|

Derynthorpe.com.au

‘Reflection' Gold Show Garden
call of the wild
A sophisticated palette with wispy grasses, including Panicum ‘Heavy Metal' and P. virgatum, creates a carefully orchestrated wild and casual planting style for this design. Silver and white, with accents of pink and yellow, contrasts with the boathouse, which is clad with Oregon timber that has been burned to create a charcoal-like surface. Designer Ian Barker said his aim was to show how a naturalistic planting style, popular in Europe and North America, can be adapted for Australian gardens. 1. Verbascum ‘Polar Summer' 2. Polygonum ‘Summer Dance'
3. Nyssa sylvatica ‘Forum' 4. Rudbeckia laciniata
5. Achillea ‘Mondpagode'
PRETTY PATTERNS
These designs, made ‘Chateau de Carlton' with jewel-coloured succulents, show off the versatility of these popular, drought-tolerant plants, which come in myriad intricate textures. Studio Gi, who designed this repeated pattern its symphony.
on May 28,
at 6.30pm
‘Kidsense': Achievable Gardens (2nd)
DERYN TH i
photogra a
phy VIRGIN ti
IA CUMMINS o
on ABC TVn One of my gardening high points each year
is discovering new plants, design trends and planting styles at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS). There is a real sense of excitement at the show, as it attracts some of Australia's best designers who create thrilling show gardens displaying their design and building child's play
skills, and gardening ideas. This year, the displays A woven, nest-like pod cubby and graduating spiral tunnel are featured simple shelters and pared-back hardscaping, highlights of designer Fiona Webber's colourful and playful children's which allowed the intricate plantings to steal the show. garden, which abounds with sensory elements. Bright yellow and Most gardens had restrained colour schemes, but orange cushions match the edible flowers on nasturtium plants. celebrated plant diversity. Foliage had a ‘natural' look, A silver ‘river' of common everlasting (Chrysocephalum apiculatum Display gardens at garden shows often yield great design and planting ideas rather than being tightly clipped, and ‘hot' plants ‘Yorke Peninsula') flanks a tiny, fragrant chamomile lawn.
to try out at home. Here are a few of the themes and plant combinations that included grasses, succulents, dwarf conifers, compact 1. Lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) 2. Weeping lillypilly (Waterhousea
stood out this year at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show natives and plants with silver or purple foliage. floribunda) 3. Edible canna (Canna indica var. edulis)
GARDENING AUSTRALIA June 2016 45

