I found myself in Armenia and Iran because of a book - a large, and visually beautiful book titled Flora of the Silk Road.   Jointly written with  photographs by botanists, Christopher and Basak Gardner, it is a fascinating pictorial story with stunning photographs of the landscapes and the plants and flowers growing in their natural habitats throughout the countries  which make up the fabled Silk Road. 
Chris and Basak also organise botanical trips through their company,  'Vira Natura' and a trip to Armenia and Iran was coming up soon.  Unable to resist botanical journeys to exotic and far flung places, I knew this would be an opportunity not to be missed, especially after reading about the rich botanical habitats, history and cultures of these countries.  My friends, Penny and Jane thought so too, so we all went to discover "Armenia and Iran - Irises and Ancient Art".   
Armenia is renowned as one of the worlds botanical hotspots, and when we arrived from an early New Zealand winter, it was late spring there - perfect for Irises, Fritillarias and all manner of late spring flowers growing in the wild.  ​

  
Situated at the southern end of the Caucasus, on a high mountain plateau, this tiny country is overflowing with the grandeur of stunning and diverse mountain landscapes. 
New Zealand is not the only beautiful country in the world!   
In Armenia we encounter  majestic  craggy mountain ranges, and deep wide river valleys all within a country only two thirds the size of Canterbury.  Though there are no coastal lowlands or evergreen flora, as in New Zealand, there is a great diversity of plant habitat.  Sandwiched between Georgia to the north, and Azerbaijan to the east with the giants Turkey to the west and Iran to the south, Armenia straddles Asian and European plant habitats and this along with the influences of a temperate climate to the north and a  Mediterranean climate to the south means it is caught in a rich botanical cross current, unlike New Zealand's farflung islands isolated in the south pacific ocean. ​

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But this was not all.   There were different forms of Corydalis, Anenome, Lathyrus,  Allium, Primula and much more.  And there seemed to be sheets of yellow Primula almost every day.  And one day up a rocky cliff we were amazed to see a swathe of Dictamnus albus, a treasured garden plant if you can get it to grow.  So to see it growing in such a lush and fulsome way in the wild is a rare treat indeed and so worth the scramble up a rocky bank to find and photograph it.  Another day, I was delighted to see Eremurus - only once, and just the pale yellow form, but still exciting to see growing in the wild.

There is so much more to be said about Armenia - the mysterious standing stones, the celtic patterns carved into the stone and the age old wooden doors looking as authentic today as they did centuries ago.  The natural forests of the south, the apricot orchards, and many more plant and flower species growing in the wild, including tulips - oh the tulips!    There will be more, so watch this space. 
​Such is Armenia today, a small jewel of a land between east and west, north and south full of the wonders of nature and botanical beauty.

For several years, I had been reading  Noel's regular articles in the english 'Gardens Illustrated' magazine, and always liked what he had to say.  So when I read that he was to lead a tour to the Gardens of the Northern Dutch Provinces in July 2013, including a workshop with Piet Oudolf in Piet's own garden at Hummelo, I knew this was something I shouldn't miss.   Especially as I was sorely in need of inspiration, following damage to my garden after a series of earthquakes.  When I shared this information with my garden friend, Penny Zino, she was a definite starter, as she too, had been thinking about making some changes to her large country garden.   So together we enrolled for the tour and it exceeded all expectations for both of us.
We saw for real, the perennial and grass meadows we had previously only read about and were inspired. 

It wasn't only the gardens, it was the people we met as well, the clever and eccentric  gardeners of Northern Holland including the modest and  unassuming Piet Oudolf.  We felt English gardens had some catching up to do!  
It was Noel and his wife Jo travelling each day with us, who we really became acquainted with.  Despite our invitations for Noel and Jo to come and visit us in New Zealand, he was rather half-hearted, although there was a definite spark in Jo's eye.  
Noel felt New Zealand was too far away, and wasn't the native flora -well - boring, with little floral content and virtually no perennial colour?   All true we had to admit, but there are lots of other advantages we insisted - like the primeval quality of our native vegetation, and spectacular landscape.   Was there a spark of warmth developing in Noels eye after all?    
​There must have been, because four years later here they are!  For a whole month on their way to the Melbourne Conference, and Noel, in spite of past doubts, does seem interested in discovering native plant communities in New Zealand, despite the lack of native perennials.   

