Garden owners who open in autumn fill me with admiration.
Everything is so chancy. Leaf colour varies from year to year, depending on rain and frost, and you never know when berries, rosehips and crab apples will be at their best or indeed there at all.
Yet, an autumn when everything comes together is magical.
Whether you're planning a new garden or re-invigorating an old one, put some thought into how it will look in April and May.
Dahlias flower from midsummer until frost and are amazingly heat and drought tolerant.
My newly planted clump of 'Bishop of Llandaff' came through last summer with minimal irrigation, numerous large, scarlet flowers appearing from late February on among glossy, greenish purple leaves.
The bishop's leaf colour varies from light to dark purple, so you may prefer to buy a nursery plant and see what you're getting, rather than relying on mail order tubers.
Dahlias are associated inextricably in my mind with Empress Josephine, Napoleon's first wife and creator of the glorious garden at Malmaison near Paris.
Josephine was a passionate plant collector - the horticulture mad British allowed ships carrying her plants free passage during the Napoleonic Wars - and after dahlias were introduced from Mexico in the late 18th century, she developed many splendid new hybrids at Malmaison.
Sadly, her unwillingness to share her collection led to its loss. A visiting Polish count begged for a few and on being refused, bribed a lady in waiting to ask a gardener for some tubers.
On discovering the theft Josephine was so enraged she ordered all her dahlias to be dug up and shredded for compost and banned them from Malmaison forever.
It's significant, I think, that the world's greatest botanical artist Pierre Joseph Redoute, who worked for Josephine for many years, did not paint a dahlia until well after her death.
Dahlias are easy to grow although they appreciate extra water in dry weather and the tubers are frost tender. Highland and inland gardeners need to dig them up and store in dry sawdust over winter. They multiply readily.
Two pomegranate trees (Punica granatum) planted last winter have also done brilliantly. Despite being in what was, to be honest, a highly unfavourable spot, exposed to the full force of south-westerlies, they flourished through the wickedly hot dry summer with little extra water.
Even more exciting, each produced its first shiny reddish-brown pomegranate, lovely among scarlet autumn leaves. So, I'm hoping within a year or two they'll be a great feature.
Meanwhile the leaves on another recently planted tree, a staghorn sumach cultivar (Rhus typhina) turned bright red, orange and gold but soon fell. I'm hoping this was due merely to the drought and isn't a permanent habit.
No autumn garden is complete without annual tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris) which self-seeds though not aggressively. Sow near your outdoor eating area and enjoy the ethereal scent at dusk from its long tubular white flowers.
Enjoy gorgeous autumn colour at Mayfield Garden Autumn Festival (www.mayfieldgarden.com.au/) concluding April 27-28.
