- This is an Australian website - Contact Margaret RainbowWebAPPLEBERRY Billardiera Cymosa
is an indigenous climber which is happy in the plentiful shade which shrouds much of my garden. I planted 7 of these attractive vines in April 2003, 2 round the big rainwater tank, a couple on the back fence, and the rest on the SE side of the front fence. This year (2004) they are covered in tiny sky-blue flowers, and I look forward to beating the birds to at least some of the crop of small sweet aromatic berries.
BOYSENBERRY
This grows on the front and side fences, and was planted as a 'NO-Boysenberry!' - I live close to a boys' college!!.
The fruit of this thorny scambler is large and delicious, though it does not bear as heavily, nor is the vine as rampant as it's cousin the blackberry. But it has never borne well - it really prefers the cooler climate of the hills. I get a few handsful of fruit in the spring then the birds move in, and as soon as it gets hot, the berries start to dry up before they ripen.
I may even remove this vine from the garden at some point.
Update: The winter and spring of 2000 was unusually cool and wet. Because of the heavy shade in the garden, and because I remove all suckers which appear elsewhere, the vine has now settled on the fences, where it gets morning sun, and dappled shade for the rest of the day. Consequently this year's crop has been the best ever. So it can stay for now.
CAPE GOOSEBERRY aka Golden Berry
This is a real success story - these soft-leaved plants with attractive flowers are as happy in shade as in sun, scrambling up a fence, over the lower limbs of trees, or trailing on the ground. The berries, inside their papery 'chinese lanterns', ripen for about 9 months of the year, and are a welcome addition to the winter fruit supply.
Rich in vitamins A and C, the fruit also dries very well - leave it inside its wrapping - sweeter and more richly flavoured than a raisin.
Children love to forage for the fruit, and sometimes you find a perfect golden berry inside a 'lantern' which has become completely skeletonised. These are kept carefully as a very special 'fairy gift' for the children.
If you can save enough fruit, it makes a really delicious jam, but take care - it sets quickly! and if over-cooked can be too stiff to get out of the jar! A few handsful give a wonderful flavour to other jams, or use as flavouring with stewed apples, pears, or chokos.
Grow from seed sown where you want the plants, and cultivate like tomatoes. In frost free areas they will develop a tuberous root and last for several years. They also self-seed rapidly.
Once you have established a plant or two, you need never sow them again!
CLEMATIS
Mine is not the spectacular cool climate cultivar of the formal garden, but a delicate-looking variety Clematis Microphylla indigenous to this area. Planted in April 2003, and left to establish itself on the front fence during the dryest, hottest Summer on record, it is now bravely threading it's way through the Boysenberries above the lower corrugated iron portion of the fence.
I look forward to it's fluffy cream flowers once it finally makes it's way into the sunshine.
GRAPE
I now have only one vine, a sultana. For reasons explained elsewhere, I have (2004) substantially re-designed the NW side of my garden. For the fruit to ripen successfully it needs to be in full sun, so the vine has been radically pruned, and is being trained onto a frame which will shade the NW facing walls of the house, while keeping the vine in the sun, and preventing it from climbing onto the roof.
Every garden in a Mediterranean climate should have a grape vine.
Like the fig, the established vine is drought tolerant, and productive of far more than just grapes.
Dried sultanas are rich in iron, fibre, & fruit sugars, and have endless uses.
Unfermented grape juice is delicious, rich in potassium, and can be easily pastereurised for storage until winter.
Verjuice, pressed from unripe grapes, can be used in many recipes instead of lemon juice or vinegar, and is an excellent meat tenderiser.
Wine, now almost exclusively made from grapes, is a subject too huge to go into here, while the best vinegars, and some excellent brandy are also children of the grape.
Vine leaves, which are stuffed to make Dolmades can be preserved in natural lactic acid, like sauerkraut or olives.
Oil pressed from the seeds is widely used both for cooking and for massage and cosmetic purposes.
Cuttings strike readily, and the prunings make excellent kindling.
It is small wonder that the grapevine was held sacred in many cultures, and symbolised the life force.
