Gardening Magazines

Just at the moment we are experiencing cyclic spells of heat wave, followed by days where the maximum is in the high 20s C (low 80s F). We are also in drought, so it takes 3 h every second morning to hand water the garden. The hot days are a good time to catch up on garden reading - magazines, books and plant catalogues. I regularly read several magzines that have good coverage of gardening - ideas, information and inspiration - not always climatically relevant, but great for gardens of the mind. Here are some of my impressions:

BBC Gardens Illustrated (UK) - I am a subscriber, and have read every issue.Great inspirational pictures of plants and gardens, UK, Europe, occasionally other places, interesting plant and people profiles, garden design ideas, company features and people.

The English Garden (UK) - I have bought this on order from the local newsagent since the first issue. Enjoyable features and great pictures of gardens in UK - usually fitting the season of the issue, sensible articles by authorative writers, good plant profiles.

The Garden (UK)- Magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) - received by mail as an RHS member. Crosses over into policy and science issues as well as covering gardens, plants, people and news of the Society and their famous events. Visiting the Chelsea Flower Show can be a life-changing pilgramage for the keen gardener! Finding the magazine site on the RHS website is not easy! The imitable Hugh Johnson was a columnist (as Tradescant's Diary) for many years. According to Trad's Diary (by Hugh), the column was 'in The Garden from 1975-2006, in Gardens Illustrated in 2007, and in 2008 took to the ether with new material monthly or more often. Extracts are now published regularly in the quarterly Hortus magazine, starting with the summer issue of 2008'.  On their website, I recently enjoyed watching a podcast - conversation between Roy Lancaster and Beth Chatto which included Beth's memories of Christopher Lloyd.

Hortus (UK) - I occasionally buy collections of back issues and read the current issue highlights on the magazine's website - These are budget ways to acess the timeless articles written by the 'creme de la creme' of garden writers.

Gardening Australia - Many articles align with contemporary topics and stories covered by the ABC's "Gardening Australia' TV program, now hosted by exotic plant authority, Stephen Ryan. I tend to browse and buy occasionally when there is a topic that interests, or I need to access the latest in advertisements for seasonal buying of plants and bulbs. Useful video links on the website such as one on rose pruning. Useful range of fact sheets on the website.

Burke's Backyard (Australia) - Covers gardening and plant topics and other issues and ideas relevant to the back-yard - pets, BBQs, handy-man projects. I am sometimes tempted to buy by copies for plant focussed articles or special topics (how to pave  or build a stone wall). The  famous Fact Sheets - which started when Burkes Backyard was also a TV program - are a great resource. I used to like to count the number of pictures of Don Burke in each issue!

Your Garden (Australia) - As the website says: It "stands for quality, reliability, adaptability, excellence and resilience". How else could a gardening magazine maintain its position in a fiercely competitive market for nearly 60 years!" The doyen of Australian Gardening magazines - my first introduction to the world of possibilities in the garden when I was just a kid - my first purchases were 3 bonsai plants and 3 bonsai pots for $1.50 for 3 plants and the same for 3 pits! Once people would buy the magazine just for the advertisements - the lists of rare and unusual plant nurseries and garden-supply companies - but specialist articles and regional columns are also a feature. Maybe I'm biased because I wrote the 'Gardening in the subtropics' column for 7 years (1988-1995), but it is still my favorite Aussie gardening magazine. Sadly now only produced quarterly, and the direct access website seems to have been disabled.

Horticulture Magazine (USA) My first introduction came from back issues bought at a book fair - this magazine is memorable for its fine writing - good coverage of specialist topics and plants, regional columns that are a good read even when you live in a completely different climate and the advertisements - enticing insights into possibilities that may be beyond the boundaries of climate and quarantine! Back issues are available on CD ROM!

Fine Gardening (Taunton USA). I was a subscriber for many years - hearing about its launch through it's sibling magazine 'Fine Wood Working'. Both are based on a reader-written philisophy, and FG can have good coverage of particular plant groups, but with a emphasis on temperate climates. I no-longer subscribe - the rise of some of the British magazines tempted me away

Country Living (UK) - I have bought this on order from the local newsagrent since about 1993 - Still have most back issues - except for one month when a new staff member put aside the USA version instead of the UK edition! More a lifestyle magazine than strictly gardening, but the profiles of country living and lives, the features on country houses, gardens and occasionally, plants, the regular columnists and profiles on things to buy and the Editorials by Susy Smith are all an inspiration, even 'down-under', and can be re-read again and again.

