Antique Perennials

Above: Helenium ‘Julia Holmes’, bred in house at Antique Perennials and named after owner Michael’s wife. All photos in this article courtesy Antique Perennials. Below: Michael Morant and Matt Reed, the horticultural brains behind Antique Perennials.

By Emily Friedel

Antique Perennials is not your average plant nursery. It is the product of decades of carefully selecting plants from around the world or breeding them in house, then rigorously testing their mettle to ensure garden worthiness. The stunning display garden showcases the nursery’s offerings, giving visitors a glimpse of what’s possible with considered plantings. And the opportunity to pick the growers’ brains provides the public with a wealth of information that was once available only to other horticultural industry professionals. Matt Reed and Michael

Above: Panicum ‘Iron Maiden’, one of the grasses bred by Matt and Michael. The grasses they sell are tested extensively to ensure they don’t spread by seeds or runners. Left: The display garden at Antique Perennials gives visitors plenty of ideas for using the plants they buy. Morant started Antique Perennials 21 years ago after noticing the nursery industry could do with some spicing up. “I’ve been in the industry for 35 years, and there was a real need for different plants – whatever retail nursery you went to had the same plants, and it became so monotonous. I used to hear that from customers as well. I’ve been collecting plants the whole time I’ve been in the industry, so I had a garden full of rare and unusual plants. I just started propagating those, and they sold like hot cakes. Mike and I were working at another nursery at the time, and we quit our jobs, leased a halfacre in Kinglake and started, and it’s just snowballed from there,” Matt says. Matt and Michael were drawn to the perennials because of their longevity – lasting indefinitely and bringing the yearly reward of blooms. Extended flowering seasons and adaptability add to the attractiveness of this group of plants. As for the grasses at Antique Perennials, they make a perfect complement. “The grasses are essential. You can’t have a perennial garden without some grasses, just to give it some vertical lines and some movement in the wind,” Matt says. Since their humble beginnings propagating from Matt’s garden, the pair has tracked down and imported hundreds of plant species and varieties from far-flung places, including North America, Europe, South Africa, and the Mediterranean.

Until recently, this catalogue was only available to other nurseries, landscapers, and garden designers. But Matt and Michael finally opened their doors to everyone in 2020, giving retail customers direct access to their everexpanding collection and specialist knowledge. “We were getting calls from the public constantly, so we decided to open the retail side of things,” Matt says. One of the highlights of being able to go straight to the source is the display garden, which gives customers an example of the magic created by combining flowering perennials and grasses. “People can see plants that are fully grown too, so they’re not buying nursery stock and having to wonder what it will look like when it’s mature,” Michael says. “The display garden is great for educational purposes, to walk around with people and explain how it’s done, how old it is, things like planting densities and maintenance. In October it really starts to kick on. Its peak is December through March, so well into autumn, and it’s just a vista of movement and colour,” Matt adds.

Seeing the display garden in action is about more than just the plants – it demonstrates how the perennials and grasses can build a haven for other living things. “There’s this idea that native fauna needs native flora, but it’s not a given. This garden brings in so much native wildlife,” Michael says. Inspiration from the display garden can be translated immediately into gardening action by tapping into the expertise on hand to choose the right plants for any garden conditions. Matt and Michael know all their plants with the familiarity of old friends, and they emphasise that success with perennials is all about finding the right plant for the right place. “Some plants that we grow here in Kinglake struggle a bit because we’ve got higher rainfall and they want more arid conditions, but they do really well just down the hill in Yea. So that’s how tight the climates can be with what you can grow,” Michael says. Matt adds: “Ralph Bristow is a garden designer who lives 15 minutes north of Mansfield, and his garden looks like ours even though his climate is completely different. It’s all in the plant selection.” In their quest for “gardenworthy” plants, Matt and Michael have even gone through the painstaking process of breeding their own varieties. “It takes a long time because you have to be ruthless and make sure you get a plant that’s garden-worthy – something that’s going to be good for someone to grow. So, on average, it takes about four years,” Michael says. “We’ve released some great plants, like the Panicum ‘Blue Steel’ and ‘Iron Maiden’ grasses. We recently released the Helenium ‘Julia Holmes’, named after Mike’s wife, and there’s the Agastache ‘Nadine’ named after my wife. Some of the plants we’ve bred are heading overseas to be sold,” Matt says. Aside from their aesthetic appeal, the right choice of perennials and grasses can build a resilient, lowmaintenance garden capable of withstanding the seasonal extremes experienced throughout the Murrindindi Shire. With careful selection, the colder months are a breeze for both plants and

Matt describes the display garden as a “vista of movement and colour” during the warmer months.

Careful selection of grasses and perennials can not only create a feast for the eyes, it can build a tough garden capable of surviving Murrindindi Shire’s seasonal extremes.

their caretakers.

“All the stuff we grow is from much colder climates than ours, so frost is never a problem. People sometimes don’t want plants that die back over winter, but there’s still structure, seed heads, colour and interest in our garden in winter. And in places like Kinglake, you don’t really want to be gardening in winter, so it’s also nice to have that downtime. Then when we see a bit of spring movement, usually in August, we cut it all back to ground level in a day and weed and mulch – maintenance-wise it’s really minimal,” Matt says. At the other end of the spectrum, Antique Perennials has plenty of plant choices for scorching, dry summers. “In terms of drought tolerance, the display garden is two-and-a-half years old now, and it got five waters in the first two years. I don’t even know if we watered it in, and we planted it in December. I rarely water my garden at home, and the perennials are tougher than you think – they let you know. You might have those 40-degree days where you come home from work and they’re slightly flat, but they’re not dead. They don’t promote fire either, so they’re good for gardens around the house – they can be a bit of a fire break,” Michael says. In line with Matt’s and Michael’s original aim to make nurseries more interesting, the plants available in the retail section of Antique Perennials change weekly throughout the growing season. “We grow about a thousand different lines, but there’s probably only about 200 out there at a time,” Matt says. The ever-changing plant stock is a fitting foreground to the dynamic character of the display garden, with its vibrant diversity of living things and seasonal transformations. These, together with the growers’ know-how, make a trip to Antique Perennials a unique experience. For gardeners who are looking for something different – in terms of both plants and nursery experiences – it’s well worth dropping in.

Antique Perennials is located at 3153 Healesville-Kinglake Rd, Kinglake. For more information, including their current retail opening hours, go to antiqueperennials.com or call Matt on 0404 006 303

Matt and Michael also provide regular updates and gardening inspiration on Instagram @ antique_perennials

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