HARDENBERGIA
These indigenous climbers are legumes, and will help to naturally fertilize the soil. Purchased and planted in April 2003, some have white flowers, and some deep purple. These are not cultivars, and some have set seed this year after flowering spectacularly. I planted 8 altogether - one on the front fence, one under the peach tree, and the rest on the SE from fence. Those in deep shade are slower-growing, but I hope in a few years to have my front fences covered mainly with indigenous vines.
HONEYSUCKLE - (Photo - 30KB)
This evergreen vine flowers for several months, filling the air with haunting fragrance, which changes it's 'note' as the flowers age. Flowering sprays can be cut and last well in water. They look particularly graceful in a tall narrow vase, and scent the whole house.
Flowering honeysuckle attracts honeyeaters, while rabbits and guinea-pigs relish the foliage. Birds relish the berries, but they may cause severe stomach upsets in humans.
It's strong growth makes it a quick screen, but it needs vigorous pruning, especially of the 'runners' - vines which lay on the ground and take root wherever they can.
The long flexible stems are valuable for all kinds of basketry.
IVY LEAFED PELAGONIUMS - Photo - 35KB
Colourful, fragarant, evergreen, drought resistant, shallow-rooted and wind-loving - this tough scrambler takes a while to become established, but then with just a little care it's yours for life! In fact, once it reaches the required size, it needs a regular trim, just like a hedge.
In all frost-free areas this wonderful plant can be used to tranform old iron fences or piles of rubble into a lush floral feature. Just don't over-water it, or it will rot!
In colder climates, it is an exotic summer plant, displayed to advantage in hanging baskets, and over-wintered in the greenhouse. It can also be grown indoors on a sunny windowsill, but really is best kept outside as long as the nights remain frost-free.
Climbing pelagoniums are the common choice for planting around 'Stobie poles' - the South Australian answer to a complete lack of local timber suitable to make telegraph poles. Constructed of old railway lines and concrete, motorists swear they jump out into the middle of the road so they can crash into them. Certainly their ugliness has been so covered with greenery in many cases that one might be forgiven for thinking they are alive!
Easily grown from cuttings, difficult to kill, and available in a wide variety of colours - there are even some forms with variegated flowers and/or leaves - they are ideal for home-grown gifts or for charity stalls.
JASMINE - winter and summer
'Winter' jasmine is rampant, but the heavy scent is delicious and the flowering period begins in late winter and can extend into early summer. Another evergreen screen which sends out 'runners', it needs severe and regular pruning.
This is not the European Winter Jasmine, whose yellow flowers on bare stems brighten many a London suburb, but hails from India.
The Summer jasmine is not so vigorous, and the flowers have a more subtle, though long-lasting and pervasive perfume. It is the flower of this variety which is used to scent Jasmine Tea. This is another evergreen, and it needs light pruning to encourage thicker growth, because of it's straggly habits
LAB-LAB, 7- YEAR, or HYACYNTH BEAN
This vigorous bean has many names, and comes in short, medium, and tall varieties!
I started out 9 years ago with seeds of a tall variety with flat green pods, which when young are a good substitute for sugar peas, but the self-sown plants I now have are purplish, with a rounder, crisper pod, and a slightly better flavour. The dried bean is identical with those from the original plants.
The vines are easily grown from seed, bear prolifically, last for many years, and the foliage and flowers are very attractive.
The green pods are best eaten young, while the fresh young beans can be used like peas. If fully mature, the skins should be removed before cooking. They store well when dried, but the skin is unpalatable, so should be removed while the beans are prepared for drying.
PASSIONFRUIT
Since my Banana Passionfruit has once more 'gone to God', I have decided to grow a Black Passionfruit on the front fence. See picture
Some heavy pruning has opened up a sunny spot, (Passionfruit love morning sunshine! and I grew the vine from seed).
Black Passionfruit are usually sold grafted onto blue passion fruit stock, which suckers prolifically, and
if the graft dies or is accidentally cut off, very aggressive measures are required to get rid of it. Grafted vines are also more susceptible to a virus which makes the fruit woody. Black passionfruit seedlings are less prone to this virus attack, and easy to control, but they live only for 7 - 9 years.
Mine fruited prolifically in the second year, the fruit being produced and ripening well into winter.
