Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

Heliotropes a special feature in Garden of the Week

Marlene and Wayne Penner have a lovely and unique Colonel Butler Street garden showing lots of foliage, colour and texture. Using the large lot, the owners have broken the expanse with numerous gardens featuring annuals, rocks, and even a gargoyle.
Marla Percy
Marlene and Wayne Penner have a lovely and unique Colonel Butler Street garden showing lots of foliage, colour and texture. Using the large lot, the owners have broken the expanse with numerous gardens featuring annuals, rocks, and even a gargoyle. The garden is extended onto the porch which features ferns and other containers to provide a lovely sitting area. The garden is very well maintained and a visual delight.

The lush garden at 48 Colonel Butler Crescent has a back drop of lovely trees and perennials, but it is the splendid array of colourful annuals that stop traffic

It’s a garden that makes you smile. Several of the beds feature a scented plant called heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens), which was a staple of Victorian gardens. It had a revival in the 1980s and now it is hit and miss if you can find it. But it is worth the search. 

The purple to lilac blossoms sit primly on the top of their stems with bright dark green foliage. Originally a tree-like plant from the Peruvian Andes, it was brought to Paris in 1740 and became a plant to be used in perfumes. More compact forms were quickly developed to create smaller bedding plants.

Heliotrope is associated with nosegays and courtships – chaste and wholesome. It has a pleasant fragrance (which has unfortunately suffered from over-breeding) but if you find the sweetest smelling ones you can take cuttings for the following year. It’s a gentle plant which holds its own amidst the others, and makes you take a second look.