Garden Clinic Blog

The Singapore stopover might once have been about shopping, but now it’s about gardens. Add these destinations to your itinerary.

Hot and steamy with the odd torrential downpour is the order of business for the subtropical garden. Our resident tropical garden expert Arno King has the lowdown on what’s happening this December in the subtropical garden.

Justine Smith’s beautifully grown rhipsalis flew off the tables at Collectors’ Plant Fair this year. Don’t worry if you missed out - she’s now supplying Flower Power with these hairy hanging delights under the Jungle Cactus label.

Cool green curtains dripping delicate leaves from fine stems are mesmerising. Reversing the trend of growing upward to the light, plants that grow down, and hang around are jewels for gardeners.

The show gardens at Singapore's first-ever Horticulture Show earlier this year blurred the boundary between the natural and built environment and introduced us to a whole new place to garden - the ceiling!

My garden is largely a tropical holiday filled with luxurious foliages and a fruit salad of orange, hot pink, red and gold flowers. A sprinkling of blue grounds that hot colour in a garden bed that sweeps around an oval lake of lawn. In summer the best thing to do is find a seat in the shade and soak it up.

No one does a hanging basket of summer flowers quite like the English, and, inspired by a recent trip, we’re determined to give it a good shake this summer. We’ve included here some favourite basket-happy plants with the right cascading habit - and some options for really hot spots. The thing is to design an arrangement like a posy, with a mix of textures and colours. Have fun, be bold, try something new, and toss it all at the end of the season.

The soft clouds of hydrangea flowers are a promise of summer. Let’s take a closer look at growing these plants year-round.

In the Kitchen Garden series that shares the knowledge and experience of food growers around the country, Kate Neale dishes the dirt on her top summer growing tips and her favourite new harvest.

Add some summer dazzle to a sunny balcony with these pot-loving beauties.

The sparkling blue and white flowers of agapanthus cool the summer garden, and new colours are a real thrill.

Chelsea is a magical garden world as full of dreams and emotion as it of of sheer hard work and skill.

Graham Ross shares his best tips to make the most out of the Chelsea flower show in this survival guide.

Chelsea is the prize bloom of the world's garden shows, and the reputation is well-deserved. Here Robin Powell shares her observations on what has been another breath-taking Chelsea Flower Show.

In Greece local cooks prefer to make their spanokopita (spinach pie) with the mix of wild greens known as horta.

These easy-care, minty-fresh flowery fillers offer reliable and long-lasting summer colour.

These furry, iconic Australian flowers are a great addition to a potted garden, especially the smaller varieties.

Kath Gadd’s company is Mallee Design, a garden design business that uses only Australian plants, and does a neat sideline in beautiful, spun copper birdbaths.

One of the great delights of leading tours for Ross Garden Tours around Australia and the world is picking up great ideas. Here are a few from this year's travels.

Heather Cant is known locally as the Rose Lady. Find out why in this extract from ‘Beyond the Garden Gate: private gardens of the Southern Highlands’.

Anne Ruston is a South Australian senator, but for rose lovers the really important job she holds is as owner of Ruston Roses, a horticultural icon in South Australia, established by her uncle David. Robin Powell walked though the garden with her.

The charms of French country living inspired Marian Somes to create her own version at her beautiful garden Picardy in the Gippsland hills. How did she do it? Here she shares four underlying elements of the French country garden.

Simple and delicious, Libby's Armenian Nutmeg cake, with a nice cup of tea, is the perfect treat after a hard spring morning's garden.

Roses mix it up at Wisley, blooming brilliantly with a range of other flowering plants.

Opening pale pink then fading to soft coffee cream ‘Cafe au Lait’ is a celebrity-status dahlia. The multi-petalled blooms are up to 25 cm across and there may be 40 on a plant at once, so strong support is essential.

The purple veil that floats over Sydney in November is an international star – but not one most of us can bring home.

Inspired to get hedging? Choosing the right plant for your hedging plan is critical. Look for a height range and maintenance regime that suits your needs, as well as plants that will do well given the soil and position you can offer. Here are a handful of the hedging plants we think should be on your shortlist.

It’s time to pull out winter crops to make room for summer’s great produce. Here Linda Ross shares her know-how and experience about what to plant now to keep a family of four enjoying delicious home-grown food all through summer.

Eating flowers sounds exotic but in fact we do it all the time. Some are disguised, like saffron, which is the dried stigma of the crocus flower; others are obvious, like the gold flowers of zucchini.