Country Life - A periodical that focuses on upper-class life in the countryside, and features stories (and for-sale advertisements) on homes ranging from the very grand to the quirky and quaint. This magazine is often available in local lending libraries in Australia - it merits attention because it formerly published a gardening column by the late Christopher Lloyd, and in a much earlier time, Vita Sackville West. I used to like to read Lloyd's column. The gardening section is still worth a read. Also, the cartoon is  often a laugh.

Hydrangeas

Gardening in A Warm Climate - Articles from Brisbane in 1994 - originally published in Your Garden magazine.

Gardening in the Subtropics : January 1994 with update - Turn over some new leaves...

Hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) have a familarity that can lead to neglect when it comes to choosing garden plants. It's the associations with neat, trim stucco houses of the 50's, one hydrangea either side of the entrance: the antithesis of modernity. Not so! These old-timers have a place in the 90's garden too, be it cottage or Glenn Murcott Australian. In semi-shade, they produce fine serrate glossy leaves and plate-sized posies of pink, blue or white flowers in late spring and summer. A no-nonsense, weed-smothering, easy-care neatness that lasts the weeks of heat and summer outings when gardening-time is scarce. The flowers fade and blotch in russet autumn tones, and the leaves drop off in winter, leaving a skeleton tipped with firm, fat buds and the promise of another spring. Plant them in rows beside a wall, around deciduous trees or along a drive. They'll grow to 150 cm high and wide. Tubs in-flower on paved or gravelled areas, or at the entrance, also look great and, at the local drive-in nursery have that strong `buy-me' allure for customers after `instant-garden' effects. Plant in well drained soil. Good nourishment helps. Prune them lightly in winter, the flowers form on last year's dormant buds. Plunge the cuttings into pots or in garden beds where new plants are required, and water regularly. You'll have a brace of new plants in Spring. Pink/blue colour forms are influenced by soil acidity, pink in acid, blue in alkaline soil. Addition of copper sulphate can intensify the blue colour. White forms are soil pH neutral. Variegated forms have extra charm, but are slower growing and should be in bright shade. Several other species of hydrangeas, including climbers, are available from specialist nurseries. They may be more sensitive to the summer heat, but are worth a try in cooler spots.

Here in Canberra, I lost quite a few Hydrangea varieties during the drought years 2005-2008 so I now grow them in pots in a shady spot.

Summer 2010

Growing from Seed. In early summer, I planted a range of seed from Nindethana, a Western Australian company that specialises in Aussie plants. I had ordered seed earlier in the year, and waited until it was warm enough before planting. Growing from seed is a way of getting uncommon plants cheaply, and of trying things that 'stretch the climate boundaries'. This season, I have planted a range of herbaceous plants, as well as shrubs and trees, and so far only a few have emerged - Abutilon geranoides, Alyogyne hueglii, Brachychiton gregorii (The Desert Kurrajong), Bracychiton megaphylla (Big Leaved Kurrajong), Eryngium pinnatifidum, Erythrina vespertilo (Bat's Wing Coral Tree) have emerged. I have not had success yet with two other species of Brachychiton (diversifolius and discolor), a Baobab, and the native crepe mytrle (Lagerstroemia archeriana var. divaricatiflora) as well as other plants.

Batswing Coral Tree. The batswing coral tree seedlings (right) shot out of the ground and are already about 20 cm high. It occurs naturally in Northern Australia and is probably frost tender. There were some planted at the Australia National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) during summer 2008, and they seem to have survived and thrived when I saw them this week. In Europe they grow the Erythrina crista-galli  (pictured above) in the perennial garden bed (It's considered a noxious weed in Northern NSW), cutting it back to ground level over winter. This may be a way of growing E. vespertilo here in Canberra.

Brachychitons. The kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus) grows well in Canberra. it seems to take the cold weather OK.

I have grown Bottle trees (B. rupestre) in pots over two seasons - I keep them in a frost free spot over the winter, with part shade during the day in summer. (The picture (left) shows a Bottle tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney) .

So far my pot-grown specimens are doing fine - one is about 2 m high. I plan to transplant them into the garden. As the Bottle tree grows naturally in western Queensland in areas that get frosts and it drought tolerent, it may be OK here in more sheltered spots.

I am also trying two hybrids - obtained as grafted plants from Yamina Rare Plants in Victoria - Brachychiton ' Clarabelle', a cross between B. discolor and and B. populneus, and B. X 'Bella Donna' a cross between B.acerifolius and B. populneus. The former may be the more cold tolerant as it has Kurrajong parentage.

The Illawarra Flame Tree (B. acerifolius) is growing in the rainforest area of the National Botanic Garden, and there is also one in a home garden in Aranda, under the protection of a big gum. The Flame tree is native to the coastal areas of NSW and Queensland in rainforest - It flowers in Spring after dropping its leaves - I have not seen the trees in the ANBG in flower.