If you choose this variety, don't throw out the skins - they make excellent jam or jelly! Recipe
SCARLET RUNNER BEAN Photos
This bean really likes a slightly more humid climate than we have in Adelaide, but I get small crops most years. These flat juicy pods have a lovely flavour, and evoke memories of summer meals in wartime London.
The flower is a true scarlet, scented, and very attractive.
The plant forms a tuber, dies back after the beans mature, and sprouts again in the spring. The tubers can be lifted, stored and replanted like dahlias, if there is a likelihood of frost, or of their being eaten by rats.
SWEET POTATO
This is the white sweet potato, or Kumara widely grown in New Zealand and the highlands of New Guinea. It does better than the yellow sort in temperate climates.
My vines climb all over the front fence for most of the year, colouring to shades of orange, red, and violet in autumn, and dying back only at the end of winter. It is a member of the Morning Glory family, and has trumpet-shaped pale lilac flowers. The tubers are huge! They can be somewhat fibrous, and need to be cooked as soon as they are cut up or the flesh turns an unpleasant grey colour. But they are a prolific staple crop, and very versatile. They can be used in sweet or savoury dishes, and in breads, cakes and scones.
The foliage can also be cooked as a green vegetable. I like to blanch it first, then discard this water and cook in fresh water with a sprig of mint.
To get a good crop of tubers each year, cuttings should be taken from a vine allowed to over-winter, and set out in late spring. They need constant moisture and a rich soil for best results. Tubers from vines allowed to perennialise are too fibrous for human food, though they may be fed to animals.
WONGA VINE Pandorea ssp..
This is another indigenous vine which grows happily in the shade. Since the from SE fence is heavily shaded in summer by the apple and the persimmon, and year-round by the evergreen Macadamia, I have planted this in the shadiest corner, where i hope it will eventually cover the fence with panicles of creamy blossoms in winter and early spring.
BUDDLEIA
Concerned by the dramatic reduction in the number and species of butterfly in the garden, I decided in 2002 to plant a selection of species which would attract them to feed and breed. The old-fashioned Buddleia Davidii is one of the best-loved by all species of butterfly, so I planted one on the sunny NW side of the house. It's water requirements are modest, and if well-pruned every autumn it need not get out of hand.
For me it holds fond memories of the wild gardens which grew on the bombsites of WW2 London, and in which I loitered, sometimes for hours, on my way (?!) to and from school.
FUCHSIAS
I have an old-fashioned fuchsia, Fuchsia Magellanica, originally given to me in a pot. It has now grown through the bottom of it's pot, and into a handsome shrub on the SW of the Callistemon, where it forms part of my 'living picture'. The beautiful flowers attract honeyeaters, and are followed by bluish black edible fruits which I seldom get to eat because the birds get there first! Shade tolerant and attractive, Fuchsias do need adequate moisture and regular pruning for best results. This, and similar tall varieties, will grow to 1.5 - 2 metres, and were commonly used for hedging in English and Irish cottage gardens.
GERALDTON WAX
Chamelaucuium - Burgundy Blush
I have planted (late 2007) one of these drought-tolerant WA native cultivars just inside the fence at the front, as part of a planned total screen at the front as well as the back.
GREVILLEAS
Australian natives, which have colourful flowers rich in bird-attracting nectar. Widely variable in habit, from groundcovers to trees, and now with many cultivars. I chose 5, all of which were shrubs with a height and spread of about 2 metres, for the modification of my design in order to reduce it's water requirements, and provide even more food for native birds. They all flower in winter, and some also flower in spring, or even year-round.
Planted in March 2003, Grevillea Olivaceae is a West Australian Native. It has made good growth as part of my living screen, next to the Fuchsia, and behind the Peach. It flowers on the previous year's growth, so in winter there is a good flush of blossoms at a time when there isn't much else around. The birds love it!
In August (2004) I planted 4 more along the NW fenceline, replacing the Ladyfinger Grape and the Kiwi fruit vines which had previously grown there.
Grevillea Rosmarinifolia has needle-like leaves, and fluffy red flowers which appear over winter and spring.
Grevillea coconut Ice is, as it's name suggests, a cultivar, with dense foliage. It is said to produce pinkish-red flowers for most of the year.
Grevillea Winpara Gold is a registered Hybrid between G.Olivaceae and another WA variety.Yellow flowers from Winter to late Spring.
