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Leaves Fall, I Smell Autumn

© Gay Klok

Camellias and Azaleas and Exciting Gardening

THE LEAVES START TURNING, AUTUMN QUIETLY ARRIVES

The sun still shines in a blue sky but I can feel the approach of Autumn and I love that special, earthy smell that comes so abruptly at the change of seasons. Some folk may say it reminds them of rotting vegetation but, to me, it is the aroma of the good earth. Our summer was quite late this year and we had a five week spell of dry weather and quite high temperatures. Having the two gardens and a week split up between the two, I worry if the summer weather ?turns nasty? and blows a hot wind. This happened several times but the gardens stood up well. With the subsoil well and truly watered by the torrential rain storms we had when the gardens were open to the general public and the mulch we have liberally covered the beds with working extremely well, we only had to use the sprinklers a few times

There is lots of colour in the garden as you may see in the accompanying photos. The Asters are blooming their dear, little, daisy heads off and the Lilies are trumpeting the approach of the quiet seasons. Dahlias still flourish because there were several Gardening Clubs walking through our garden gates in mid and late summer. This meant that I had to keep them dead headed so they remained a feature of the garden scene, the Dahlias, I mean, not the garden visitors!. The Hydrangeas have been extra good this season, all that Spring and early summer rain must have delighted them, if not the visitors and yours truly, and now they are turning the misty shades of blue, purple and sea-green

Two of my favourite trees are about to burst into bloom. Both have white flowers [ I do love white in the garden] and flower at the beginning of Autumn. Gordonia, an evergreen shrub or small tree with flowers that resemble a Camellia, beautiful yellow centres and shiny leaves, comes from Asia and North America. Tasmania?s cool temperate climate has made me place it in a sheltered, warm position as the shrub really prefers a sub-tropical clime. Coming from the other side of the World, the Hoheria is one of the most delightful of all the New Zealand natives. I grow both the deciduous and the evergreen type and it is the evergreen that waits until the beginning of Autumn to give the gardener the gift of its flowers, thus making itself an outstanding feature of the rather overblown late summer garden.