‘The Greenery Garden Centre Show Garden' Best in Show
" The garden was designed to ‘Nature' Bronze Show Garden
show real planting combinations with normal and popular species" This garden, by Vivid Design for The Greenery Garden Centre in Heidelberg, uses different levels for interest, and the hardscape has a central sitting area created from classic red brick and Australian bluestone. Its gorgeous plant selection includes well-loved classics such as Gardenia ‘Aimee Yoshiba', windflowers (Anemone japonica), Arthropodium cirratum ‘Matapouri Bay' and clipped Rhaphiolepis indica. However, it was the abundance of delicate white flowers on Hydrangea paniculata ‘Sundae Fraise' that had visitors ‘oohing and ahhing'. The green and white juvenile flower racemes will develop pink autumn tones. Designer Carolyn Blackman says the garden was designed to display real planting combinations alongside normal and popular plant species. "We wanted the garden to show that the plants should, and can, provide structure and form in the garden, as well as decoration." eccentric sheds
1. Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica) 2. Iris japonica variegata
Why have a garden shed when you can 3. Rhaphiolepis ‘Snow Maiden' 4. Euphorbia ‘Silver Swan' 5. Arthropodium
have a real treehouse! This whimsical cirratum ‘Matapouri Bay' 6. Bay tree (Laurus noblis ‘Miles Choice')
greenhouse (above) is stuffed so full 7. Magnolia grandiflora ‘Teddy Bear' 8. Heuchera ‘Fire Alarm'
of shade-loving indoor plants that they appear to be escaping through the window! Who says a garden has to be serious? This Dali-esque building (below) is turning the world on its side. It comes ‘The Golden Afternoon' complete with an overgrown bicycle – Achievable Gardens (3rd)
perfect as an unusual garden sculpture.
MUTED TONES
green & clean
burgundy foliage is Fescue lawn left lush and long, and textural plantings of dwarf splashes of fresh conifers provide softness to a white coneflower green and white design with (Echinacea purpurea a Nordic ambience. The pergola ‘Alba'). This colour is lined with ash timber and the scheme was one of the most popular oversized concrete landings colour palettes at provide balance. Designer Peta the show. In this Donaldson selected all the plants garden, designed by specifically for their foliage. Jaz Rhodes, it is Featured foliage plants included Pinus thunbergii ‘Yatsabusa' variety of textures, and P. strobus ‘Merrimack'.
including a carpet 1. Green diosma (Coleonema
of Ajuga ‘Caitlin's compactum) 2. Juniperus
Giant', kidney weed ‘A Garden Called Frank' conferta 3. Red maple
(Dicondra repens) and Gold Show Garden
the green-grey foliage (Acer Autumn Blaze) of woolly bush.
46 June 2016 GARDENING AUSTRALIA
GARDENING AUSTRALIA June 2016 47
‘ Breakfast in Bed' Momentum
Energy Sustainability Award
TOUCH OF WHIMSY
This cottage-style " Mostly native plants team with courtyard designed by Claudine Reynolds takes recycling and a combination circular metal outdoor dining to a new level, using an water feature and firepit" old chest of drawers as a vegetable bed and an apple tree espaliered on a white bedstead. Cafe-style white great outdoors
furniture stands out Designer Lincoln Flynn shows how to create an upmarket bush campsite against the grey walls in your own backyard, teaming mostly native plants with a combination and feathery clumps circular metal water feature and firepit. A metal cut-out fence screen has of lawn chamomile pots of cascading Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls', and a curved gabion (Chamaemelum nobile). Vegies include Black wall seating area with a table provides the perfect place to relax.
Toscana kale, Detroit 1. Eucalyptus cladocalyx ‘Vintage Red'
‘Refuge' Achievable Gardens (1st)
beetroot, dwarf purple 2. Banksia spinulosa ‘Birthday Candles'
beans, rainbow chard. POT OF GOLD
‘ Do the NT' Gold Show Garden
stream of echeveria succulents spilling from a terracotta pot, offset by the coppery-pink flower heads of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy' – one of the ‘it' plants at ‘Right of Way' the show. A stand of Silver Show Garden
Dianella tasmanica natural habitat
‘Blaze' adds a touch Created by Candeo Design to represent the of strappy foliage.
clever contrasts
diversity of flora in the Northern Territory, This display shows how a laneway can be this garden uses Australian plants in a transformed into a place of beauty using naturalistic way. Plants left unclipped so they a selection of tough grasses and pretty look wispy and delicate surround a billabong cottage-garden perennials. The designer, with bronze brolga sculptures and native Daniel Tyrell, has created a traditional waterlilies. The grey and green foliage bluestone cobbled path to contrast with combination creates a patchwork tapestry a modern fence, spray-painted with effect, combining Westringia ‘Wynyabbie colourful graffiti by Conrad Bizjak. Gem', grey cotton head (Conostylis In the natural-looking garden, a froth of candicans) and flannel flowers (Actinotus helianthi) to complement the bright green grass seeds on Miscanthus oligostachyus of Crowe 1
‘Eileen Quinn' and Panicum virgatum a saligna ‘Starlet', Lomandra ‘Rubrum' dance through edibles such ‘Lime Tuff', red kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos as parsley, bronze fennel and caraway. ‘Rampage') and the white pom-pom flowers Drought-tolerant beauties Agastache of mulla mulla (Ptilotus nobilis).
aurantiaca ‘Sweet Lili' and A. rugosa 1. Yellow kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos
‘Heronswood Mist' team with plants ‘Bush Matilda') 2. Westringia ‘Wynyabbie
commonly found on degraded laneways, Gem' 3. Queensland bottle tree
including common tansy (Tanacetum (Brachychiton rupestris) 4. Cycas seemannii
‘Revelling in Levels' vulgare) and verbena.
48 June 2016 GARDENING AUSTRALIA
GARDENING AUSTRALIA June 2016 49

Source: http://www.derynthorpe.com.au/media/GAR0616p040-045%20MIFGS.pdf