Category: Edible
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Rubus parviflorus
The Thimbleberry is a suckering deciduous North American raspberry relative with upright thornless stems and huge soft green leaves that would have me planting it if it did nothing else. However in spring it produces large pure white flowers (strangely large for the Genus yet the name parviflorus means small flowered!). When the flowers finish
Stephen Ryan
Tropaeolum speciosum
I well remember this amazing herbaceous climber known as Flame Creeper dripping out of yew hedges in England and couldn’t wait to try it myself. So eventually seed came my way and up they came. It all seemed too easy considering the dire warnings of pundits suggesting it needs a Scottish climate to thrive! Well
Stephen Ryan
Oxalis tetraphylla ‘Iron Cross’
Yes I know that the Oxalis word is like offering someone bubonic plague but this is a truly lovely summer flowering species that i promise will make neat clumps and unless you spread the bulbs around it won’t become a problem. It grows throughout the summer and I would grow it for its bright green
Stephen Ryan
Smyrnium perfoliatum
This is one of the best self seeding biennials for semi-shade bar none in my humble opinion! It grows to about 60cms tall at flowering and to the uninitiated it could be a Euphorbia with its limy-yellow bracts surrounding the flowers. However those that look closely will realise that it is in fact Apiaceae (in
Stephen Ryan
Sambucus nigra ‘Linearis’
If you hanker after a cut leafed Japanese maple but can’t have one due to climatic constraints then perhaps this is the plant for you. It is a hardy deciduous shrub to 1.5metres tall and wide with foliage so fine that from a distance it looks like green smoke! and it has clusters of tiny
Stephen Ryan
Sambucus nigra ‘Madonna’
I hold the national collection of the Elderflower Genus and I think they are all useful hardy shrubs that deserve a space in any garden. After all you can use the flowers for fritters, cordial and champagne and the berries for jams, jellies and wine, the stems for Pan Pipes (the world obviously needs more
Stephen Ryan
Armoracia rusticana ‘Variegata’
I truly think that edibles can and should be part of the ornamental aspect of a garden, not that I’m advocating one of those flower filled vegie gardens which you feel you can’t pick a lettuce leaf for fear of ruining the show. If I can however find a pretty form of something that is
Stephen Ryan
Oemleria cerasiformis
This attractive shrub has never found itself in the limelight here in Australia and in my humble opinion unfairly so. It is hardy, coping with sun and cold well and not fussy about soil types. Its habit is upright to about 3metres and it will make a suckering clump which makes it ideal as a
Stephen Ryan
Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea’
This stunning ornamental Grape is rarely offered in Australia and I find it hard to understand why. It is far less rampant that the classical one and its leaves start to turn burgundy as soon as they get to full size so that right throughout late spring summer and autumn you get burgungy foliage which
Stephen Ryan
Allium carinatum pulchellum
Ornamental onions can be great garden plants as well as long lasting cut flowers or dried seed heads and if you get too many you can eat the surplus! This species that flowers in high summer on 50cm. tall often twisted stems is a favourite of mine for all the above reasons and it makes
Stephen Ryan