Show me the money!!!! - Aug 18, 2017
Free Money Plant cutting?
Dear gardening friends
Spring blossom trees are bursting into bloom around Macarthur. The one in the picture is often called a flowering cherry, but it's actually a Flowering Plum. Botanically known as Prunus x blireana, it has these beautiful double pink flowers for about 4 weeks. This hardy small growing tree is most famous for its bronze coloured leaves that add so much foliage colour to your garden. They look great planted on nature strips and they are easy to grow.
We have nice trees almost 2 metres tall for just $49.99.
Check your roses for Aphids. These sap sucking insects suck the nutrients out of your Rose buds causing them to open out all twisted and distorted. Aphids come in all different colours. They are easy to control by spraying all the leaves with Pestoil or Eco oil. These non poisonous oil based sprays dehydrate the insects. Spray every couple of weeks for best results.
Spray your Citrus trees with Pestoil too. This helps prevent Citrus Leaf Miner attack on the new growth. Citrus Leaf Miner burrows silvery tracks inside the leaves and causes them to grow twisted and distorted.
We have beautiful Lavender Plants flowering in the nursery. Lavender plants have vigorous root systems so they are nearly always pot bound. If you leave them sitting on the concrete beside your tap at home, then they often die before you ever get to plant them.
The concrete heats up during the day and slowly cooks the Potting mix. This causes the Potting mix to shrink. When you do water your Lavender plant, the water runs out of the gap between the Potting mix and the pot. A couple of days later the Potting mix has dried out even more now. The plant is drooping and it's looking very sad. You water again but this time all the water runs down the crack. The Potting mix has become hydrophobic, and so it repels the water.
Your Lavender plant dies and you return it to the nursery demanding answers!!!!!!
When the manager takes you out in the nursery to get a new plant you notice that all their plants look happy and healthy.
Why?
We don't put plants on concrete. We have them grouped together on benches or gravel beds that are full of water. The plants help shade each other so they stay cooler.
The irrigation system comes on every night to water the plants so the soil never becomes hydrophobic.
Solution?
When you buy plants, plant them. Don't sit them on concrete. Dunk the pots in a bucket of water until all the bubbles stop. Plant your shrubs in Planting Compost Improved soil. Water daily until the plants become established. This could take up to 6 weeks depending on rain fall.
If you are keeping plants in pots then repot them into bigger pots on the same day. Bigger pots hold more Potting mix and the Potting mix holds the water, so more Potting mix = more water, and this makes the plants grow better. Put little pots in shady spots. Use Tims Best Potting Mix.
It's not the cheapest, it's the best!
Buy pots with saucers. They make your plants grow better.
We have had a lot of interest in our Phalaenopsis Orchids. We got these in for Macarthur Anglican School. They are auctioning them at their School Fund Raiser Night. We got extra plants for you!
In reality it's the staff who are buying the most. Hayden took one of course and so have Karyn and Noreen. These Orchids will flower for months. They come in a beautiful white ceramic pot that really makes them pop. Come and check them out!
Pig could be marrying Bob.
Pig supports gay marriage, and he cant understand what all the fuss is about.
We had a cranky customer last week who drove all the way from Cobbitty to buy Tomato seedlings. His mate bought some from Bunnings three weeks ago and he couldn't understand why we wouldn't have them? It's winter. We don't stock spring seedlings in June. We aren't here to take your money. We are here to help you have success. This week we have a few Tomato seedlings for those who are prepared to cover them every night. If you don't, and we get a frost then they will die. I don't plant tomatoes or Basil until September.
My story about Allan Haworth and his Money Plant has caused a stir.
We have had so many people wanting to grow this plant to see if their luck changes too. This weekend we are giving away a free cutting of Crassula ovata. Simply plant your cutting in a pot using Tim's Best Potting Mix. Water daily and watch it grow. We have 125 cuttings to give away.
Come and see us if you need help in the garden.
Happy gardening
Tim