 And in this image above, Noel and Jo are doing just that.   Even though spaced out by jet-lag, they were keen to discover New Zealands unique vegetation, so we headed to the nearby Christchurch Botanic Gardens, just for a taste of native.  Even though this photo was not taken in original native forest but at the Botanic Gardens  at one of the entrances to the Cockayne Memorial Native Plant Collection, this garden does give a feel of native plant communities growing in the wild.  

But they were to discover brighter and better as they headed off for the weekend discovering gardens and native plant communities on idyllic Banks Peninsula, before tootling south in their 'Jucy' campervan.   
Just as they begin their adventures, cyclone Gita which has been trawling around the South Pacific creating mayhem in it's wake, is about to hit central New Zealand.  They will need to avoid central and western areas for a few days. to escape the worst of the cyclone, but I hope that eventually they will be able to head to the wild West Coast where hundreds of miles of some of the best of New Zealand native forests and plant communities can be found growing in the wild.   We wish them well.

It is now summer - January 2018 - and Lily's are flowering and flourishing in the garden like never before!
The tulips have long had their day  along with other spring flowers, as well as early summer flowers and also the roses which are well over.   My mini prairie garden is coming into it's own as summer perennials start to flower, rising up between the grasses.  But dominant amongst these are the lily's, particularly the lily  pictured above.  I have no idea what it is called or what area of the lily family it comes from.  All I know is that it is very tall and impressive, and it's the first time it has ever flowered like this with many multiple heads on a strong single stem.     

Starting with tulips in September, then the Tree Peony in October along with Irises, Geums, Hemerocallis and Wisteria reaching into November spring changes into early summer and roses.  Need I say more!

                                                                                                                                               
My last post was about planting bulbs - I think mainly tulip bulbs.  Can I just say that those bulbs have long since flowered!!    Amazingly, as for so long nothing happened, and even when a few green tips start to appear through the ground they seem so small and few - where are those 50 bulbs I planted?   I despair thinking nothing will ever happen.  But gradually the the green tips multiply and the foliage fills out and develops until the bare soil is almost covered with green.  Eventually stems with buds rise up through the strong rosettes of foliage and I heave a sigh of relief after all that anxiety.   Perhaps there will be tulips after all.  And there are - just exactly what I had ordered - 100 'Temples Favourite'  standing up huge, orange and blowsy on their long stems.  But now that it is November they have long since gone and much of their foliage has died away too, and is fast being covered over with iris, day-lily, geum and other perennial foliage, so that there is practically no trace left of their flamboyance.  l do try to protect and prolong their fading foliage where I can as this is what feeds the bulbs encouraging them to flower the following year. 

Meanwhile this lush Tree Peony starts to flower, so tulips are soon forgotten in the face of this fleeting beauty.  It's quality rather than quantity in it's apricot short lived beauty.  And before we know it things are happening thick and fast in the spring garden. 

Two weeks ago I walked through the very last of the golden weather early in the morning in Hagley Park. Winter sunlight was filtering through an avenue of trees casting long shadows across grass and pathways and the leaves still clinging to some trees, were lit up in a blaze of gold, while others already stripped of their leaves were skeletal against the sky.  And a golden carpet of fallen leaves, lit up my path, as more yellow leaves fluttered down around me.

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​Light is everything in a garden.  Especially in late autumn when long slanting rays of sunlight  touch the brilliance of the last of the autumn leaves. This is especially true of the ornamental grapevine, Vitis cognetaie, as it's leaves transform from lush summer green into fiery red iridescence, the most brilliant of autumn foliage.   Draped across the verandah of my cottage, catching the morning sun, the red leaves become transparent as the light reflects through the window at the end of the verandah.  The reds, oranges, pinks and burgundys of those last lingering leaves intensify as though trying to cram in every last moment of of light and life before they must drop and shrivel away.   We know that this is the last fling before the light fades, the dimmer days of winter set in, and only the bare skeleton of the vine remains.

