Gabby Malpas and Sarah Ryan at Chapel House, Rydal

Now that Spring has truly sprung downunder, this year's garden shows are in full swing.
Sarah and I had a lovely weekend and star billing at the Rydal Daffodil festival at Chapel House.

Chapel house is owned by Jo and Mike Maxwell who look after the extenive 10 acre gardens and grounds themselves.

The Australian Garden Show - in pictures

Well unfortunately, Sydney did not play nice for the 4 days of the Australian garden show.  The persistent rain meant a very wet weekend and much of the show was very muddy underfoot.  However, the gardeners were not deterred and when the sun finally came out on Sunday afternoon, the show gardens were beautiful to behold.  Here are some random shots of the weekend.

Graham Ross came by for a special introduction of Sarah and her work at Hillandale Gardens & Nursery to his guest audience.

Gabby Malpas at the Australian Garden Show, Sydney Thursday 4 Sept - Sunday 7 September

I'm so excited to be showing at the Australian Garden Show at Centennial Park, Sydney this week and weekend.

My giftware items will be in attendance - plus some items I have made especially for the show

Sarah Ryan of Hillandale Gardens and Nursery fame will be with me offering Garden Consultancy and nursery services - I call her 'Capability Brown Downunder'.

Please come and say hello - we are on Stand 89.

More little birds

A lot of my pictures so far this year have included little birds.  On my post Christmas visit to Hillandale Gardens there were a lot of little birds around and masses and masses of butterflies flitting between the flowers.

Him Indoors says that the inclusion of little beasts in my work brings them to life.  I tend to agree.

Anyway, here is another selection of small, square bird pictures.  Some of these have gone to a lovely home in NZ.  Some will be going into my forthcoming shows in April/May.

Little bird pictures

As him indoors' has said: "your pictures are livelier with some beasts in them".

And so I have made a series of little pictures with birds.  From the top: NZ fantail, firetail finch, fairy wren, silver eye or wax eye.

New seed packet designs

New seed packet designs: from top: Phlox, Lupins and Bronze fennel.

Coming soon to Sarah's seeds

Playdate at Hillandale: Jan 3

 

On Thursday I took a drive out to Hillandale Gardens & Nursery, in Yetholme, NSW to have a playdate with my good friend Sarah who owns and operates the garden/nursery with her husband Andrew.

It was a lovely day.  The garden changes almost weekly and Sarah's thoughtful and fabulous plantings means that when one plant stops flowering or dies down, there are plenty more to take its place.    Everything is organic and the work is done entirely by this hardworking couple to transform a derelict and overgrown mess into what must be one of the finest cottage gardens in NSW. 

 

Butterflies and birds were out in attendance and we were joined on our tour of the garden by the resident dogs: Snowy (loves her tummy rubbed), Lily (a little timid mop), and Pixie (the nutty Pomeranian).

Not all was play.  The serious business of discussing the next sets of seed packets and plans for 2013 were undertaken in Sarah's office: the potting/seed shed.

 

Have a great weekend all.

Hillandale Gardens and Nursery

Another plug for a very good friend: Sarah Ryan of Hillandale Gardens and Nursery, Yetholme, NSW

Sarah's beautiful garden is open to the public this weekend: Saturday and Sunday 27/28 October.  The garden is at Eusdale Road, Yetholme.


Sarah will have an abundance of hard-to-find plants: seedlings, cuttings, root systems and established plants will be for sale plus the largest selection of our seed packet designs to date.

This is a well-known and must attend event in the local gardeners' calendars and bus loads go from Sydney it is so popular.

I will be going to get inspired and of course plunder the garden for Spring flowers - I feel a 'rhododendron series' coming on...

Sarah's website is here.

Her facebook page is here.