April Garden News

What a big month April has been.

First lot of visitors were from Logan Garden Club, then a field trip by members of Redlands Horticultural Society, Next were the Bribie Island Garden Club followed by a meeting of ‘Australia’s Open garden’ selectors.

Judy and I drove to Toowoomba so I could join the Retired Police Dog Handlers on the ANZAC day march, that was great and I was able to catch up with people I had not seen for 25 years. I will be doing that again for sure.

I am refurbishing three gardens, taking old plants out and putting in new soil and compost then new plants, it’s all about reviving and renewing the garden on a fairly regular basis.

It is also the time where I have to start a lot of pruning, I have been holding off due to the large amount of visitors we have been having, but seeing as there is only one more bus trip until August I will get started soon.

The dreaded Black Lily Grub has been busy eating the Hippaestrums , these are our worst pest in the garden.

                                                                

We had six inches of rain last week, it has rained off and on for weeks now and I really need to do some spraying.

March 2012 Garden News

What a big month for Judy and I.

First was a visit to ‘Rose Lovers Society’ at Keperra it was a good visit as they enjoyed the presentation and bought a lot of Judy’s plants.

Then we went out to ‘Karana Downs Garden Club’, again a good visit.

Next was a drive out to ‘Forest Lake Garden Club’, this was an evening presentation so we were quite late home.

Our last presentation for the month was ‘Robina Garden Club’; this was a long day as we had to sit and wait a few hours before I could do my presentation.

We had visitors from ‘get up and Go’, Forest Lake Garden Club’ and ‘Oxley Garden Club’.

So, as you can see we had a very busy month and April looks like it will be just as busy.

For the bus trips we clear the back patio, put chairs out and have an urn boiling, plus plants for sale.

I had a new gardening book arrive from Amazon, it’s called ‘Bizarre Botanicals’ and it’s a great book, surprisingly we have a lot of the plants featured in it.

One thing I did learn was why a bat plant is so called, it’s not the flower but the seed pod (picture attached).

Lots of pruning done, we have had quite a wet summer and all the fruit trees have grown so much that not much light was getting through to the understory, so I had to make some openings where the light could reach the plants. If you don’t do this then you risk a diseased tree.

Zingiber 'Golden Glory' beehive measured 35 cm high, looked amazing.

I am in the process of raising part of the pool fence and the turning the existing garden into another ‘Caladium Corner’ as we now have a great source of new Caladiums.

                                                          Ceropega 'String of Hearts'

                                                                        Golden Lycoris

                                  The above is called 'Tapeworm Plant' or 'Bad Hair Day Plant'

                                                                   Cardinal Creeper

                                                                Heliconia 'Mildred'

A few dislkes

There’s not a lot I dislike about gardening, here’s just a few of the things that niggle me.

First are the big multi national stores that get in truckloads of plants from the southern states for sale in Queensland and probably knowing very well that when they stop flowering that’s it and they will not survive. Take Cymbidium Orchids, they are for sale here in Brisbane especially on Mothers Day but what the purchaser does not know is that they will only flower when subjected to a cold winter.

Organic soil, I have learnt my lesson over the years and have found that the goodness soon goes out of this so called soil and all you have left is usually sawdust. Then you have the terrible shrinkage problems as later on the gardens have to be topped up with a good mix, which ideally should have the base of at least 70% topsoil and sand.

Garden talk back shows, where the presenter, if not sure of the answer to a question from a listener should not answer the question if he/she is unsure of the answer. An incorrect answer can sometimes do more harm than good. Don’t get me wrong there are some great presenters out there. 

Cheaply made garden tools. I bought a good branded fork, which is  a well-known and respected brand of equipment. I found its prongs bent almost immediately, made in China of course.

Lawn mowers not made for Australian conditions, mainly referring to the safety features found on the made in USA mowers, ‘painful’.

Garden Nurseries where they only stock plants which cater to the lowest common denominator.

Television make-over shows, I remember watching Jamie Durie on ‘Backyard Blitz’ planting a ‘Fictus’ in a small unit forecourt, they are all like that, look good for a TV grab, but in the future?

Garden designers who mass plant the same plant; let’s have colour and variety.

Those who think that native plants are the only answer to gardening in a drought.

The demise of the small nurseries, these are the ones that were not afraid to stock rare and interesting plants.

Garden owners who employ a garden designer and a landscaping crew and then without doing any of the ‘hard yakka’ themselves open their garden to the public through the ‘Open Garden Scheme’.

People who hire a personal gardener and in conversation talk about “my gardener”.

People who think you can’t use chemicals in the garden.

Television garden shows, which presents most of the program from the presenter’s back yard, it’s getting to be ‘cheap TV’ and perhaps a little boring.

Things we love about Gardening

My morning, midday and evening walks around the garden, I never tire of this routine.

Seeing a plant flower for the first time.

Sourcing a plant, which we do not have already growing.

Visiting garden shows.

Visiting garden centres, especially the smaller ones.

Meeting and making friends with fellow gardeners.