The low slanting sunlight of late autumn is perfect for highlighting the colour of the fiery leaves of the ornamental grape - Vitis cognitiae.  Its varying tones of burgundy, scarlet, crimson and orange just sing in sunlight, draped against the blue painted house.    
This is one of gardening's happy accidents, because long ago when I found this cottage with its sunny verandah, I planted this particular flamboyant grape to sparkle up the original paint colour in the background.  And it didn't matter that the ornamental grape is non fruit bearing - colour was more important than food!  
Nondescript, would describe perfectly the colour of the cottage as it was then - boring stone-beige, hardly deserving of this brilliant vine.   It wasn't until the autumn after  I finally decided to branch out and paint the cottage blue, that I discovered the happy accident.  I was more concerned that the blue of the cottage should match the grey-blue colour of the roof, rather than foliage of the humble vine.   But as the grape foliage changed from summer green to fiery crimson against the blue house, and the colours began to bounce and sing to each other that autumn, I knew this was a flash of accidental inspiration.  Fleeting though it is, because later in May, just when leaves reach their most fiery iridescence, they will start to drop, until we are left with just one lone red leaf, clinging to the bare vine, flapping mournfully in the cold grey wind.  

nbelievably, in spite of cyclones and the coldest rainiest Autumn I ever remember, there are still some summer flowers in the garden which amazingly, have escaped the sad soggy end which has been the fate of so many.   The garden may be almost devoid of the colour of flowers, but it is the lushest and greenest I have ever seen in autumn, and so are surrounding lawns, gardens and trees.  
​It all looks so abnormally emerald, and out of character for Canterbury.  At this time of year, when the air is usually crisp and golden with blue skies, and when trees and foliage, are dry and gasping and lawns brown and dusty, everything looks unnaturally green and lush, as though dreadful irrigation pivots have been at work.
But no, it's all natural!  Or is it global warming, as there is no hint of any frosts yet?  Is Canterbury going to become green, humid, damp and lush instead of blue, gold, tussocky, dry and spiky?

 
​I purchased 2 of these dwarf Abutilon 'Lucky Lantern Orange', at the final Ellerslie Flower Show held in Christchurch in 2013 .  They have proved to be one of my best buys, as their orange bell shaped flowers are the perfect colour for my garden, and situated either side of my front gate they flower prolifically, nonstop from early summer till the frosts come. 
​This Abutilon never outgrows it's welcome, keeping its compact rounded shape all year.  The leaves may droop a bit during frosty weather, but all I do, is give them a little clip and shape in early spring and away they go again sending out new spring growth with the promise of new seasons flowers.

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Are these the blackest Dahlias you have ever seen?   It is an unnamed Dahlia which was given to me by a friend - perhaps 15 years ago?   She didn't know how it had arrived in her garden either - just that it was gorgeous.  Unthinkingly, all those years ago I planted one tuber in a wildish part of my garden, then completely forgot about it.  Utterly neglected it survived, and comes up faithfully every year, finding it's way up through Hostas, Hydrangeas and a prickly Japonica bush.   It does grow long and lanky, as it knows it needs too, to reach daylight.  
​It's not a prolific flowerer, and has the old fashioned look of one of those obscene double heavy headed Dahlias.  But it isn't!  Instead it has an enormous bud which opens into an almost single flower, it's dusky dark crimson petals opening wide to show a cluster of prominent golden stamens.   How lucky am I to get something so stunning from such unassuming origins.     
  

Autumn and 'mellow fruitfulness' at the little yellow cottage across the road 

I remember when the Quince tree across the road in the garden of the yellow cottage, started off as a smart little white Japonica Chaenomeles 'Alba' on a standard!  This was when the original owners were restoring the cottage and 'landscaping' the garden.  Subsequent owners have been much more 'relaxed' about it all and gradually the white Japonica known as an ornamental quince, reverted back to its original species - the fruiting Quince, known botanically and rather dauntingly as, Cydonia oblonga.  A large fruiting tree, it has become increasingly popular as an ornamental landscape tree in it's own right, because of it's attractive umbrella like shape, and lush green leaves, not to mention it's spectacular golden fruitful globes in Autumn, and pretty white blossoms in spring.
I think the golden globed tree, Cydonia oblonga is much more impressive in front of the yellow cottage than the clipped and primped standard Chaenomeles 'Alba' could ever have been.




While back at the blue cottage it is all 'Season of mists'

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​ 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' - that overworked quote from the Keats poem
'Ode to Autumn', but it is this single line which to me epitomises Autumn better than anything else I know.  And makes me want to read more - so more you have my friends - well the first verse anyway just to whet your appetite.   

​"SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness! 
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; 
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,         5
  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 
    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 
And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
Until they think warm days will never cease,  10
  For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells."

