Do you beleive in karma - Dec 02, 2013
I am not sure if you believe in karma but I have had an interesting week. I got a phone call from a company doing a survey on my bank manager. They must have caught me in a bad mood because I only scored him 2 out of 10. You may also remember that I have been giving Charlie my next door neighbour a few mentions in the newsletter lately. Something about him cutting through the electrical cord of his hedge trimmer on a regular basis. Anyway I stopped outside my front gate on Monday afternoon and noticed a letter had blown out of our letter box into Charlie’s paddock. He has an electric fence to keep the cows in, so I climbed over the top of this very carefully. I picked up the letter and noticed it was from the Commonweath Bank. I was looking at this as I stepped back over the electric fence. I must have been a bit disorientated because as I put a leg over the wire, it came into contact with a very sensitive part my body! Well it all happened so quickly and I had no idea I knew so many swear words. I thought I was having a heart attack but after a while (about 2 days) I have since recovered.
I am only telling you this because Simon edits this newsletter and he was going to tell you. He has already told Charlie!
We had a flash flood in the nursery on Friday. The water came down so fast, our drains couldn’t cope, and the water came into the shop in a hurry. Karyn posted a photo on her face book page and everybody just wanted to know if Pig was alright. Pig lives on a milk crate so his life was never in danger. The water disappeared within minutes and luckily we had no damage. I hope you didn’t get too much damage either. Anyway the plants are loving the rain.
Lisa has finally been able to get some Spreading Petunias from Oasis. We are not sure why they have been so hard to get this spring. There was talk that part of their nursery at Winmaliee got damaged by the recent bush fire. These ground cover Petunias really are amazing. I have grown them in big terracotta urns at my place and they are looking spectacular for Christmas. I only planted one plant per pot and tip pruned them a couple of times at the start to make the plants bush out. Each plant has grown one metre wide and they are covered in bright purple flowers.
These plants are only available in punnets. You get 3 plants per punnet. You can see how big they grow so don’t plant them like normal petunias or you are just wasting your money. I used Tim’s Best potting mix with a sprinkle of Fast Food. After Christmas I will cut them back by 50% and they will sprout out new growth and flower non stop until the end of April.
You may have noticed that Dwarf Eucalyptus ficifolia are flowering around Macarthur. These dwarf versions of the famous Western Australian Flowering gum are perfectly suited for today’s courtyard sized gardens. They have recently had a name change to Corymbia ficifolia. They come in Red, Orange, Pink and white flowering versions. These are all available at different times of the year at Tim’s. There is a fantastic orange flowering tree growing in the motel next door to our nursery. They bought this off us about 5 years ago. It is only about 2.5 metres high. It will grow about 5 metres high once established. They really are amazing looking trees. You need to be careful when you first take them home. Dunk them in a bucket of water prior to planting and water every day for at least a month. After that a bucket of water twice a week will get them established. Gardeners think that Eucalypts don’t need to be watered. These grafted varieties are not cheap so you need to nurture them at the start. In Western Australia these trees would send roots down into the sand until they found water. In Macarthur the roots hit the clay and stop so that’s why you need to water them. They also do much better if you plant them on a mound of native potting mix.
The fresh cut Christmas Trees are arriving this weekend. Come early in the morning for the best selection. We also want you to get the trees out of the sun. Remember to treat you tree like a bunch of fresh flowers. Don’t leave it sitting in the hot sun. When you get it home cut 2 cms off the bottom and stand it in a bucket of water. The tree will drink up to 4 litres of water a day! This is what keeps the tree looking fresh. It will also give off more pine fragrance if you keep the water topped up. Display your tree in a room away from north or western facing windows for best results.
If you would prefer a potted Christmas tree we have an Australian native plant called a Woolybush. This has beautiful soft grey foliage. It also gets red spidery looking flowers that the birds love. We have nice plants that could be sat on a table inside to make them look bigger. After Christmas you can’t just put the pot outside in the full sun or the plant will get sun burnt! Place it in a morning sun position for at least a couple of weeks before moving into the hot sun. Woolybush is such an interesting looking plant. Come and feel the foliage you will love it. They grow wild near the coast in Albany Western Australia. The variety we have grows up to 2 metres high by 1 metre wide. They can be pruned to size.
Simon has found a new yellow flowering Oleander. This new dwarf growing shrub will flower for at least 9 months. They are almost death proof. They can be pruned to just one metre high.
If you kill an Oleander give up gardening.
He also has found a new dwarf growing Tibouchina called “Cool Baby”. We have had this in the nursery since spring but they have just started to flower now. The soft pink flowers are huge. This Tibouchina only grows waist height and it can flower all through the warmer months. Traditional Tibouchinas like Alstonville only flower in autumn so this is something special. We only have about 15 plants so if you want one hurry down.
Pig caused a sensation this week when he rallied the troops to come out in support for “No violence against women”. We have had a huge response to our face book page.
Thanks to everyone who responded to our Newsletter Survey. We got a much better rating than my bank manager! One of our garden club members has been in contact with Simon offering advice on a new lay out that should make everyone happy. If you love it, send it to a friend. They might get a laugh too.
Happy Gardening
Tim