Andrea's Garden Reflections - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

January 29, 2025January 31, 2025

The 2025 Garden Colour of the Year is a stunner

A teal front door complements a small house with white roses, using garden colour of the year for gardens

Each year a Colour of the Year is announced for gardens.

The Colour of the Year for gardens influences plants that are grown by the wholesale growers and sold in garden centres. Most of the garden decor that you buy will also have a touch of this colour.

I will admit that when I heard about the Garden Colour of the Year for 2025 a huge smile beamed across my face.

This colour makes me incredibly happy. It reminds me of the colour of the waters around Broome, Western Australia and that’s just another great reason to absolutely love it!

Drum roll please, the Garden Colour of the Year for 2025 is TEAL.

Teal is a beautiful light green shade of blue that accents so well anywhere, but especially in the garden. Think big bold containers set into a garden bed, surrounded by grey foliage plants and you are right on the money. You might even decide to paint a door like the one below.

Offering the idea of calm crystal blue water without even having to lift a hose, Teal is a magical addition to any garden.

Imagine, looking out into the garden and being reminded of a trip to a Tiffany jewellery store and those pretty blue boxes tucked into their exclusive paper bags. You might work with me on this. Have you ever met anyone who received a gift in one of those boxes who did not squeal with anticipation of what might be in the bag?

It is the colour. I am sure of it. Now, with some carefully placed containers in shades of teal in your garden, you will feel like you’re receiving a gift from Tiffany everyday.

I had a dear friend who had an elegant ring that she always wore on her pinky finger, it was rose gold with teal coloured stones and I loved that ring. I think that when I see the colour teal it makes me think of my friend, Jennifer, and how she held her pinky up when she drank from a wine glass with that pretty ring perched on it.

Does colour spark emotion for you? Do certain colours make you happy in your garden? Do they remind you of an old friend?

This year consider combining the Colour of The Year for Gardens with The Pantone Colour of The Year for 2025, which is a little controversial for some, a shade of brown called Mocha Mousse. Don’t let the naysayers fool you, Mocha Mousse is a rich and velvety soft shade that looks stunning with Teal.

https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2025?srsltid=AfmBOoqKODe4wqiSnQaG5CMYW2Q1qw3iOJtc2O5L-QvmH94vjVldKk8q

Here are some Teal coloured drought tolerant plants I am adding to my garden designs in 2025.

Festuca glauca blue fescue grass

Agave attenuata

Myosotis Forget-me-nots

Senecio Blue Chalk Sticks

Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost (shade)

Paint some existing containers or old garden furniture, Teal

Paint is so inexpensive and a great way to change out your colours in the garden.

Dulux offer two beautiful shades called Teal Essence and the other is Lagoona Teal A302

https://www.dulux.com.au/specifier/colour/s30/teal-essence/?srsltid=AfmBOoo3_XkDqEKzbr912Xnt4E_y4qRywBOyOzn5pZL05YvG1603BGed https://www.dulux.co.nz/specifier/colour/s30/lagoona-teal/

These colours are super pretty and brighten up any boring containers that might otherwise be destined for the verge pick up and the hard rubbish collection. This is a quick and easy Summer Saturday afternoon project. You will love the results.

Mocha Mousse inspired plants for your teal-coloured containers include:
Carex (Spiller) and Cordyline (Thriller) add foliage colour along with stunning foliage with Heuchera (Filler) and Australian natives like Banksia blechnifolia. How about brown foliage succulents like Sempivervivum ‘Chocolate Kiss’. These plants all look amazing in any teal coloured container.

If you need some more colour advice, get in touch here.

The easiest option is to add some Teal or Mocha Mousse coloured cushions to your outdoor setting. Consider teal in the garden this year. If you combine it with Mocha Mousse in your planting combinations, even in a small vignette within your garden…you will be stylishly unstoppable.

Glazed Teal Containers, which one will feature in your garden this year?

Why not paint some old furniture?

August 6, 2024October 1, 2024

Working your way through Winter

grey storms rolling over the Perth skyline with a grey calm river

Perth city horizon with grey stormy clouds overhead and a choppy murky river to the front.

Makuru June and July The Season of Fertility

OK, so yes, it is rainy and a bit cold out there but that shouldn’t stop us die hard gardeners from setting the foundations for a stunning spring garden.

