Garden Alchemy in a Provencal Setting

Le Jardin de l'Alchimiste

(Above photo courtesy the Garden of the Alchemist)

Revisiting an all-time favorite ... A garden rich with atmosphere,

adjoining a lovely country inn located in the village of Eygalieres,

Update:  Mas de la Brune ~ The garden and inn are no long open, sadly.

I pay homage to the amazing landscape in a long post on:

Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Weigela 'My Monet' and Geum 'Werner Arends'

Clash of the Wee Ones ...  A Weigela and a Geum!

My tale of woe is old-hat, remarked on countless times as the amount of sunlight continues to decrease in Alice's Garden. Thus, in early Spring I transplanted a few treasured specimens to spots that receive a bit more sun.

The wee Weigela 'My Monet' found itself lifted and moved across the pebble patio to the bed below the back porch - where the blue wall is a preening presence in various photos.

Now, the brilliant, burnt orange blooms of Geum 'Werner Arends' are now popping up through the Weigela foliage in a clashing color scheme that would, doubtless,

cause the long-departed doyenne of British gardening,

Gertrude Jekyll to shudder in her 'wellies' (rubber boots, that is).

Dare I admit to enjoying the cacophony!

Bloom's Bodacious Borders at Kendall-Jackson Winery

A few years ago, one of my San Francisco Chronicle 'Garden Walks' columns celebrated the opening of new perennial borders in Wine Country designed by British horticulturist Adrian Bloom.

(Above: Chronicle photo - All other photos: copyright Alice Joyce)

Son of famed plantsman, Alan Bloom,and author of numerous gardening books featuring Foggy Bottom, Adrian Bloom's personal 6-acre garden in Norfolk, Bloom shared his thoughts on the Blooms of Bressingham borders at Kendall-Jackson Winery. Here: a long view of the garden on a recent summer's day, with bees abuzz, flitting among the bountiful blooms.

I'll be returning to the winery's varied landscape in future posts, to visit K-J's vineyard demonstration & culinary gardens, where visitors can relax and enjoy a picnic.

To find the borders, amble from the formal parterre garden fronting the main chateau, and continue around the side of the building. A signpost heralds the Blooms of Bressingham garden, where drifts of plants meld together in what Bloom calls "macro and micro views."
Reflecting Bloom's refined gardening style, the garden plan revolves upon artful combinations of conifers, flowering perennials, ornamental grasses and shrubs. The tall, vertical shapes of evergreen Italian cypresses draw the eye, and as Bloom shared, "give you a bit of structure... whichever way you're looking.. on either side of the pathway to take the eye through," calling attention to the surrounding plant combinations.

One of the lessons I took home: "Even small gardens must have a vista."

The Kendall-Jackson Winery chateau and formal gardens

appear upon exiting the parking area.

Back to the Bloom Borders! Plant tableaux come into focus as you walk along the curving central pathway, where groupings are linked by contrasts in foliage and flower color, texture and form: Purple-toned leaves of heucheras and phormiums; blue-violet, long-blooming Geranium 'Rozanne;' mounding Anthemis 'Susanna Mitchell;' bushy Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby.'

Geranium blooms weave through hydrangeas; salvias and feathery silver-filigree artemisias are backed by dark Cotinus foliage and butterfly-attracting buddleias.

A bee feasting on... Asclepias incarnata?

Flanking a bench, fragrant rosemary, lavender & Verbena bonariensis

envelop the visitor who stops here to bask in the setting.

Kendall Jackson Winery - www.kj.com

Rude, Rustic Rose Relative .. Rubus r. 'Coronarius'

Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious'

Plant lust can make a gardener quite mad. In the early days of Alice's Garden, I would read about an unusual specimen in a gardening magazine and simply have to have it. The photo - scanned from a slide - illustrates a particularly spiny... or let's just say a painfully bristly, barbed relative of the genus Rosa: A Rubus species grown for its fluffy white multi-petaled blooms.

As mentioned, the beauty of Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious' had been highly touted in-print by a beloved and renowned writer/plantsman. And I did swoon when the glowing flowers of this humble yet elegant long-blooming bramble appeared along the back fence in my secret garden.

Yet after a time I decided to remove it.

Plants come and plants go in the life of any garden, and certainly in the small space I cultivate in Northern California. I often look fondly upon this beauty when perusing my collection of 35 mm garden slides, recalling my tussles with its canes, as well as the excitement of observing the way the flowers would light up an out-of-the-way spot in the garden, alongside a narrow pathway.

Do you grow R. r. 'Coronarious' ... or another ornamental bramble?

Greenhouse with View! Rose Terrace - Alcatraz Gardens

Volunteer efforts enliven the Gardens of Alcatraz Island

...in countless ways.

Photos © Copyright Alice Joyce - Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Recently... 
these delightful beds and paths have taken shape,

...not to mention a beautiful new greenhouse on the Rose Terrace.

The structure is dedicated to Carola Ashford, The Garden Conservancy's first project manager for restoration of the Alcatraz gardens. The greenhouse fits inside the foundation of the original. In November 2009 volunteers started work, and by mid-February they had completed the task!

