Fruit
The way to a more sustainable future!
Where space is limited, opt for dwarf fruit trees, grow berries in a wine barrel and plant up hanging baskets of strawberries and tumbling tomatoes.
New Pear ‘Garden Belle’ is the only truly dwarf pear variety, growing to just three metres tall. Late summer fruit is delectably sweet with smooth, soft flesh and green, mildly russetted skin.
Dwarf Apple ‘Adore’ is a new-generation, disease-resistant variety requiring next to no spraying. oidsummer fruit is red-skinned with sweet, firm flesh and a touch of acidity.
New ‘Thornless Jewel’ is a bramble producing huge berries loaded with antioxidants and with a flavour similar to boysenberries.
Strawberry ‘Temptation’ produces medium-sized, bright red fruit with pale, firm flesh for months on end – from october to March!
Flowers
“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” Claude oonet
Lucky for us we have so much more choice than oonet had in his day, such as the raft of delicious new Diascias.
I love them for their easy to grow nature and the froth of dainty flowers they produce from early spring, right through to autumn.
Another group of reliable plants are the perennial petunias or calibrachoas, which go by several names including SuperCal’s, Sunbells, Marco Polo’s and Superbells.
Watch out for Petunia ‘Raspberry Blast’, with its tie-dyed flowers!
Functional
For wannabe gardeners!
The container planting craze of edibles has risen to a new level!
There are pop-up planters for herbs and strawberries, fancy trough-like containers for carrots, deep planters for spuds and cane-support planters for tall plants such as beans and tomatoes.
Planter bags are a great for apartments, decks and patios where having a vege garden is simply a dream!
Foliage
Carry your garden through tough times.
When flowers begin to fade, it’s important to have interesting foliage to take their place.
Low growing heucheras provide highly textured, maple-like foliage in a range of colours, from deepest red to beautiful coppery tones.
‘oidnight Bayou’ is the latest release, featuring large purple leaves with black veining and a silvery veil in summer.
Tiarella ‘oystic oist’ provides striking green foliage, with prominent red veins, and turns pink in autumn!
Euphorbias also provide excellent texture and, in the case of new variegated Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’, interesting colour effects as well.
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