Growing Gardens

with Anita Morton

Dark stars

White agapanthus.

As the evenings draw out and the warm weather really gets going, many of us look forward to spending more time outdoors at night. Perhaps the party season has something to do with it as well! Thoughtful planting will enhance your enjoyment of al fresco evenings.

At dusk and in the moonlight, white-flowering plants really come into their own. The purest white blooms have an amazing luminous quality in low-light conditions - try hydrangeas and impatiens in areas with daytime shade, and plants like agapanthus, petunias, daisies and cleomes in sunny areas.

For white flowers and scent plant gardenias - they will spot-flower for months. Nicotiana, or flowering tobacco, is a gorgeous and very tough annual which will flower throughout the warm season and self-seed prolifically. Nicotiana perfume is at its best in the evenings. One shrub that it might be better to avoid is Cestrum nocturnum, the night-scented jessamine. In my experience, this plant has significant weed potential, so despite the incredibly rich perfume of its flowers it should only be grown where control is possible. This means pruning after every flowering to prevent the formation of fruits. Birds love them and will spread the seed all over the place.

If your desire is for a climber, try Trachelospermum jasminoides, the star jasmine. Its flowers are pure white, and the perfume is less overpowering than the true jasmine. Another night delight is the moonflower Calonyction aculeatum, which blooms, as the name suggests, at night. It has huge, scented white flowers rather like the morning glory, to which it is related. And last, but not least, Selenicerius pteracanthus. This is a type of climbing succulent with large, scented flowers that open only at night. It's commonly called the queen of the night, and this is a plant that truly lives up to its name.

Lismore Garden
Club News

Three cheers for a shrub that flowers in summer shade and will give lots of colour to the garden over the Christmas holiday period: the wonderful hydrangea. Grow it in acid soil and it will be shades of blue, while in alkaline soil it will be pink. White hydrangeas stay white no matter what the pH of the soil may be. If you have trouble keeping your hydrangeas the colour you want, grow them in tubs - it's easier to control the pH. Hydrangea bluing compound will make the colours bluer, while a handful of lime will produce pinks.

Right now your hydrangeas are coming into bloom and need extra (even daily) watering, especially if they are exposed to too much sun. If you keep them watered you will have hydrangeas blooming for several months, at least into February and even into autumn (when, if they are in cool positions, they will turn marvellous green, purple and red 'autumn' colours). There are lots of potted hydrangeas now from nurseries.

After your hydrangeas grow into mature plants they can be watered through their thirsty summer period with recycled water from the laundry and bathroom. If you wish to multiply your hydrangeas, they will strike easily from cuttings taken at pruning time in autumn.

The next meeting of the club will be in February. Details TBA.

Finally: "Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law and must be plucked where it is found." - DH Lawrence.

Happy Gardening

Ron Burns