I have been under the weather lately which means, low cloud, depression, cold, hibernation.
Plant nerds might call this 'stratification' but I just call it being bloody cold.
From the heated environs of my bedroom I look out the window at my seashell birdbath arrangement. Pretty, yet incongruous as I haven't ever managed to see a single bird having a dip in it yet. I guess it's too cold. But then why are Mary and Martha losing their feathers in the midst of winter? You'd think they would moult in summer, but then, I suppose if you think about it why don't trees moult in summer and keep their leaves in winter?
Echium has perked up and I think it will live! Yea! Who knows, it may flower this summer. I have high hopes for my flowering plants that I haven't seen in bloom yet, like Kowhai, and Kaka beak and Chatham Island forget-me-not. Maybe these fussy natives are just not obliging me like the exotics because they know they are better than those other common plants that just flower indiscriminately. Maybe they are saving the best for last.
One of my manukas now has white flowers. They are dainty, like confetti. I'm hoping for more and, maybe if I get bees, manuka honey. But we will see. NZ Gardener were giving away Plan Bee seed packets at one time and I don't recall any of the seeds sprouting. I've learned my lesson. I'm a hopeless seed sower. Quite possibly, as soon as I sowed them and they sprouted, Mary and Martha just scratched them out. Chickens and bare soil do not mix.
My friend Nicole alerted me to a plant sale at her church so naturally I got up early on a saturday to snag the best plants. I managed to find a large birds nest fern, a canna lily with striking red foliage, a ground cover with purply flowers and lacy foliage I don't know the name of, and...a boston fern.
When I got home Mum had already decided to dig out my Nikau Palms and banning them from the property. They will grow too big, she says. So now I have two nikau palms free to a good home. Come pick them up. If you are reading this. They make good hammock holders.
I have moved the Kowhai along the border so that maybe I will have height to my border and mum won't notice those creeping buttercups so much. She just thinks its a mess and that I can't even garden. Well. I haven't seen her do anything much except cut things down. She's good at that. I'm like her tall poppy. I can learn a thing or two about creeping buttercups. They still flower anyway, and nobody can cut them down.