And this is only the first verse.    If you don't already have an anthology on your bedside table, now is the time to unearth a volume containing Keats poetry, and 'Ode to Autumn'.  Even on dreary rainy autumn days like today, this poem will bring mellow autumn sun into your life.​

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​I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the 50 Year Celebration of the Barker Family at Larnach Castle in early March, and these photos are just a few of the glorious views of this unique and amazing garden.  Sitting where it does high up on the Otago Peninsula overlooking the harbour, this garden has a micro-climate all of its own. Something which the owner of the Castle and garden, Margaret Barker, understands very well.   Somewhere between an alpine and coastal situation, this garden is often engulfed in cold swirling damp mists, rain,  wind, and even snow in winter, yet frosts are rare.   And sunshine, while not rare is far from plentiful, and not too hot, so the climate could be described as cool humid temperate.  

Margaret has learned to adapt the garden to the climate.   She has long ago given up trying to grow roses, but she makes the most of different  microclimates throughout the property where she can grow not only the lushest tree ferns, including frost tender vareties such as the huge black Mamaku 'Cyathea medullaris', which doesn't grow easily in Christchurch's spiky climate, but also Pohutukawa 'Metrosideros excelsa'.   There are several varieties of these growing on a warm north facing slope just above the warmer north coast of the Peninsula.  These include a cream flowered variety called Metrosideros bartlettii - sometimes called the White Xmas Tree.  

​In a different area of the garden with a cooler damper micro-climate on a high south-east facing slope there is an avenue of lush Mountain Cabbage Trees 'Cordyline indivisa' , which, as the name suggests, is at home in alpine situations (see image above).   ​We might be able to grow lots of pretty roses and lavender on the hot dry Canterbury plains, but not these lush mountain beauties.   I have tried in a cool damp south facing situation, but the nor'westers got them in the end.

Back at the warm north facing coastal slope, above the Pohutukawa grove, is the north facing South Seas Garden - the opposite end of the scale from the cool south facing  Cordyline indivisa avenue.   Up on this warm slope where large rocks have been thoughtfully placed to shelter and retain the suns heat, all the plants in this garden are indigenous to the southern hemisphere. Pictured here from South America to South Africa, Gazanias, Aloe polychroma, and Agaves grow happily amongst the carpeting bidibidi Acena purpurea native to New Zealand.  Not pictured is the wonderful Nikau Walk.  These are the hardiest of the Nikau Palm species and are endemic to the Chatham Islands - Rhopalostylis sapida 'Chathamica'.   They are suited to this cool coastal situation withstanding cold harsh winds and even frosts up to 3 degrees.  

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To see the Poor Knights Lily - Xeronema callistemon growing in such a southerly situation is a treat indeed.  And to see it in flower and looking so fulsome is remarkable considering it  usually only grows in frost free sunny areas in northern areas of New Zealand and off shore islands.  Yet here it is looking as happy as can be, as far south as the Otago Peninsula in the South Seas Garden at Larnach Castle.  But perhaps the free draining north facing slopes of the Otago Peninsula in a sheltered position which is frost free, is not such an impossibility.  It takes a plantswoman of Margaret Barker's calibre to understand exactly which position it would thrive in.  

There is a beautiful woodland walk which links the carpark near the entrance of Larnach Castle to the castle and surrounding gardens.   A group of elegant tiered trees with light coloured foliage entice you to the beginning of the walk.  Often called the Wedding Cake Tree - Cornus controversa 'Variegata', this particular species originates in Asia and is a taller more elegant form  than the North American Cornus. 

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 A spectacular sight especially in mid summer is the garden encircling the Ballroom outdoor dining area when the tall Thalictrum delvayai 'Hewitts Double' is flowering so elegantly.  They rise up in tall feathery mauve columns, between deciduous Azalea mollis.  As you enter the castle environs from the carpark, this garden is the one you notice.  

Accessed from the Ballroom cafe through French doors this semicircular garden is in turn bordered by an outer semi-circle - the  Heather Garden.  The azaleas are a colourful delight when flowering in spring and again in autumn when the foliage colours.  But it is the encircling Heather garden in it's low moundy humps and hollows which sets off the azaleas so successfully.  What could be a more fitting  plant choice than Heather for this part of the world which is so often swathed in scotch mist?   And in this Scottish settlement of Otago.
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The mauves and whites of the Heather are a perfect colour combination with the tall mauve Thalictrum rising in such elegant feathery columns from between the Azaleas in mid summer, especially when the Azaleas are in their rather pedestrian foliage mode.  It is the tall mauve Thalictrum surrounded by metal supports which holds these otherwise floppy perennials in such an arresting upright stance,  creating such a focal garden.