PURPLE REIGN

TODD AND AMELIA WILSHIRE’S GARDEN IN THE QUEENSLAND TOWN OF STANTHORPE IS A SHARED PASSION THAT BRINGS THEM JOY SEASON AFTER SEASON.

Todd and Amelia Wilshire discovered a shared love of gardening under the wisteria-clad arbours of their backyard in Stanthorpe, Queensland.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH A MAN with a nearly one-hectare garden is a bit like falling in love with a man who has children, in that if you’ve had zero experience with the aforementioned children or garden, it would be understandable for you to feel overwhelmed when they all of a sudden became part of your daily life. Amelia Wilshire was a teacher in Sydney who didn’t have a single pot plant in her Paddington apartment when she met her future husband at a Sydney pub in 2011. But instead of sinking, she learned how to swim (or, in this case, prune and pot and plant). Todd Wilshire, 41, was living in the Queensland town of Stanthorpe, 218 kilometres south-west of Brisbane — where he is managing director of his family’s rural merchandise business Wilshire and Co. Todd bought the beautiful property ‘Wahroonga’ on the east bank of the town’s Quart Pot Creek in 2010. The garden was already well-established and rather magnificent, as the previous owners Dennis and Rosslyn Lincoln had commissioned well-known local garden designer Carolyn Robinson to work on it in 1994. It was to this place that Todd invited Amelia to come and stay for a weekend, after courting her over the phone for several months following their meeting in Sydney. Amelia was initially hesitant as she hadn’t known Todd for that long. However, after some encouragement from her sister to take a chance, she decided to head for the country. “I’ve never looked back,” says Amelia. “Right from the get-go, Todd and I got along.” In the early days of their relationship, Amelia thought the garden was lovely, but didn’t entertain the idea of actually living in it or having to look after it. It was only when she later moved to Stanthorpe full-time in 2012 that it hit her. “I had no idea where to start, no idea what to do,” says the 41-year-old, with a laugh. “I was a bit overwhelmed.” In desperation she rang up Carolyn and asked if she could share any basic gardening tips and how to keep things alive. “She was fantastic, and completely unintimidating. She said: ‘Amelia, anyone can be a gardener. As long you have a little bit of interest, it will all go from there.’ Carolyn taught me how to plant properly, how and when to cut things back and how to choose plants specific to the climate. Above all she taught me to choose plants you really like. It was just what I needed to hear.” Five years, a wedding and one very sweet daughter later, Amelia, Todd and their two-year-old, Poppy, are going strong — just like their garden. “What Todd and >

I love about the garden is that every season new things pop up, and you see things you did together that actually worked. You get joy in those successes — it’s really fun as a couple — and it’s wonderful to have something in common that is not work-based.” The garden shifts between informal areas of native grass plantings and camellia beds to more formal sections with dry rock walls, gravel paths, long wisteria walkways and large ‘roomed’ hedging. A hedged avenue on the south-east side of the garden leads you down towards the creek, past distinctly coloured rooms on both sides — filled with pink, blue and orange, red or yellow flowers. At the end of the path you hit a wisteria clad arbour, which drips with scented purple blooms like chandeliers in early spring. “The wisteria is a stunner. It never disappoints. It only lasts 10 days, but it is dreamy and gorgeous,” says Amelia. After the wisteria finishes, the magnificent roses — mostly David Austin varieties — start to bloom. The large, red heads of the ‘L.D. Braithwaite’ roses blaze en masse at the front of the house, bordered by clipped box hedges. There are also swathes of lovely pink roses: pale pink rambling ‘Chaucers’, ‘Champagne Moments’, with their light creamy-pink petals, Amelia’s favourite ‘Perditas’ and the ‘Pierre de Ronsard’. Then there are the trees: ornamental cherries, Manchurian pears, silver birches, pin oaks, prunus, Chinese elms, to name a few — chosen because of their blossoms in spring, or their generous shade in summer. And this year Amelia planted a peony bed, which, if all goes to plan, will yield flowers one day. The cold climate garden is also home to snowball bushes, with their glorious white puffs towering overhead. “We certainly couldn’t do it without our part-time gardeners Clem Birmingham and Julianne Williamson. They are great to bounce ideas off, and are integral in making our ideas and plans into a reality.” Also their friend and rose guru, Johnny Andreatta, tends to the roses on a voluntary basis, just because he loves it. “Friendships have been formed over working in the garden, which is something so unexpected and lovely for me,” says Amelia. “Carolyn Robinson said don’t get intimidated, it’s just a garden and the great thing about a garden is it is always evolving. Things will die, things will surprise you and things will always change.” They certainly do. They can even change from a plantless apartment in Sydney to a sprawling garden in rural Queensland. Todd and Amelia’s garden is open to the public as part of the Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival, held biennially in March.