Sunday’s Beach Garden Society garden tour had many highlights – and we’ll write about others, later. But, by accident, Sarah and I saved the best till last, the subject of today’s post. It showed how even a plant collector’s addiction to onesiness could produce great things in the right hands. Paradise, indeed.

The Williamson street front was lush, lovely and, even better, labelled. Come tour with us.

Beach gardeners have to deal with slopes aplenty. Here, raised beds deal with a change in level and put clove-scented pinks within easy sniffing distance. The black-painted pergola cum archway perfectly accents and counterpoints all that colour.

Variegated aralia (Eleutherococcus sieboldianus ‘Variegatus’), which I’m guessing this is, would be a great candidate for a Twitter hashtag I started a while back: #botanicalnamesfuntosay. Or even #botanicalnamesfuntospell

Well-placed plant labels are built-in captions for the garden photographer. Thank you, plantswoman, thank you! (Although, sometimes with plant labels you do need to know the plant to know which label belongs to it.)

It’s usually the flower and foliage of Kousa dogwoods (Cornus kousa) that gets talked about. But isn’t that bark terrific? At its feet, a few of the countless (not counted by me, at least, but lots, trust us!) hostas on display.

Isn’t the white rattan headboard an excellent decorative partner to this giant goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus)?

Clever. That’s how I feel about gardening, especially after a winter like 2013-14.

Sculpture by Marilyn Walsh was featured in numerous gardens. And many displayed cut flowers, for instant spot colour.

Just as we were leaving, I was thrilled to spot the label for this variegated plant, whose name had been maddeningly eluding me since I saw one on Through the Garden Gate. Thank you, planstwoman, thank you!