Makuru in Noongar language, (the indigenous language from where most of us live and garden here in Perth and Western Australia) is known as the season of fertility. June and July, is the time when the seeds you plant in your garden will easily germinate shortly after you plant them. The seeds will be watered and nourished by the rain and warmed by the sunshine when we have those days in between the rains. It is the perfect time for planting.

Be a careful shopper

New plants when planted small as tube stock or smaller specimens will really take off at this time of the year and actually will settle into the soil much faster than if your were to plant a bigger plant from the garden centre. This ultimately saves you money and you end up with a more beautiful garden with healthy well established plants by the time we experience the heat of summer as the roots are more established and can survive with less water. At the garden centre or nursery don’t always go for the biggest plant you can find. There is always a good selection of smaller plants to choose from. Check them out first. Many local councils will offer vouchers for discounted tube stock plants from APACE nursery to help you get started. https://www.apacewa.org.au/

Prepare your Soil before you Plant

This is the best time to improve your soil with compost and minerals to prepare. The soil is nice and damp so will make digging easier and adding nutrients to the soil a breeze. Also, it is cooler so easier on your own body working outdoors. I use Mature Compost from Swan Valley Landscape Supplies. https://www.swanvalleylandscapesupplies.com.au/

Don’t Prune Your Roses just yet

It is still too early to prune your roses, wait until August or even early September. Don’t prune them too hard, especially if you have cut them back after Summer due to the dreaded chilli thrip.

Keep an Eye on Your Weeds, please!

Keep your weeds under control by pulling them as they emerge, let’s not make heavy weather of this…see one poking its head out, rip it out. Stop them from spreading their seeds into your neighbour’s house. My favourite weeding tool is the Cobrahead Weeder-you can buy them in Australia now. https://www.allrareherbs.com.au/product/mini-weeder-cultivator-garden-tool/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwk8e1BhALEiwAc8MHiBGY1Wqjdw55k5Q8GW25583V8kREmPPxhB2B0i44S_yUD8CS8F6B7xoCf_EQAvD_BwE

Snuggle Up with A Good Book

If it’s too wet outside, there’s always a good gardening book to read. I am reading Good Life Gardening by Hannah Maloney. https://au.permacultureprinciples.com/product/good-life-growing/

What are you reading, this winter?

Grey but calm view of the Perth skyline across the river from a jetty.

October 2, 2024January 30, 2025

Australian honoured for the first time in 76 years

Andrea Whitely sitting at an award dinner table with female friends around her

Feeling like a winner, *here’s me with my very special award*

Drum Roll Please

Grand Rapids Michigan was the host city for this years annual conference of Garden Communicators International. 2024 was the first time in its’ 76 year history Garden Communicators International honoured an Australian garden communicator,

What an Honour!

Now a Fellow of GardenComm International, this honour recognizes me as a member in good standing demonstrating exceptionally high degrees of skill, professional ethics, and dedication to GardenComm’s mission and values.

Education and Collaboration

GardenComm International provides opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for wide-ranging interactions and collaborations within the gardening and horticulture industries for garden communicators all over the world.

*Receiving my award from Immediate Past President of Garden Communicators International from Maria Zampini*

Traveling and Sharing Knowledge

After many years serving as a Regional Director (Canada and The Rest of The World), I worked on the marketing sub committee set up especially for the purpose of rebranding of Garden Writers Association (GWA) to become Garden Communicators International (GardenComm). I have attended every face-to-face conference since 2015 and the virtual ones during the pandemic.

I feel extremely lucky to have been mentored by some incredible garden communicators during my association with this organisation.

Visiting the best of the best public and private gardens all over the USA and Canada, as well as behind the scenes sneak peeks into world famous plant growers and the work that they do to bring beautiful healthy plants to market has been one of the most wonderful aspects of my GardenComm membership and travel over the years.

Educational opportunities provided by speakers from all over the world have been integral to my professional development in garden communcations.

Each year, I am updated and inspired by not only the latest plants coming to market, the trends but also equipment that is available for gardeners and I bring that back that knowledge with me each year to Perth to share with my clients and radio audiences.

Mostly, though it is the people who have become my trusted friends freely sharing information and a desire for genuine collaboration despite the challenges associated with the tyranny of distance.

If you would like to find out more about being a member of Garden Communicators International please click on the link below

https://info.gardencomm.org