The "Four Seasons" Garden

The formality of a front path is emphasized by neatly clipped box and a weeping birch (Bentula pendula) that is meticulously maintained in a mushroom shape.

A variegated Hellebore argutifolius and a Hellebore foetidus (stinking hellebore) with its prolific bell shaped light green flowers are important foliage plants throughout the year. In the background is an early blooming pink rhododendron.

Enjoy exclusive access to a half-acre urban garden created by a dynamic lady who is an active member of Victoria’s gardening community. She designed and maintains this garden that has been designed for four-season interest (this garden placed first in a national competition for best year round garden design). Although there is a unity of the design in the garden, each of the mixed borders has its own distinct character ranging from woodland to Mediterranean to a rockery in full sun. Throughout there are harmonious colour combinations with an emphasis on foliage and texture as well as bloom. This garden is never static; the owner is constantly seeking out the best varieties, and incorporating newly introduced plants. Here you will find young choice trees that have been incorporated into the boarders with plans for the future.

An early blooming single peony joins the Black Darwin hybrid tulip ‘Queen of the Night’ with the background of a young Cornus alternafolia. After blooming this peony will provide large exotic looking seed-head.	Home Driveway planting June	Bright lemon yellow lily shaped tulips combined with fescue Golden toupe works with the soft textured finely cut silver leaves of fern-leafed yarrow (Achillea filipendula) and the strap shaped muted olive green leaves of a phormium.	Black Darwin hybrid tulip ‘Queen of the Night’ has been given the background of a young Cornus alternafolia.
There is a growing trend of using multi-coloured species such as this red tulip with cream edges that is in front of a planting of Polygonatum falcatum ‘Variegatum’ or Variegated Japanese Solomon’s Seal and our native maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum-Northern Maidenhair Fern.	Woodland summer - While one Magnolia has completed blooming another continues on. This is an area that stays lush all year with its evergreen plantings including rhododendrons and holly blended with the collection of hydrangeas. Bloom finishes in the fall with the Tricyrtis (Toad-lily) and starts with the cyclamen hederafolium.	The combination of Daphne tangutica with its fragrant pink and white bi-coloured blooms, (the colour design potential of bi-coloured blooms have made this feature yet another trend). Echoing these blooms are deep purple and white tulips with the whole scene softened by the texture of the Stipa tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) which will continue to provide movement to this planting throughout the summer and fall.	Helleborus sternii with its prolific pink tinged apple green blooms. Click here to see extra text.
A combination of David Austin English Roses including the of Charles Austin with its apricot pink blooms combined with the Paeonia lactiflora hybrid ‘Bowl of Beauty’ (bright rose-pink Japanese peony with its creamy-yellow stamens). Click here to see extra text.	Conifers, including the cascading Blue spruce, provide important year round structure in this garden. The desire for year round interest has led to a growing popularity for conifers. Jewel toned pasque flowers of spring and early summer have given the stage to blocks of low maintenance sedum ‘Autumn Joy.’	This deeply layered border has year round interest in late winter-early spring there are the rhododendrons, hellebores and primroses. Here in high summer there is the wonderful blue hydrangea against the shed and extra vertical interest is a classic clematis. Clematis Henryi (introduced in 1865) joins clematis Pink Profusion to climb into an old fruit tree. They have grown through a trench away from the tree roots and are scrambling up a bamboo pole to attach to a chicken wire screen that has been wrapped around the tree trunk	‘Forest Pansy’ with its large purple leaves provides the perfect foil for the Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle.' The Cercis provides a living support for a thalictrum.
The *romantic garden trend* is interpreted in the *4 Seasons Garden* with a container of drought tolerant echeverias placed in a birdbath of the romantic style. The small bird is sitting on the rim and can be taken and utilized in other settings. The container of the echeverias can be brought into the house to be placed in a sunny window for the winter. Careful consideration has been given to the suitability of this container for the theme of the garden. The large maple shaped leaves with purple-black stems in the lower right corner are of Kirengeshoma 'palmata' (Yellow Waxbells) which will provide soft yellow bells in the late summer/fall. Click here to hide extra text.	The birdbath planter has been provided with a setting featuring the large leaves of the golden Catalpa (pruned back to keep its large golden leaves lower to the ground) and the purple-red leaves of Cercis Canadensis Forest Pansy. A purple clematis scrambles through the Catalpa in the summer (see verticality) while at the base of the birdbath is a hybrid dwarf hellebore (cross between sterneii and livides) whose grey-blue leaves will provide year round foliage interest.	The brilliant fall colour of Sedum Autumn Joy and the nearby Japanese cut leaf maples transform the above area.	Satin red peonies combined with the trend setting Allium atropurpereum in the style of Christopher Lloyd. The white filler is Anthriscus sylvestris Ravenswing.(a member of the Cow Parsley family that has year round bronze cut leaf foliage!). Forming the backdrop is the climbing rose Rosa moyesii Geranium with its dazzling red blooms. As a bonus in this red border the rose provides large orange-red hips for fall interest!
