By Beatrice Hawkins
For those of you ..and that is most of you.. that didn’t come along to the Spring Flower Show last week in St Mary’s Hall ..well.. you really missed a wonderful show. Warwick really lived up to its name as the City of Roses with the rose section in particular being absolutely spectacular. I am so pleased that that the fascination of some years back with breeding roses for form and neglecting perfume seems to have lost favour. The perfume in the hall was intoxicating! I have always thought that if you have to put up with thorns on roses you needed to be compensated with glorious perfume.
Not only did you miss out on a beautiful display, you missed some tasty, freshly made sandwiches, sweet treats and scones, jam and cream. Remember us for the next show in the autumn and come down in your lunch hour and enjoy prompt, happy service.
The rose gardens in the garden competition were really lovely, and even the ones that didn’t enter that section, often had beautiful displays of roses among the other flowers. Many gardens around town also have lovely displays along with the centre garden in Palmerin St. Those roses will look great for the Rodeo weekend.
As I’ve been around as the judges chauffeur, looking at gardens in the competition, I have seen some really beautiful and unusual trees. The first one I saw I recognised in a garden on the Upper Wheatvale road and it was a magnificent specimen about 40 feet high and wide and coming into full flower. It was the native Bauhinia tree, Lysiphyllum cunninghamii. It is native to Norther Australia from the Kimberly through the Territory and Queensland. I remember it from inspecting sheep properties in the Surat area many years ago. You could rely on the fact that it was good country where it was growing. Similarly Kurrajongs in NSW were an indicator of good grazing country.. and if all else failed, in a drought they provided very good fodder for stock when you lopped them. Animals loved the leaves and even ate the branches. They regenerated well so were natural drought insurance. One property we owned in the 80’s had about 10,000 and many were lopped during that drought.. even feeding a neighbour’s cattle when agistment wasn’t available anywhere.
Around town at the moment there a some lovely specimens of the other Bauhinia in both purple and white. It is Bauhinia variegata and is from the same Fabaceae family and is native to an area from China through South East Asia to India. The flowers are beautiful and another name for them is “tree orchid” but they have no resemblance to the flowers of our native tree. Both beautiful but very different in form.
Also in the garden on acreage at Massie was something I had never seen before. The owner told me it was a “Malabar nut”, Justicia adhatoda. Extremely drought tolerant and flowering constantly it was a something that if I had the room I would try. When I looked it up it appears that it may be of the Chestnut family. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Laos and Myanmar, is used in traditional medicine for chest infections, common coughs and colds, asthma and tuberculosis. It has been introduced widely in other areas. It is a dense shrubby tree just covered in lovely creamy white flowers.
In the garden at Tannymorel I saw another unusual tree. Apparently it is a yellow flowering poplar or tulip tree. The flowers are tulip shaped.. orange yellow at the base then cream and pale green… really different and beautiful. Although they are commonly known as “tulip tree” Liriodendron tulipifera, American tulip tree, whitewood, yellow poplar and many other names, and is the tallest eastern hardwood in America, they are in fact part of the Magnolia family. They are native to America, can grow to 36 plus metres high and wide, so are not a tree for everyone. Apparently they grow very quickly, are deciduous after a brilliant show of golden foliage in autumn, but have brittle branches that can be a hazard when they fall. Unlike their poplar namesake, they do not have an invasive root system, but do like deep fertile soil, full sun and are not drought tolerant.
Rodeo this weekend and there will be some lovely windows to be seen as entries in the floral window competition, so take a stroll down the street over the weekend and have a look.
Last minute entries can be made if you read this on Thursday as the judging will take place on Friday morning. Schedules are available from Bryson’s and should be returned there by 5pm on Thursday. There are 10 different categories, but basically it is judged on design, quality and relevance. 60% flowers is the ideal and 40% rodeo theme for Class 5: Rodeo Display.
