New Year, New Dahlia Bed
New Dahlia Bed
When I began this newsletter Christmas was just around the corner. Sitting with my laptop and a cup of tea on the verandah where honeysuckle scented the air and little honeyeaters whizzed back and forth from their nest tucked into the tangled branches of the glory vine I was planning for the summer ahead. It had been a busy couple of weeks at The Oaks with Melvin my husband busily tackling the overgrown paddocks and fallen trees; I’d been planting out my new dahlia bed, fenced (at great expense to the management) against marauding rabbits who just adore young dahlia plants. Kurt Wilkinson, garden designer and ace hedge man, had been by to trim my lumpy old cypress hedges. Those who attended our spring workshops will have noticed they were in dire need of a haircut. Kurt has been slowly restoring them to good health these past five years and has fallen in thrall to their charms claiming the charismatic front hedge to be his favourite anywhere. For some reason they remind me of old gentlemen, something to do with their bulging girths and bald patches.
Creating Dried Flower Installation
Meantime, in November we wrapped our workshops at The Oaks and they were tremendously successful. The Dutch Masters creations were astonishingly beautiful (a huge thank you to Emma Vize for photographing them so lyrically in the ramshackle surrounds of the old dairy). We also ventured into the exciting realm of dried flowers and had enormous fun creating ceiling installations and vase arrangements. The variety of dried flowers and foliage is almost limitless opening up countless opportunities for budding florists. I am busily collecting and drying all sorts of things for our classes next year. Including the bewitching dusky pink flowers of the Madeira Giant Black Parsley (Melanoselinum decipiens), an unusual plant that flowers only every five to ten years before dying. Fortunately, it’s a good self-seeder so always pops up somewhere else in my garden. The plant has a lovely architecture, almost like a palm tree and makes a wonderful addition to the garden even when not in flower.
A lovely Lilium. A gift from Rebecca and summer highlight at The Oaks
Rebecca and I have been planning our schedule of Hills workshops for 2022 and include for the first time the chance to learn how to stage your garden, home and dining table with striking botanical vignettes using vintage pots and accessories and fresh and dried flowers. It should be enormous fun. I tend to spend a lot of time faffing about planting up old tat (as my husband calls it). Bulbs, cactus, and succulents are tucked into all sorts of vintage containers, old cattle troughs, milk pails and depression era cement pots. I shift and change things about all the time, staging little moments or vignettes against the old sheds and fences dotted around the property. Any excuse to avoid the weeding! These vessels can be brought inside or adapted to create a wonderful ‘tablescape’ for a late summer luncheon party. It gives me enormous pleasure and Rebecca and I are looking forward to sharing ideas and resources with you this Autumn.