Link to:

The Garden Conservancy

Alcatraz Historic Gardens

A Floral "Berry Basket" ... Zinnias To Die For!

It's the 6th of July and I'm in a state of bliss, filling vases with the colorfully vibrant blooms of

Zinnia 'Berry Basket'

T., my personal veggie gardener, has been kind enough to make room in his allotment for these long-stemmed cutting flowers (another trial packet sent by Renee's Garden Seeds). Must say, I've been impressed by the incredible length of the stems, as with Cosmos 'Rose Bon Bon.'

As for the variety name for these Zinnias, it couldn't not be more spot-on: Luscious colors that conjure up a basket of succulent berries, though I'm not certain what the pink represents.

What petal pink berries do you grow?

Frilly, Rosy Blooms of Summer - Cosmos 'Rose Bon Bon'

Summer has officially arrived! And the season is heralded by some of the prettiest blooms for bouquets I could conjure up, were I in the business of developing long-stem cutting flowers.

In fact, Renee's Garden sent a few packets of seeds to trial.

And here is my first bouquet of Cosmos "Rose Bon Bon" - a new variety for 2010.

Plants began blooming last week in the full-sun of my 'cutting garden' ... aka T's allotment.

A plot at a community garden on the grounds of an old estate in our town.

Sadly, there's all too little full-sun in my garden these days.

Still, I planted a few seeds in a terra cotta pot, placing it in the sunniest spot on our tiny pebble patio, alongside a stone bench.

A large bloom opened yesterday, and I quickly clipped it and brought it inside to enjoy, along with flowers T brought home on Monday.

T. tells me there's quite a crop of my favorite Zinnias from Renee's Garden - 'Apricot Blush.'

He's promised to bring them home for a holiday gathering on Sunday, when friends are coming by for sparkling wine & antipasto.

I'm impressed by the fine quality seeds sent by Renee's Garden ...

... beguiling annuals that bloom lavishly.

Thank you, T., for setting aside a place to tend my flowers among your myriad tomato plants!!

Photo shows the flowers backlit on the kitchen counter, backed by glass-block windows.

The petals' translucent character is lovely.

On the Subject of Garden Seating! Westbury Court

A magnificent 400-year-old evergreen oak growing at Westbury Court Garden.

Continuing the topic of benches and garden seating... a throne-like structure

...that complements Westbury Court's formal Dutch water gardens,

rescued by The National Trust after many years of neglect.

The bench inscription reads: To remember Hugo Colchester Memyss - 1910-1974

Representing the last of his family at WESTBURY COURT.

Link to Westbury Court Garden:

A Dutch Landscape in England: Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Essential Focal Point! A Parade of Garden Benches

One of the benches at .. Veddw in Wales

I can think of no other garden element as essential as a bench:

(Above: A private garden, soon to be featured on Alice's Garden Travel Buzz)

Hestercombe - England

An element that can take an intriguing variety of forms...

...while expressing a distinctive style.

Rhododendron Pavilion Stonework - San Francisco Botanical Garden

An element that makes a bold, artful statement!

Stone Bench/Blue Arbor - Alice's Garden

Or adds a highly personal touch. 

An element that can act as an architectural device, yet be totally inviting.

Cornerstone Sonoma - Wine Country

An element of beauty...
...or a spot to simply take in the surroundings.

Sonoma Horticultural Nursery

A form that pays homage to great garden figures such as Lutyens.

Historic Ninfa - Italy

Or reminds visitors of a garden-maker's most treasured place to enjoy the landscape.

Rarest of the Rare .. Plantaholic's Pendant Perennial

Campanula takesimana 'Beautiful Trust' ... a Heronswood Nursery introduction

during Dan Hinkley's tenure as owner-in-residence.

A plant that has complete power over me. It's true.

C. t. 'Beautiful Trust' was ordered from Heronswood Nursery during the garden's early years, when each and every plant was carefully chosen to fill in the new beds and borders being created from scratch.

Other unusual Heronswood varieties did not survive. But I kept an eye on this rarity, and when I noticed it failed to thrive in the summer-dry conditions of my hand-watered garden, I lifted the unusual specimen from the ground and moved it to a prime spot where it could be pampered and doted upon.

Now it grows in a large galvanized tub in the sunniest spot on our pebble patio. Anxiously, I await the bloom each summer, and when the first flowers appear, I gaze delightedly from a bench alongside the planter, admiring the purest white "strap-like ...reflexed petals."

In an email, Dan Hinkley shared an often-quoted story with me about the uncommon plant:

"The ... name is somewhat humorously incorrect. The gentleman who found this and gave it to me in South Korea, Song Kihun, showed up with the plant labeled 'Beautiful Trust' the morning I was about to leave the country - (after a) night of farewells and a great number of toasts. He realized he had written the label wrong at that time - it was meant to be 'Beautiful Truth', a literal translation of his daughter's name, and told me so. By the time I got home with it, the correction was long out of my memory and it was thusly introduced under the wrong name."