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89 Olinda-Monbulk Rd, Olinda
Victoria, Australia (03) 9751 1009

Photography by
Claire Takacs & Jeremy Francis

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December 2015 Newsletter

By Jeremy Francis
December, 2015

I guess the best thing that can be said for the somewhat curious season we seem to be having is that it has brought the flowering of our Summer Borders forward by several weeks. Penstemons which normally flower in mid-December are blooming their heads off right now. Winter dragged a bit, then summer arrived with a bang. Spring, I think, was that four days in between. No-matter, what I’m sure is a tricky season for farming areas for us has the garden looking glorious.


Hosta Hosta

Another plant to have enjoyed the season has been our old Japanese Silver Bell. I have never seen it with so much flower. And our Hostas are fabulous. These will be good now for the summer. Also, a little boast over Paris polyphylla, the no-more-gaps plant as Ric Dooley christened it years back. Our little colony is looking simply splendid hanging over the hostas.


Paris Polyphylla

Now, for those looking for Christmas ideas – we are busily selling tickets to Cloudehill’s twilight performances of Shakespeare by Ozact (January Fri 1st & Sat 2nd). This year Bruce and the team are putting on Midsummer Night’s Dream, everyone’s favourite Shakespeare! What better present could there be? I reckon three or four tickets for that tricky uncle/brother-in-law, the one who has everything. Even better, send them that obscure bottle of wine someone left behind after a dinner party last winter and grab a few tickets for yourself!


A Midsummer Night's Dream

The tickets are selling! Try Booking makes buying as easy as falling off a very slippery log.
Check our website events page.

PS – If you are a Facebook person, check out our Facebook page for lots of gardening tips and tricks. You could even ‘like us’ so you know when we have posted something new in-between our monthly newsletters. View our Facebook Page.

About the Author

Jeremy Francis
Jeremy Francis, for over 20 years, farmed a wheat and sheep property in Western Australia, a few minute's drive west of the Benedictine Community Monastry of New Norcia. Selling the farm he and his family moved the the Dandenongs in 1990 and after two years hunting for a property on which to make a garden, bought what is now Cloudehill in 1992 and commenced making the garden that Easter. Jeremy Francis covers the making of Cloudehill in his first book, Cloudehill: A Year in the Garden, published by Images in 2010 (See below). Cloudehill: A Book of Days is the working title for his second project which it is hoped should be available during 2016.

Cloudehill: A Year in the Garden
90,000 words over 264 pages by Jeremy Francis, with hundreds of pictures and some two dozen ‘hero’ shots by photographer, Claire Takacs. Claire has been hugely successful in the International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition and her work is very familiar in garden journals around the world. Signed copies of the book can be ordered for just $50 + $15 P&P by calling Jeremy Francis on 03 9751 1009. View some sample Pages >
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