Drifts of soft sulphur yellow crocosmias including Crocosmia ‘Solfatare’ and Rudbeckia ‘Prairie Sun’ continues with the yellow theme.	Here is the above planting in the fall when the vibirnum foliage contributes a purple-red foliage in contrast to the grey felt of the Jerusalum sage, nearby there is the orange hips of the rose.	Romance speaks to us at the 4 Seasons Garden as a satin pink peony (Sarah Bernhardt) and magenta Geranium (Cranesbill) ‘Patricia’ is engulfed by a cloud of tiny white star-shaped flowers. This cloud (approximately 3ft. by 3ft.) is not produced by a baby’s-breath on steroids but rather the hardy perennial Crambe cordifolia which needs space for its large mound of deeply lobed leaves.	Crambe cordifolia provides a back drop for the luminous lipstick-red petals and showy yellow petaloids of the compact single peony ‘Sword Dance.’
Monochromatic green of a Japanese azalea and a non-varigated form of Japanese Woodland Grass (Hakonechloa) Japanese forest grass which provides important movement to the plantings.	Satin red peonies combined with the trend setting Allium /atropurpereum/ in the style of Christopher Lloyd. The white filler is Anthriscus sylvestris Ravenswing.(a member of the Cow Parsley family that has year round bronze cut leaf foliage!). Forming the backdrop is the climbing rose Rosa moyesii Geranium with its dazzling red blooms. As a bonus in this red border the rose provides large orange-red hips for fall interest!	A variegated form of Iris pallida ‘Aureo variegata’ adds foliage interest to this border. Nearby there is a yellow variegated form of Aralia Acanthopanax and clumps of the grass Molinia careulea Variegata’. Dwarf Ginko rudbkeia Prairie Sun.	In late summer- fall Japanese blood grass (Imperata), dark leafed phormium and heucheras take center stage in the Red border.
Adjoining the red border there is a repeat planting of a small floered dahlia this time complimented by the pale pink alstromeria (which has bloomed all summer) and the bronzed heads of Sedum Autumn Joy.	Jerusalum Sage (phlomis fruiticosa) , vibirnum carlessi, and Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium’ provide a colourful spring-early summer background planting.	The towering cloud of bloom of crambe cordifolia beside a Variegated Five-leaf Aralia Acanthopanax x. sieboldianus ‘Variegatus’ which will later in the summer act as a support for a ‘Perle d’Azure’clematis.	Classic slate path infront of a mixed border that includes a climbing honeysuckle that has been clipped back into a low shrub form so that the fragrant flowers and berries can be fully enjoyed.
In the late spring/summer there is Combination of ‘Glamis Castle’ (which has a reputation for being disease resistant) a low growing, long-blooming, fragrant David Austin English Rose with the dwarf Allium Karataviense 'Ivory Queen'. Click here to see extra text.	Japanese Anemone’s pink blooms and a classic small wall mounted fountain echoes the theme of classical romance. Water features, which are maintaining their popularity as a trend for 2005, can play an important role in the Romantic garden.	Wall fountain surrounded by the evergreen Lonicera Bagginsins Gold and a hydranga.	Phormium tricolour from New Zealand partners with the evergreen Stipa arundinacea with its rich orange-red foliage. This is a plant of many names it has now been officially renamed as Anemanthele lessoniana and is commonly known as “New Zealand Wind Grass” or “Pheasant Grass”. Contrast is provided by Verbena ‘Homestead Purple’. This is a drought tolerant planting with long bloom period and year round foliage interest.
Grasses continue as a strong trend. The 4 Seasons Garden has selected grasses for the mixed borders that supply colour, texture and movement as well as year round interest. Notice how the Japanese Woodland Grass (Hakonechloa) echoes the hosta foliage	A mixed planting including ornamental grasses and a plinth mark the start of a path.	A golden moon maple Acer shirasawanum f. aureum and golden hops (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus') contrasted by the vibrant blooms of Clematis ‘Niobe’ which is supported on a white plastic chord that becomes invisible against the wall.	Varigation of the Brunnera ‘Variegata’, and a hosta add interest to this serene woodland planting. Willow Gentian (Gentiana Asclepiadea) provides a hit of blue. While in the fall the Oak Leaf hydrangea leaves will turn burnished red.
The red seed capsules of **Magnolia* *sieboldiana** echo the red bloom of a late blooming astilbe. The blue hydranga blooms with their mauve undertones dry beautifully for the making of wreaths.	This prolific early blooming hellebore was developed through a cross of Hellebore sterneii and Hellebore niger.		hydrangea-fall