Perennial Garden Tour: with designer Michael McCoy

This week on The Horti-Culturalists a very special visit to a private garden designed by Michael McCoy. Michael explains the origins of the garden from his first site visit, to the client brief and the challenges he encountered in the implementation of his design in a fairly windswept and dry location with almost no soil! It's now a beautifully mature and settled garden which we were lucky enough to have the run of! And you can too if you're near Woodend, in Victoria, this weekend as the garden will be open as fundraising event this Sat 17th Feb - for all the details go to Michael's Instagram account here: / michaelmccoyongardens
And if you'd like to find out more about Michael's gardens, books, TV program and garden tours, you can at his website here: thegardenist.c...
And many thanks to the owners of this fabulous garden for allowing us to film and to Michael for his time in explaining the garden's origins to us!
The plants we mention in this video are:
Stipa gigantea
Miscanthus sinensis
Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster'
Agapanthus 'Guilfoyle'
Verbascum
Echinacea
Agastache 'Nadine'
Phlomis tuberosa
Caryopteris clandonensis
Salvia rosmarinus - Rosemary
Sedum 'Matrona'
Euphorbia characias
Achillea millefolium 'Terracotta'
Kniphofia
Cussonia
You can find our Euphorbia video here: • Plant profile: six int...
And our Cussonia video here: • Plant profile: nine in...

[@dansullivan3868]

Thank guys for your presentation of such a beautifully arranged perennial garden. For everyone like myself who was unable to visit on the open day it was a privilege to have you guys as our guides. Always informative and entertaining👌

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Our pleasure! Regards Stephen

[@yvonnerolley9676]

Love Michael’s designs and work too

[@thehorti-culturalists]

He does lovely plant based designs doesn’t he. Regards Stephen

[@GardenDiaries1]

You're brilliant!!!! How do you not have millions of followers yet!!!! I love you guys. It feels like a "kuier"....visit among friends.. Cheers from South Africa!!!

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for the compliments and we don't know why we don't have a million followers yet. Regards Stephen

[@kerryjean2223]

I love a hard working weeder without the use of poison. Awesome and truly the only way to really weed. Awesome. Thanks for sharing your magnificent property.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Yes good hand weeders are a blessing, just wish I could find a few for my nursery! Regards Stephen

[@kerryjean2223]

You wouldn't have any weeds if I worked at your nursery. No, I'm happily retired.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Interesting interview and such a good garden

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Well a positive comment from someone who's been there! Glad you enjoyed it and hope the trip home wasn't too onerous. Stephen xx

[@seddonr1]

Thanks for the video. Visited the garden on the 17th. Your video gave more details and a much better understanding on what we were looking at. Beautiful garden and a fantastic location.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Glad it was helpful! Regards Stephen

[@ThreeRunHomer]

Those “new perennial style” gardens are gorgeous.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Aren’t they just! Regards Stephen

[@BotanicAlley]

What a crazy before and after!!

[@thehorti-culturalists]

It is all after. Regards Stephen

[@lisakennedy]

Hello from Adelaide. Just here to say I am learning so much from your videos! I really hope you keep it up. Thank you so much!

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Glad you like them! Tell all your friends as well so we can build an audience that makes doing our videos worth it. Regards Stephen

[@jaqmackie]

Thanks for another fantastic video. Just loved this garden 💚

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Our pleasure! Regards Stephen

[@besottedorchids3605]

The agapanthus is stunning! I'll keep my eye out for it.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

It is being grown in Victoria and I know Lambley nursery at Ascot was propagating it. Regards Stephen

[@duujo]

Wonderful detailed video! Thank you

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Glad you enjoyed it! Regards Stephen

[@matteosollecito2448]

Well, he is the real McCoy!

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Certainly is. Regards Stephen

[@besottedorchids3605]

Stephen, great video. Living in Ohio US , my grasses die off in the winter. I leave them til spring to enjoy them in the wind. I hate to hear your thoughts on this but. ....I set them on fire in the spring to prepare for new growth. This is a very quick clean up. And yes I wet the area around and standby with a hose.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

That is one way of dealing with it! Regards Stephen

[@ilnpa2722]

Great show! Majestic beautiful trees! Thanks for sharing❤😊❤

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for watching!

