142 | AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN
HGGARDENS
ABOVELayeringplants of different heights
and shapes enhances the depth of a garden.
OPPOSITEDelicate pale-blueSalvia somaliensis
is a perfect pairing for the clean, shapely white
flowers ofPhiladelphus coronarius.‘Snapshots of history drift
through the garden like
chimney smoke.’Michael Cooke<Roses find their way into many of the
gardens I design. I know some people
believe they’re hard to maintain, but if
chosen carefully for disease-resistance
and vigour as well as fragrance and
colour, they soon prove their worth. I’ve
used 15 varieties in this garden and of
these I have three favourites.Rosa
moschata‘Autumnalis’ is a hybrid musk
rose with clusters of smallish, imperfect
flowers. The blooms are deliciously
fragrant with delicate pink, sometimes
blush, pointed buds.Rosa‘Duchesse de
Brabant’ is a tea rose and its perfume is
exquisite. The shapely soft-pink flowers
are thrown in large clusters on a neat
shrub.Rosa rugosa‘Sarah Van Fleet’ is
a large shrub featuring strong open roses
with mid-pink perfumed flowers, shiny
crinkly leaves and thorny mahogany
stems. These three roses are easy to prune
and good enough as shrubs in their own
right to be included in any garden.
Among the shrubs we’ve planted arethe grassy-leafed perennial fairy’s fishing
rod (Dierama pulcherrimum), a tough
survivor that grows wild on the south
coast. There are also different sorts of
may bush, spring-flowering mock orange
(Philadelphus) and salvias, such as the
lovelySalvia somaliensiswith soft grey-
blue flowers and aromatic pale-green
leaves. There are pomegranates, viburnum
and pale pink, sweetly fragrant rondeletia.
These once-common shrubs, now rarely
seen, are perfect for large gardens where
proportionately sized plants are required
to fill space, reducing the opportunity for
weeds to take over.
On the west and south sides of the
cottage are beds of ornamental grasses:
tall and dramaticMiscanthus sinensis
‘Gracillimus’ and the shorter, more subtle
Panicum virgatum‘Rotstrahlbusch’. Both
these grasses are deciduous so the winter
wind won’t harm them. Grasses are one
of those plants that people either love or
hate. I love them in all seasons. #
Michael Cooke Garden Design,Central
Mangrove, NSW; michaelcooke.com.au.