Love the rain! - Oct 03, 2013
Dear gardening friends
It has been a busy week; we seem to have spent most of the time picking up plants that got blown over in the wind.
Just a warning, never approach a nursery person during windy weather and never tell them their plants are blowing over.
It's better not to even talk about the weather. Footy is good, but none of our teams are in the finals so we don't really care.
I was joking last week about retiring because I have Geraniums growing in my garden. These are traditionally old people plants but I have fallen in love with them recently.
Any way during the week I was driving my car home from work and I kept hearing this alarm going off. I thought there must be an ambulance going in the same direction as me but it just never appeared. When I pulled up at the traffic lights a kid in the car next door started staring at me. He had a conversation with his father. I thought he must have liked my wheels.
As I drove off the ambulance noise got louder again. Then I noticed a red light flashing on my dash. It was my burglar alarm going off. It had been going off for 5 kms. It would stop but when I moved it reactivated. What an idiot! That's what that kid was telling his father.
Charley Cowell sent us better photos of his Azaleas. Charles has taken up photography since he and Helen retired from the nursery industry. The standard Azalea is spectacular. This is probably 20 years old. You can train an Azalea to grow like this. Choose a single leader and tie this to a stake. Trim off any side shoots. Eventually you will have a standard Azalea. Helen and Charles are the Azalea experts so they make this look easy. Remember pot plants need to be watered almost daily when we have hot windy weather.
If you took my advice a couple of weeks ago about watering all your pot plants with Wettsoil you will be noticing the benefits now. This product makes the potting mix absorb more water. This makes your plants grow better but it also helps to stop them blowing over on windy days. When plants blow over the ceramic pots nearly always get broken. This can become very expensive.
If you haven't sprayed your lawn to control Bindii by now it is too late. All you can do now is fertilise your lawn so the grass grows over the bindii seeds. Start watering your lawn with a sprinkler once a week and you will be amazed how thick your grass grows. We mow our lawn here at the nursery without using a grass catcher. The mower chops up the clippings and returns them back into the soil. This turns into compost and makes the soil hold more water. The result is a greener lawn using less water.
Have you noticed how great the Bottle Brushes are looking around Macarthur? Some plants seem to thrive during dry weather. Geraniums and Gazanias love the dry. Bottle Brush flower better when it is dry. It is probably a survival mechanism to produce more seed incase they die.
Native Frangipani is flowering now. I took a photo of some beauties growing in Ambarvale at the bottle shop. Native Frangipani is a rainforest tree which is native to Queensland and NSW. It is a fast growing upright tree that is suitable for small gardens. It has glossy green leaves and yellow perfumed flowers that fade to white. We often have these on the native tube bench so check them out. Its botanical name is Hymenosporum flavum.
Raspberry Blast Petunias have finally arrived. This perennial petunia flowers non stop from now until early winter. We grow them in our garden and in pots at the entrance to the nursery. They are not normal petunias so you won't find them in punnets. They come in 190mm pots so they are already very advanced and starting to flower. We have big plants for $15.99 or buy 2 for $30.
Raspberry Blast has bright pink striped flowers that are just amazing. We highly recommend this plant. It is a winner! They grow best in a sunny position.
Simon has found you some beautiful Phalaenopsis orchids. These spectacular flowering orchids will add some colour to your kitchen table. We have heaps of colours to choose from at the counter. We have them displayed on a 1950s Dresser so they are reflected in the mirror. Looks great!
All our rose bushes have burst into bloom this week. October is rose month at Tim's Garden Centre. If you love roses come and see us. Blake our apprentice has fallen for roses. I often find him sniffing the blooms. His favourite so far is the Mister Lincoln rose. If you ring the chain stores looking for this one they will probably come back 10 minutes later to tell you nobody by that name works here. Mr Lincoln has been around for a hundred years but it is still the bench mark for great perfume if you love red roses.
We are open all long weekend from 8.30 to 5pm so come and see us if you need help in the garden.
Tim's Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato is back in stock. Our supplier ran out last week due to incredible demand.
You may have lost your cucumber seedlings. They often die if you plant them too early. Plant again now and they will take off.
Happy gardening
Tim