[@clairebadcock2720]

I’m in northern Tasmania and Stipa gigantea has self seeded everywhere in my garden! 🥲

[@thehorti-culturalists]

It must self seed in the wild and so I suggest that there will be places where it does but not in our area. You must admit it is lovely though. Regards Stephen

[@clairebadcock2720]

It is so beautiful but it’s a challenge for me. Conversely, for me, Phlomis tuberosa really struggles! 🫤

[@onechristianwallace]

The problems I'd love to have 😊

[@anjastracey-pijnappels7332]

Love your videos. Only discovered them 2 days ago. About the kniphofia, ;-)😂 the k isn't silent. The plant is named after Herr Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, in the C18. I had to Google it 😂. The o in hof is short as in dot. Thanks for your lovely videos. I've sent a link to a friend who loves plants and anything to do with them. From the south of the UK, all the best.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for watching!

[@anjastracey-pijnappels7332]

@@thehorti-culturalists such a pleasure.

[@Kay-qt2id]

Thank you guys and of course the owners and Michael for sharing this landscape. I have just purchased Mr Guilfoyles honeymoon, a diary of Guilfoyles travels around Europe so looking forward to a great read. Must get the agapanthus

[@thehorti-culturalists]

It was our pleasure.Regards Stephen

[@thecrazygardenernz3271]

The owners sound like some pretty clued up plants people and dedicated gardeners

[@thehorti-culturalists]

They are! Thanks for watching!

[@liamkillick7132]

Great video! Regarding the Kniphofia, Monty Don reckons its pronounced k-nip-hofia, as Herr Kniphoff was German!

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for the info! Regards Stephen

[@laratolomeo7970]

I love that green shirt so much where is it from?

[@thehorti-culturalists]

It was a plain green hemp shirt I bought and hardly wore it. Then a friend appliquéd it for me and so it is unique and I love it. Regards Stephen

[@elenamolchanova5519]

Thank you! The video was great as always. I am curious, what was a plant at 8:18 min on the lower left with dots like leaves?

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Ceratostrigma plumbaginoides. Regards Stephen

[@elenamolchanova5519]

Of course! Thank you. Always love it, and often do not recognize it.

[@dianecotton9531]

I love my Stipa gigantea & some other native grasses that naturally are around. My daughter, though, thinks l'm nuts! 😂 l also love my garden & l'm not that careful with colours and sometimes l see 2 colours together by happenstance that l find striking......like my pink delphinium & orange crocosmia, believe it or not! Plus l love orange or red & purple together.....Actually, after saying that, l am thinking maybe l consider colour more than l thought! 😂😂😂

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for sharing!! Regards

[@nicolasbertin8552]

Some weird advice there. Agastaches are known to be quite short lived, usually 2-3 years, not long lived like you said. Echinaceas are NOT drought tolerant, at least not the purpurea shown here. Some are more drought tolerant, like pallida or paradoxa, but the regular echinaceas will need some watering in the dry summers of Australia or mainland Europe, unless you got an incredibly fertile soil.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

The proof is in the pudding as we say and the plants we saw were quite some years old and still flourishing here in Australia. Regards Stephen

[@nicolasbertin8552]

@@thehorti-culturalists If that is really the case then you've found a miraculous cultivar of agastache, because all the others do not go past 3 years. And regarding Phlomis Tuberosa, they don't die out after flowering, it's only in areas of dry summers that they go dormant, you can find the info in most books about perennials (at least I have the info in the books I have).

[@wendykennon]

How can I get rid of oxalis? Richmond Victoria

[@mygeorgiaokeeffe]

Who doesn’t love to cogitate…

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Well I certainly do! Regards Stephen

[@MDA-rs4uf]

Funny you all debate kniphofia because some in our area of southeast US pronounce it "Nip .... Hofia" ,,,,almost as if it is 2 words. I wish I could make kniphofia happy here but so far I've not succeeded.

[@thehorti-culturalists]

There will always be debate after all it is a dead language and not even the spoken form. Regards Stephen

[@mitzi605]

Very beautiful

[@thehorti-culturalists]

Thanks for watching!