Grevillea Ned kelly flowers all year round, and has orange-red flowers.
Only one of these has survived (2008), the Winpara Gold. This is, after a slow start, now growing strongly, but hasn't yet flowered.
GUAVAS
My mature guava is the Hawaian guava, with medium to large fruit, yellow skinned when ripe, but with deep salmon-pink flesh. Rich in vitamin C, winter ripening, guavas can be eaten fresh, cooked, or bottled. They need to be watered during dry periods if the fruit is to be palatable. If neglected the shrub will survive, but the resulting small fruit are both bitter and astringent. The seeds go very hard when cooked, so are often discarded, but when the fruit is eaten fresh, they can be chewed and swallowed, like grape pips, for they contain omega3 fatty acids. In fact most fruit pips except those having a strong flavour of almonds - should be chewed and swallowed if palatable, for this reason.
Psidium Guava fruits prolifically and care needs to be taken in the sub-tropics and tropics, lest the seedlings escape into the bush.
Pineapple Guava (Feijoa Sellowiana)
is not a Guava at all, but a totally unrelated species. It is evergreen, and has egg-shaped green fruits with aromatic pulp. The fleshy flower-petals are edible too, very sweet and tasty. Happy in sun or part shade, and planted in February 2003, to replace an unproductive avocado, it is part of a living screen which has now evolved in the back garden.
LEMON TEA TREE
Leptospermum petersonii
Another native shrub, planted in late 2007, as part of a living screen I hope will soon develop at the front, like the one at the back of the house.
LILLY-PILLY Szygium ssp.
This is another widely variable Australian Native, with many varieties and cultivars. I don't know the name of this one, only that it is a shrub rather than a tree, and is expected to flower and fruit when it matures.
I "rescued" it from a local nursery, and part of the label had been eaten by snails! It has a very small leaf, and I look forward to seeing how it develops. It didn't do well where originally planted, along the NW fenceline, so I have moved it to the front, near the place from which I removed the Nectarine.
NATIVE HIBISCUS
Alyogone - West Coast Gem
Another native shrub, chosen for it's drought tolerance, and planted in late 2007 as part of a living screen at the front of the house. This one has huge violet flowers.
PIGEON PEA
The pigeon pea is a staple food in India and Asia, but is in fact responsible for some forms of malnutrition. The seeds contain a Tryptase inhibiting factor which is not destroyed by heat. Thus, if the diet is poor, it's constant use as dhal leads to protein deficiency.
Nevertheless, it is an attractive nitrogen-fixing shrub, with red and yellow flowers, and the 'pea' pods hang on the plant even when fully ripe, making harvesting very easy. The 'peas' can be cooked and eaten green, or dried and used in soups, for dhal, or, as the name suggests, as poultry feed. Grown in the chook pen, it provides shade and food.
This is, in fact, probably it's best use. A short-lived bush, it self-seeds readily. Mine come and go, seedlings springing up and growing to maturity, then dying off a couple of years later, to be replaced by other seedlings.
ROSE - Sparrieshoop - (Photo - 28KB)
This beautiful rose has long sprays of large pink flowers with golden centres for 2 or 3 months in spring. They cut and last well. These are followed by cherry-sized sweet and juicy rose-hips - 47KB, which are highly ornamental, and very attractive to native as well as introduced species of bird. They can be used to make jelly, syrup, or dried for tea.
This is a large and ebullient shrub, not strictly speaking a climber, but it does need support to be seen at it's best. The thorns are large and sturdy, making it a good choice where security of one's boundaries is an issue. In 1999 I found that many Sparrieshoop seedlings had appeared in the mulch beneath the plant.
ROSE - Felicia - (Photo - 25KB)
A David Austin rose, with sprays of small apricot-tinted flowers, Felicia blooms for up to 9 months of the year in Adelaide, although the main flush comes from late September until Christmas, simultaneously with Sparrishoop.
The perfume is extraordinarily sweet and pervasive. One spray in a vase will scent the entire house, although the flowers droop quickly when cut. But the perfume is retained, and even when quite dead, the flowers remain fragrant for a year or more.
While this makes Felicia an obvious choice for pot-pourri or sachets, it is also excellent for rose-water and jellies, despite it's lack of colour. Both roses in bloom - 33KB
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