Seeing our landscaping and plant selection coming to fruition.

Keeping me fit, healthy and fully occupied in retirement.

Opening our garden to the public and meeting up to a 1000 great people in our backyard is an awesome experience.  It is months of hard work and effort to prepare for the open weekend, but well worth it and we have done it on the last ten consecutive years.

Garden photography.

Keeping my garden blog, my ‘photobucket’ album and my garden product review sites up to date. I get a real thrill knowing ten's of thousands of gardeners from well over 100 different countries have seen our garden through the blog and photo album.

Talking to Garden Clubs and sharing our passion, I have now bought a laptop and projector and give presentations on ‘Smart Sub Tropical Gardening’ and ‘A passion for Plants’parts one and two.

The fact that my wife also loves gardening, so it’s a passion shared.

Knowing that we have raised $30,000 for charity through opening our garden.

My web sites:
http://ianjudy.blogspot.com/
http://www.gardenproductreviews.com/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Ianrobert/?src=wap

Repot Cattleya Orchids

Mix up a sterilizing liquid which will be used sterilize your cutting instrument each time you trim an orchid, this is to stop any root borne disease/virus from transferring from one plant to another.
Your planting media should be a mix of commercially available composted pine bark, medium size is best for all, then mix this with enough corse perlite to be seen throughout the mix without going overboard and then add a small amount of peat moss. Then damp down, only so much that the peat moss sticks to the bark.
If you are satisfied with your growing medium DO NOT CHANGE, I unfortunately did with disastrous results. I switched from the above mix to 'Absorbastone' and what happened was the roots got too cold in Winter and killed over half my collection.

I find that I can pot about 50 Orchids from one 40 litre bag of bark, cost of bark about $27 from your local produce store.
Remove any old stalks from the main plant, if the plant has split into different shoots then each of these can be split and will be new plants for you.
Make sure you have a container for the old shoots which can be disposed of.
Pack the mix into a squat pot with good drainage and with just a little long life fertilizer on the top.
Then all that will be needed is weekly watering and fortnightly fertilizing with a half strength liquid fertilizer.
Quite simple really.
Almost forgot, your biggest enemy (other than your self) will be the ‘Dendrobium Beetle’ who will love to visit and have a great big chew on your beautiful flowers, you must either spray or take the plant inside.

February 2012 Garden News

There’s not a lot of garden news for February.

We have had plenty of rain and very high humidity so the garden is very lush, there’s going to be lots of trimming to be done shortly.

We had two mini bus tours of the garden from ‘Pine Rivers Garden Club’, in all about 44 visitors.

Mount Gravatt Garden Club visited for the second time and saw the garden in a different (summer) mode.

We have enough sheltered seating for up to 50 people, put a couple of urns on and the laundry toilet is available for those needing it.

Some of the ‘Open Gardens Australia’ committee visited our garden on their way to a meeting at Wellington Point; I was informed later that the ‘Lagoon View’ garden that I had selected would not be recommended as they were also a retail nursery. I found this a bit strange as I had previously asked the CEO if it would be ok. Oh well it’s a shame as their display garden and the beautiful setting will make it one of the best gardens in South east Queensland.

A metre of compost put on parts of the garden and also a trailer load of garden soil.

We went to Meads Day Lily nursery and bought some new Day Lilys and a double Hippaestrum (pictured), they looked after us and I would recommend them if you need Day Lilys.

 And finally I captured a picture of our yard on Google Earth, here it is.

Costus Propagation

Costus are my favourite plant.

Out of my 40 plus collection my favourite  has to be Costus barbatus also known as comosus or more commonly as ‘Red Tower’.

Costus make for a bold tropical foliage effect in your garden and Comosus more so than most.

This Costus originates from Costa Rica and is for the most part cold tolerant but not of frost, perhaps in the really cold places it could be placed in a protected spot.

It will grow in full sun or shade but best in an understory location with filtered light.

It is not fussy about type of soil it will grow in.

The leaves when stroked underneath feel like the softest velvet, and no I do not have a fetish about this plant.

When in flower it has quite large red bracts with small yellow flowers protruding, these yellow flowers are edible and have a beautiful refreshing taste.

As with most Costus they are not affected by pests or disease.

This is the only Costus flower that actually tastes good; they are also very nice in a salad.

The red flower bract can last for up to six months.

To propagate

It is easy to propagate.

When the stem has finished flowering cut the old flower head off and strip the fibrous matter from the stalk with a knife, then cut the stem into several pieces leaving at least three notches or segments showing, cut the bottom straight and the top at an angle, this is done so you know what part of the stem is top or bottom.

Place the cut stems in a pot using good quality potting mix, you can put several in one pot if you want or you can lay the stems flat in a foam box, the new shoots will appear on most of the notches.

You can just put the whole length of the stem under some compost and wait for the new shoots to appear; also you can just split the rhizome if you wish.

With the Asian type Costus known as Cheilocostus (Pink Shadow, Speciosus) the propagation is much easier as they throw off lateral shoots which can be cut off and planted straight into a pot.