ton and just one slice will fortify you for a hike through a blizzard, are popular. I am thinking here of the Russian chernuska rye bread or the German black bread with schwartzkummel. 
Nigella spice seed remains less well known in Australia but the flowering species has been a popular cottage garden flower for many years.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Swan Lake'

 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Swan Lake' syn. 'Dainty White' syn. 'White La France'

This is another familiar old garden Hibiscus which has been grown for decades since its introduction from Florida. The pure white flower, which is occasionally flushed with green or cream on the petal edges, is a miniature windmill type of about 125mm and it originally appeared as a sport on 'Dainty Pink'. Pink flowers may still sometimes occur depending on the time of year. This is a very tall growing bush with whip-lash stems covered in only tiny leaves. If left un-pruned it develops a slightly weeping habit with age. The fashion for trimmed and pruned-within-an-inch-of-their-life shrubs has left this Hibiscus out in the cold somewhat but it is certainly worth including in a wild tropical style garden where a splash of white tempers more hot vibrant colours of foliage and flowers.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Enid Lewis'

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Enid Lewis'

 Enid is an old fashioned name as is this variety of Hibiscus. It was originally grown by the great Australian Hibiscus nurseryman from the Sydney suburb of Warringah, Les Beers, who established Hibiscus Park Nursery there in the late 1950's. The suburb is now famous for its Mall.......This small flowered Flamingo pink variety is flushed with a biscuit colour at the edge of the petals and on the reverse. It is not a huge flower only being about 125-150 mm wide but is a '2 dayer'. It flowers for most of the year and over winter the flowers shrink and become quite miniature and look quite sweet. Les Beers selected this variety when it appeared as a sport on 'Sabrina' which in turn had originated from the aforementioned 'Mrs George Davis' or Kona. It is a tall growing variety which becomes gnarly with age but can be kept pruned to a more manageable height. It is a recommended variety for growing in a partly shaded location.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Mrs George Davis'

 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Mrs George Davis' syn 'Kona'

The rich rose pink double flowers of 'Mrs George Davis' are a familiar sight in many old gardens up and down the coast. This vigorous tall growing variety, which originated in Hawaii in the 1950's, is a popular choice for use as a hedge or screen and in warm climate gardens it will flower for most of the year. It has few of the pest or disease problems which can affect some of the more flamboyant modern hybrids, suffering no die-back or borer as it matures. Regular pruning each year and a dose of Hibiscus fertilizer ensures a healthy flush of new growth and continuous flowering. This variety has given rise to a couple of good 'sports' or flowers which have appeared on the bush as a different colour from the original. These are the Cardinal red 'Sabrina' and the peaches and cream 'Mrs Andreasen', both doubles and very hardy varieties.

Garden as a character in Patrick White's 'The Aunt's Story'

 The Aunt's Story by Patrick White

1958 (2nd edition) Eyre and Spottiswoode, London

Cover design by Sidney Nolan

'Tis the season for reading Australian fiction and if the novel includes descriptions of plants and gardens it is always a bonus for those with a horticultural bent. When writers get their plant descriptions wrong however it can leave a jarring note. In Christos Tsiolkas' barracuda a character picks a bunch of blue Snapdragons. Nup! No such colour in 'Snappies' but I think he might have meant Penstemon which have a similar flower structure and come in a blue colour range. A piece of trivia you might say but in the poetic prose of Patrick White there are no such errors, as the gardens and the plants they contain reflect the mood of the characters and become an integral part of the story. 'Aunt' Theodora Goodman grows up in a country house set in a landscape of black volcanic hills and dead skeleton trees with a garden as grim and as unsettling as the personality of her mother. There is a 'solid majority of soughing pines' which are always 'stirring, murmuring and brooding with vague discontent' while on the south side of the house where Mrs Goodman wanted roses she had 'clay carted specially from a great distance' to create 'an artificial rose garden so untidy it looked indigenous'. The roses 'remain as a power and influence in themselves' over the life of 'Aunt Theo' for the rest of the novel. They follow her to the Cote d'Azur and on arrival in her room at the Hotel du Midi, maroon roses 'shouted through megaphones at the brass bed' and even 'retreating from the jaws of roses' into the jardin exotique of the Hotel where 'she hoped the garden would be the goal of her journey' she instead finds herself surrounded by cactus spines before resignedly taking a seat on a bench 'beneath a crimson elbowed thorn' indeed not unlike one found on the 'water shoot' of a growing rose bush.
The 'jardin exotique' is 'completely static, rigid, the equation of a garden' and 'it is all that a garden ought to be, neat and not native, resourcefully planned as opposed to dankly imaginative'. It wears the 'colourless expression of glass' and even the air is 'dry ,motionless and complacent' 'full of sad sounds of no distinguishable origin'.'On the trunk of a cactus flies had discovered a wound' and 'Theodora watched their invasion of the cactus sore.' There are no flowers here, 'sudden and scarlet like Spanish bombs' and even in the rooms of other guests she is confronted with a 'tangle of undergrowth, feathered, musky, tarnished, putting out tendrils of regret and hope, twitching at her skirt' while the indoor potted Monstera deliciosa has fruit 'eaten when black and almost putrid'. When the Hotel burns down Theodora is flashed back to her childhood garden as in the flames she sees 'the revival of roses' and 'how they glowed, glowing and blowing like great clusters of garnets on the live hedge'. Even after the fire the plant forms of the jardin exotique remained 'stiff and still, though on one edge, where they had pressed against the side of the Hotel, they were black and withered' as if 'their zinc had run into a fresh hatefulness'.
In the final chapter which is set in Taos, New Mexico, the dusty sombre pine trees return as does a black rose, a flattened fabric one pinned to her hat. As White explained "I gave Theodora the black rose because it was at the point where she had been finally reduced .....charred and purified" and decidedly unhinged.

'

'There were the evenings when red roses congealed in great scented clots, deepening in the undergrowth'.
"I see perfection in the rose, both of the flesh and of the spirit " Patrick White (1912-1990)

Versicolor

 Prunus persica 'Versicolor'

In the nursery industry it is often difficult to describe, in layman's terms, the exact colour of a flower, but it is even more difficult when a shrub has flowers which undergo a colour change from bud to bloom or present different coloured flowers on the same branch as is the case with the Prunus pictured above. I come unstuck when labeling the Brugmansia below as pink when actually the blooms start out as acid yellow. The customer naturally feels duped at the appearance of these yellow flowers but only has to wait a couple of days before the colour changes to dark pink. It's versatile versicolor........

 

Nasturtiums in pots

 While the garden bed Nasturtiums have long gone, shrivelled in the heat and dropping a load of seed, I have had more success in keeping them going in pots. One thing I did not realize is that they can be pruned back in a reasonably hard manner and they will regrow in a more compact and floriferous way. Container growing also makes it easier to control the amount of fertilizer they get as it is well known that excessive nitrogenous fertilizer will produce a mass of leaves with hidden flowers. Removing spent flowers stops them going to seed and thus shortening their life and though this takes a bit of extra effort there is no reason why these Nasturtiums will not keep on going all through summer and into autumn.
These 'Christmas red' ones will make a nice addition to the festive table in the coming days.