Up at Elizabeth Park we were on the look-out for some cloudburst of rain for months. So nice we got a bit; nothing to write home to Mum about - a smudge of wash on the windscreen as we drove up to the park.
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Rather pointless really. We have our new Andromeda plants (Pieris japonica) shoved-in beside the thirsty Japanese Maple at the Tea House. They seem to be standing up to it.
In my imagination I hear the tinkle of water overflowing the ornamental, sun-scorched rain-chain nearby; a welcome sound above the soft and intimate susurrance (whisper) of drizzle on the Tea House roof. What! We can dream can’t we?
Are you shaking your head? What! We can dream can’t we? Our Japanese garden consultant finalized his request for us to plant Andromeda around the garden. Of course Andromeda don’t really like our hot summer afternoons, or our high alkaline reactive soils; both together being a double negative as lame as grammatical statements like: ‘Nobody told me nothing,’ ‘We don’t want none neither,’ or ‘Aren’t no one going to.’ So anyway we pushed all those reservations aside and planted them anyway.
Certainly given that Andromeda is very suited to a Japanese Garden, it should be here at Shoyoen. This group of plants come from Japan, China, and Taiwan. Yes, they belong in our design. If also you consider how pretty they are with a possible three metre height with red young leaves, yes, you could agree they are to die for. (Unless they die for you first).
Now the flowers are something else again. Coming along in spring with a drooping urn-shaped series of pearl bubbles, waxy-white, sometimes stained with red streaks near the rim. Yes, very decorative indeed!
Of course the giant question mark remains; as if it were parched white on a display banner in the blistering sun: Should we take this chance with Andromedas?
Adding to their reputation of frailty is the fact that when they arrived in mid spring last year, our supervisor had to salvage them in a rescue operation from a flight of Galahs who swooped on our Hawthorn nursery as if they were Stuka bombers at Dunkirk, blasting the pearl flowers into oblivion.
You see, it was 10 years ago exactly when a Japanese gardener was backpacking around Australia. His name was Hiro and he came to our Shoyoen Gardens and agreed to help for our Anniversary preparation. Marvellous job he did. Before leaving he gifted two Andromeda plants from Old Ganarrin nursery for out Tea Garden.
Those first two perished in the drought years and this last year our garden adviser requested we plant in the same spot again. Fingers crossed.
