Bulb Surprise

Amarygia Bozandycol by Keith Tollis, Andy Harvey & Colin Hunt

Happy Belated New Year & it’s that time of year already Garden Lovers, when you’re likely to be crossing the March garden one morning and a sudden surprise reminds you, of those warm climate bulbs from last year’s Fair you casually poked into a vacant corner hoping for the best… are now blazing away!

Eucharis amazonica – Eucharis Lily a shade loving sparkle

And every Plant Fair there seems to be more and more on offer, expanding the exciting range you can grow in your Sydney Cool Subtropical Garden.

Scadoxus membranaceous the smaller Paint Brush Lily for bright shelter

So at this years Collectors Plant Fair Clarendon ’21, 10th & 11th April don’t forget to call by the Charles Harland, Andy’s Rare Plants or Gary Reid Obscure Bulbs stalls to ask for some of these tough beauties for your own garden.

Haemanthus coccineus – Blood Lily pink form

I’ll be talking about many of these as part of the Sydney Cool Subtropics Gardens Talk keynote, 1pm Saturday 10th April (just after Easter..). So arrive early before 9am to get your exciting plant goodies, then make your way from around 12.30pm to the Talk seating, for a much needed rest after all your hard work 😮

Amaryllis belladonna white hybrid

My Talk at Collectors Plant Fair on your cool subtropics Sydney Garden

Ruttyruspolia ‘Phyllis Van Heerden’ an intergeneric X between Ruttya & Ruspolia to enrich the mixed shrub border

For a long time I used to wonder what to say Garden Lovers ..

… when people asked “What’s the kind of garden you’re making in Sydney ?”

Warm temperate … Pacific rim ? Coastal frost free …well it was all these but I just had no collective name for it that would capture them all.

Zingiber spectacle – Beehive Ginger

Until one day colleague Catherine Stewart and I were chatting about this and I realised her suggestion of Cool Subtropics was by far, the best way to describe the Sydney growing condition. Especially within coastal suburbs like Northern Beaches, Harbourside, Eastern Suburbs and where all pix came from here at ‘Sea-Changer’ my home studio garden at Forresters Beach on the Central Coast.

Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’ another intergeneric X between Manfreda & Agave backed with Sinningia sellovii

So Garden Lovers, at 1pm on Saturday, 10th April just after Easter, at the Collectors Plant Fair ’21 Clarendon, I’m giving a talk not about some far flung ‘idealised’ climate. I’m giving a talk on how to make a better garden of exciting plants at your place … in beautiful Cool Subtropics Sydney (or anywhere that equates up & down East Coast Australia).

Solenostemon (coleus), Zinnia compact hybrid & Plectranthus sp. w/ Ruellia brevifolia – Wild Petunia

You’ll find out just what to ask the stall-holder Growers, to make sure that gorgeous plant you’ve been eying off, is right for your growing conditions AND will do the job it’s being bought for ie conceal the fence, weed suppression, make useful shade. Tired of being ‘garden shamed’ ? Dry Shade, thin top soil over bed rock, harsh unirrigated west, root ridden soil from next doors monstrous tree ..gloom ? These are all normal growing spaces and we need MORE INTERESTING plants that will do well in them to make our gardens THRILLING !!!

Brugmansia aurea, Ruellia rosae & alcantarea extensa
Euphorbia lophogona – Randramboay

So let’s celebrate the return of Collectors Plant Fair (map how to get there .. ) AND our mostly frost free gardens, where the warm humid breath of Queensland visits us every summer. Mark your planners now, buy your tix to avoid the cue and I’ll show you what happens with gardens full of these plants and how you can borrow from them to make the best garden you’ve ever had with plants that are best fit to the conditions you already have … at YOUR Garden 🙂

The last frontier, ‘Sea-Changer’ my home studio garden eastern end … watch this space Peeps !

Garden Lovers slight glitch on sending you a Zoom link that would work ..

…quick reminder that the Tropical Garden Soc of Sydney Zoom meeting TONIGHT commences at 7:30pm, and the quick way to join the meeting is to click on the link that time – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86278754698?pwd=UExrQlFoWDEzMktVUVE5eXFMRlpXUT09

or open your Zoom application and enter

Meeting ID: 862 7875 4698
Passcode: 802678

I’m guesting as speaker tonight talking about “Cool Subtropics Sydney Gardens”.

Hope you’ll be able to join us !!!

Best wishes, Peter Nixon

Cool Sub-trops Sydney Gardens Talk tomorrow (Tues) night on Zoom..!

Aloe ‘Fairy Pink’ a frothy April player for any sunny cool subtrop’s garden

Join me tomorrow night, Tuesday 27th October from 7.30pm when I’ll be narrating the Cool Subtropics story, for garden making in frost free Sydney for Tropical Garden Society of Sydney .

Click here https://www.facebook.com/events/3356306861103388/ from 7.30pm, then click on blue field saying ‘Join Meeting’ from my FB page … soooo easy !

Looking forward to ‘seeing’ you then and don’t forget, we can use the Chat option to answer your burning questions. Put it in your planner now Peeps!!!

‘Sea-Changer’ Shade Hut refuge from a hot day ..

Give Netflix a rest tomorrow night and learn something new to make your garden even better 🙂