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Seeing as Jack’s in the US (and we are home in NZ) it might be nice to just grab a few plants, structures, and colours that belong in our hearts and minds.

If I remember well, America has some stunning trees, shrubs, and plants that knock the eyeballs out of your head. What I remember well are the dogwoods, known here by their Genus name of Cornus.  

This is a brilliant tree from Athens (Georgia):  

Just so you know: we can grow these here too – flowering in spring and often deep autumn colours too. Easy in full sun and part shade with fertile, well-drained soils  

Julie would also go with “white” and “America”.  

Some years ago, she took some cuttings from an ancient plant that grew around a very ancient building, here in the Halswell Quarry – that building is now history, but the cuttings are not!  

The Philadelphus (also known as a Mock Orange) hails from the American New World, is easy to grow and known for its magnificent, sweet scent.  

Juuls grows it on a fence – you can also grow it as a shrub or even a wobbly hedge.  

It loves sunlight and well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Don’t let it dry out too much – water every now and then but don’t make it too wet.  

Mulch is useful, as is some general fertiliser every now and then plus some potash before it flowers in spring. Take cuttings in Autumn… Easy!  

I am a fan of spectacular colours.  

And you simply can’t get past dense blues. A Meconopsis was “born” in South-East Asia and there are many, many species. Unfortunately, they have quite a few negative ‘habits’. 

They are tricky to grow and often short-lived. Very difficult to successfully sow as seeds (sow them in late summer) and are very sensitive when you want to split them up by diversion to plant them in early spring.  

Part shade, and no full sun, and a nice mulch of rotten manure or compost – it feels like spoilt brat.  

Despite all this, it’s a plant known as “Blue Poppy” and belongs to the Papaver Family  

We’ve managed a couple of successes, and it makes me go down the garden when they flower.  

This is what I call “Spectacular”. 

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