Final Post of 2015

Champagne is cooling down, clocks are counting last hours of the year, so I'll be very brief and,
looking back at 2015,  mention only three things related to my blog and garden:

1 - On the blog, I finally arranged the majority of my posts about visiting beautiful gardens of the world in one, long overdue  Page: "Gardens of the World".
Now, I and interested readers don't need to sort through the blog's archive to find a certain garden.
I do actually reread those posts and relook the photographs.
I'm glad I took a lot of pictures to capture the plants and the bones of the gardens.
Very often, I see details in the pictures which were not noticed during the walk through those big outstanding gardens.
Among my favorite gardens to revisit are: Sissinghurst Gardens,  Lawrence Johnston's Serre de la Madone,  Villa Cipressi Garden on Lake Como, Arundel Castle Gardens, Hidcote Manor Garden and many others.

View toward the Terrace (Cutting) Garden
Picture taken on December 29, 2015

2 - Another thing to remember in 2015 was a feature about our garden in Garden Design Magazine.
Thank you all who left nice comments about it on my Facebook page!

Picture taken on December 29, 2015

3 - It'd be too time consuming to describe the garden throughout the year. That is why I'll tell about only one event that was absolutely unexpected, joyful, and also gave me a good lesson.
In spring 2014, I found out that my only Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue'  (Honey Bush) didn't survive the wet and relatively cold winter of 2013-2014.
Attention! Not the last winter of 2014-2015, but the previous winter! I even put a note in my Plant List: "Died -  winter 2013-2014".
It's a border plant in our zone.  In one of the posts devoted to Melianthus (Melianthus Major in My Garden), I mentioned that my plant never bloomed but nevertheless, was loved for its architectural look and its beautiful big bold leaves.
With border plants, it's nice to have  them even for a few years, but anyway, it was sad to lose it.
Somehow, I didn't dig out the dead plant. Euphorbia and hardy Fuchsia grow close to it and camouflaged the black 'stump' of the Melianthus.
By the end of summer 2015, in August, I was doing some garden cleaning, and I got a surprise that almost caused me to shed a tear.
I noticed a fresh green growth around the 'dead' Melianthus base.
Very fresh, very green and very alive (see the picture below)!
After looking dead all year 2014, going through another wet winter of 2014-2015, spring and summer of 2015, it started to grow from its root!!!

Picture taken on August  30, 2015

Thank you, Melianthus for not giving up, and thank you Tatyana for not digging it out and disposing of its roots and dry black base!
I gave the plant an extra layer of compost in late fall and hope it'll reclaim its space in the front plant bed.
Long live Melianthus!
The lesson I learned: Give a plant a second chance and don't rush into saying Good Bye to it. Patience, patience, patience!

Returning to the blog, it was interesting to see that the most commented posts of 2015 were:
My Shade Garden Tragedy and Revival  and
2014 Garden Memories and 'Picture This' Contest Update.
One post is about an unfortunate and sad event in my garden, while another is about a happy uplifting event with regard to one of my garden's photographs-winner of the contest.
For me, it's a reflection of the nature of our blogging community. Gardeners are very generous, compassionate people. They support and cheer you up when you are grieving and congratulate and share your joy when you are happy.
On this optimistic note, I finish this post.
I thank all of you together and each of you individually for your support, encouragement and friendship through the year!
Have a wonderful, peaceful 2016!
All the Best to you, your families and your beautiful gardens!


***Copyright 2015 TatyanaS

Melianthus major in My Garden

          It was love at first sight. I saw it in  Grace's blog several years ago and

bought Melianthus major (Antonow's Blue Honey Bush) at the NWFG show in 2011.



Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue': Powder-blue, highly textural evergreen foliage grows along stems to 8 feet tall. In late spring, spikes of deep burgundy, nectar-rich flowers will attract numerous bird species to the garden. USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 7-12. Average minimum temperature of 0 to 10 degrees F. Needs regular watering -weekly, or more often in extreme heat. Partial to full sun. (Description by Monrovia)

           I found the best place for it in my garden. It grows close to the house wall, is protected from wind and has several hours of morning sun. The spot has good drainage, and I improve the soil every year by adding compost.

In July of that first year, it looked good surrounded by other shrubs and perennials:

This is how much it grew by August 2011:

          Since then, my Melianthus has performed very well except for one thing. It hasn't bloomed for me yet. This is not unusual for the Northwest, and I am totally happy with just its foliage. That is why I bought it in the first place.



          Big bold leaves add a tropical touch and are beautiful in my garden year around.

These are some other pictures of Melianthus major in my garden.

December 2012:

November 2012:

October 2012, the tallest plant in front of the window:

Again with the beautiful pink-flowered fuchsia in September 2012. I wrote about their romance here Fuchsia in September :

In the next picture, in June 2012, it's visible behind the Acantus mollis. Melianthus is not as tall in June as later in the year and doesn't compete with Acanthus for attention.

Both of these plants have big textured leaves, and I probably would plant them further from each other if I had available space in this front flowerbed.

Back in May 2012 it's hardly visible. I marked it with an * in the lower left part of the next picture.

The wire support is put around it to keep it growing straight since it tends to bend forward toward the sun:

In March 2012 it didn't look pretty, but you can see that, together with wilty brown leaves, it still had nice green foliage after the winter. A single thin metal stake wasn't able to hold it straight. That is why I replaced it with a wire cage.

Yesterday, March 1st 2013, it looked like this:

Leggy stems, 5 feet tall, are topped with pretty leaves.

Nevertheless, an early spring is the time to cut it down, and I usually cut it all the way down.

The most pitiful my Melianthus looked was in January 2012.

From this

and this

it went to this:

          But, it grew into a real beauty after that, as all the above pictures from 2012 show.



What do I love about this plant:

- this is a bold architectural plant making a statement in the garden

- it has a tropical look

- Its foliage is evergreen in my zone 7b garden and decorates my front flowerbed year around

- It has a beautiful texture, and the color of its leaves has a blue tint

          I highly recommend  this article about Melianthus major written

by the renowned plant explorer Dan Hinkley.

          The folloing information is from that article and referred to Melianthus major :

TYPE OF PLANT: evergreen shrub

FAMILY: Melianthaceae

RANGE: southwestern Cape, South Africa

HARDINESS: USDA Zones 7–11; Sunset Zones 8, 9, 12–24

HEIGHT/SPREAD: 5–10 ft./6–8 ft.

FORM: semierect to sprawling

GROWTH RATE: rapid

TEXTURE: coarse

LEAVES: pinnately compound, to 15 in, long, leaflets ovate-oblong, coarsely serrate, glaucous

FLOWERS: small, borne in erect racemes, dark reddish brown, highly fragrant

CULTIVARS: ‘Purple Haze‘; stems and leaves suffused with purple, finer-textured than most; ‘Antonow’s Blue’; bold-textured, leaves with silvery blue patina

SITE REQUIREMENTS: full sun to light shade in moisture-retentive, well-drained soil

PROPAGATION: by seed or lateral cuttings taken in late summer

(See more at: Melianthus major by Daniel J. Hinkley)

Have a great March, and I am off to cut down my Melianthus.

***Copyright 2013 TatyanaS