Plant Hospital
I’ve always been a sucker for an unwell (and hence marked down priced) plant, and recently is no exception. I currently have several rescues in progress. There’s a couple that have been in pots here at the house since before I moved in, and are finally getting some attention. Also a tree fern I found down the dead side of the house that was close to death. That got broken in the process of getting out out of the ground,...
Resilience of a Gum
Spotted this today, which illustrates the incredible resilience of a Eucalypt. This tree was majorly cut back 12 days ago. Right between the place where two biggest limbs were removed, what do I...
‘Not So Lucky’ Bamboo
I have a few Lucky Bamboo plants (I believe its actually some form of Dracaena) that have been very neglected for the past few years. I had some fun with propagating them for a while (it’s ridiculously easy – put simply, cut it off and stick it in a jar of water to get a new plant). But they didn’t get watered for too long and although they are very hard to kill, I almost achieved it. So with the greenhouse on hand,...
Bulb Adventures
Something else I haven’t really played with (much) before until now is bulbs. But with the new garden I’m trying all kinds of bulby things, both edible and ornamental. I’m a big fan of anything that can be propagated by division (it just seems like such a labour-saving approach somehow). So the reputation I have read about for Calla lilies makes them irresistible to try, and there are so many varieties. I have bought...
Bamboozled
I’ve long wanted to have a decent crack at growing some bamboo, but it’s hard to get started in this climate. I was lucky enough to see 4 large bamboos being sold as one lot on eBay – most importantly, that were local for me. Described as very large and heavy I thought they were bound to be easily worth that price so placed a bid. Nobody else did (advantage of not being in the city I think), so yesterday I got them....