Musings

The Age

Saturday February 2, 2008

Lyn McGrath

AS A COMPULSIVE GARDENER, when I visit our tropical north I admire the lush growth promoted by the warm temperatures and generous rainfall. So many palms, frangipani, bougainvillea, hibiscus and various ornamental gingers grow prolifically alongside landscaped ponds where waterfalls splash onto families of goldfish, and I am filled with envy as I think of my struggling, dry Melbourne garden.

However, after numerous visits to family in Queensland over several years it has gradually become apparent that tropical gardens look the same each time. There is something appealing about my Melbourne garden that is missing from the north: seasonal change.

In summer it is time for roses, and how we love them, enjoying their showiness and the pleasure of cutting long-stemmed buds to bring inside for display and fragrance. Other summer-flowering plants that give me satisfaction are old-fashioned favourites such as hydrangeas, gladioli, cannas and even plumbagos, which provide a lovely blue backdrop for annuals such as petunias or impatiens.

On hot, dry days agapanthus continue to colour many suburban courtyards and country driveways with their heads of blue or white and as a bonus hardly need any water. (Remember to deadhead them after flowering so the seeds don't spread.)

In autumn we have the glorious displays of red, yellow and tawny brown leaves of liquidambars, golden elms, maples, viburnums and ornamental vines. Tourists flock to Bright as well as the Dandenongs to photograph the gorgeous leaves. Autumn colour transforms municipal parks and botanical gardens, or any sizeable area where large deciduous trees grow. The popular Japanese maple is chosen for smaller areas and in private gardens, often placed to be admired from a window.

When winter arrives, trees such as silver birches show bare trunks to advantage after their leaves have fallen. Roses take a rest but azaleas, daphnes and early camellias bloom and brighten spirits on bleak winter days.

Then spring transforms gardens with the blossoms of prunus, flowering cherries, magnolias, rhododendrons, dogwoods, crab-apples and masses of bulbs - daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, freesias, snowdrops and all their cousins. The fresh green of tiny new leaves appearing on deciduous trees alters the whole landscape.

Melbourne gardeners are certainly having their battles with water restrictions but we are rewarded by the diversity of our seasons. How a southerner who has moved to the tropics must yearn for the stark silhouettes of deciduous trees against a pewter sky in midwinter, the annual spring pleasure of magnolias, rhododendrons and masses of daffodils, or an archway laden with heavily scented roses in full bloom. How they must miss the amazing colour change and the scrunch underfoot of crisp, fallen leaves in autumn. I would. -- LYN MCGRATH

© 2008 The Age

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