GET GROWING!

FLOWER POWER FOR MAXIMALISTS

“There is no right way to garden. It is a personal pursuit of pleasure. All gardens are worthy and wondrous.” Image credit: Super Bloom by Jac Semmler.

By LADYBUG

Super Bloom is a love letter to flowers in which leading plant specialist Jac Semmler revives the appeal of treasured, old-world, beautiful flowers for the modern garden.

Starting with the pretty daisies with gold centres on the cover. Gold! How 70s chic is that!

Of the 72 plants illustrated in the opening double-page spread, I am delighted to note I have several. Okay, I’m done being modest – I have most. At least the ones that will grow in my gardening zone and the ones I can persuade to do their thing as exotic potted plants. Of course, nowhere near the scale of her super lush plantings, but still something to celebrate, right?

And the ones I hadn’t even heard of – Kangaroo Paw for one – I am going on the hunt for. For some weird reason I imagined agapanthus as a tropical beauty, but seeing the “resilient friends” Semmler lists, I am also determined to source one. Seeing as how rudbeckia, yarrow, sedum and iris flourish in my garden, I am hoping I can make agapanthus feel at home, too. Though she gardens in Australia, and lists some quintessential Australian flowers like the fun-sounding ptilotus which also goes by mulla mulla, the same applies to my hope for Kangaroo Paw.

All flowers have a “super” quality, writes Semmler in her introduction, going on to add that her heart lives in her garden.

“In the garden I know who I am – my family, my history, my loves and losses, and my dreams for the future. The practice of gardening and tending plants has nurtured my relationship with the landscape and helped me form a sense of place and identity.”

A profound and yet beautifully simple philosophy leads one into her garden.

There is no right way to garden. It is a personal pursuit of pleasure. All gardens are worthy and wondrous. As we garden through small heartbreaks and great wonder, watching plants thrive and decline through the seasons, we are in partnership with ourselves and nature.

I make a note to self to remember this. Specially the first part, when I am overwhelmed by just how organized and reined in some gardens look compared to the admittedly chaotic space that is mine.

Specially when I read that she is a maximalist: maximum plants and maximum beauty. “Happiness for me is when every corner of the garden is packed with plants and I am surrounded by foliage and flowers.”

Sections on soil, climate, gardening zones, light and water requirements, plant care and division, etc., segue into the one on plant profiles. Which begins with this perfect definition of Achillea (yarrow): A ready-formed posy of flowers.

Aquilegia (columbines) are granny bonnets, but of course! Chamomile is “little rays of sunshine” and daisy, “a solid gold flower”. Another swoon-worthy description is “A vertical line of flower fairies” for delphinium.

I love how these descriptions add a personality to some of my favourite plants.

I also learn a new way of looking at other plants.

Semmler describes cardoons or globe artichokes as perennials with a “divine thistle-like flower”. I think of the tall prickly thistles that sprout by our backyard fence that I wage a determined battle against each spring and summer and wonder if we can, after all, live in harmony.

Semmler also shares portraits of other gardeners, and tips and guidance from them, capturing generational wisdom in the garden.

After the oohing and aahing comes the tending, “with dirty hands and a warm heart”. This includes valuable info on sowing, caring for seedlings and transplanting, propagating, etc.

As she points out, though, “it is even better when plants ‘volunteer’ in the garden, germinating of their own accord from seeds dispersed in a previous season. These seedlings that emerge naturally are healthy and full of vigour in the position in which they choose to thrive.

This sumptuous volume is not one you snuggle with – the heavy tome (seriously heavy!) calls for sessions in your favourite armchair or recliner, your beverage of choice at hand, as you immerse yourself in the magic of flowers.

Super Bloom by Jac Semmler is published by Thames & Hudson, $86.