mug shot #4 Frangipani

I tell you photography is not my strong point but I just wanted to show you my frangipani which, if you had been reading when I started this blog had a lot of drama but I think she's worth the price I paid to obtain her.

Frangipani also known as Plumeria is one of those plants that has buds on the terminal axis (ends) which is wonderfully perfumed and has become synonymous with the Pacific Islands as the flower to wear behind your ear to show you are taken! Along with hibiscus, however hibiscus is not as highly perfumed. Frangipani blooms do come in  other colours but the white is the most fragrant.

This plant requires a sunny sheltered spot and will lose its leaves when it gets cold but don't be alarmed they will unfurl again in spring. I have her in a pot as she doesn't like to be waterlogged, and I can move her around to shelter if it gets frosty. You can take cuttings although I haven't tried, its certainly cheaper than buying plants at the shop, good sized ones can set you back $130.
As you can see she's got companions including strawberries, bromeliad, fuchsia, and passionfruit.

Darling buds of May

It seems Cleopatra magnolia is budding again. Is this normal? Her leaves have fallen and she's looking bare.

I planted kale seedlings yesterday as they were 99 cents at the Warehouse (but they didn't give me 1 cents change). I haven't grown them before in my garden so will see if they flourish. Mum likes the leaves.

I have a second mini greenhouse that I put up the other day which is now on the terrace. But other than that I have not done much more gardening. Mum bottled the feijoas and I'll prune them later, she also cut down the mugwort that flowered, right down to the ground. I wonder if I cut back the daisies right to the ground, whether they will sprout again?

I am quite satisfied with my garden at the moment before everything gets frosted over. Two melons have been growing on the neighbours shed roof as they climbed over the fence. How we are going to harvest them without looking like thieves I don't know.

I was thinking about joining the RNZHS but when I asked them 'do you meet up regularly in Auckland and what do you do in meetings?' all they sent me was a invoice! I'm not joining them for $40 when I haven't even met them or received anything from them! The cheek.

So I said 'I'm not paying this, you haven't answered my question'. And they haven't replied. Well nevermind. I did join get growing because at least I receive a newsletter every Friday on email packed with gardening tips and advice. Plus I won a preserving booklet from them the other day, and they have regular competitions, and it was only $10.

So these are my top crops and my flop crops aka what's hot and whats not in gardening world.

TOP
Woodside Community Garden. You gals and guys are great!!!
Get Growing Newsletter - you can even subscribe to this for free
The Warehouse - everyone gets a bargain
Op shops and retired gardeners, thanks for the books.
Gardens 4 Health - preach it!!

FLOP
Palmers Planet. Sorry, too far away and expensive
RNZHS for a horticultural society, I don't really see much evidence of horticulturalling
Kings Plant Barn - I haven't seen you practically all month, but am dismayed you don't have decent tool selection, arches, and put your prices up.
SIT Landscape Design Course. What landscape design course. I still had to pay them and do work for them even when they said there were zero fees. And they didn't teach me anything.
Celebrities who are too busy to chat with non celebrities. Sorry Te Radar, no peaches, you didn't show up so I didn't bother emailing you about feijoas this time.

The Fall

Autumn leaves have started to fall, providing mulch for the garden beds. Last Saturday we planted rocket, mizuna, caulis, broccoli and cabbage seedlings at the community garden, and harvested beetroot.

Today JoAnne and I replanted the church hanging baskets with pansies and violas, and also the garden bed, which received a 'Joyful Bliss' Lavender. I thought that might be appropriate for a church entrance.

I found a May issue of NZ Gardener at the Sallies for 20 cents. I sometimes fossick in there for gardening books although I have plenty to keep me going at the moment. The weather hasn't chilled noticeably yet but we have had some foggy mornings. Last years frost came around 26 May so there's still a bit of time, although I've heard the South Island is having a rough time of it weather-wise. Down there they batten down hatches for winter and use frost cloths and green houses. I'm glad I got my mini greenhouse  as I have been using it to grow my seedlings, but was chagrinned to find at the Warehouse some in stock were now half price! So if you want to snap up a 4 tier mini greenhouse for $30 do it now.

To satisfy my curiousity, I picked up a book called 'Portrait of a Marriage' about Vita-Sackville West and Harold Nicholson. It was a memoir of their marriage compiled by their son, Nigel. For those in the dark, this couple were the ones behind the famous Sissinghurst Castle garden in Kent, England. What I hadn't expected was a big drama and scandal, or how, reading all this about their marriage, on earth it survived.

My theory is that redemption is found in the garden. They loved their plants so much that they gave up their gay lovers and found common ground gardening. Or maybe it was because only they knew where the bones are buried...

Mug shot #3 Abutilon and Grape

This is an early shot of my Chinese Lantern and Grapevine showing new growth. Their leaves are similar shape and both have pendulous fruits/flowers. Chinese lantern grows in clumps and can often get 'leggy' but you can prune it back to keep a bushy shape if desired. This one here is red flowered but I also have pink and yellow ones.
They are easy care and aren't bothered much by pests and disease. I want mine to grow taller so that the blooms are overhead and then you can look up and see them. The grapes as you can see aren't particularly well trained but at least they are against the wall. In commercial vineyards they are trained on wires in cordons and low down for easy harvesting.  But you can train a grapevine over a pergola and have the grapes hang down from above so you can pluck them from below. In the Italian garden at Hamilton they have trained grapes up a massive arch pergola but so high out of reach of visitors without a ladder to get to them.
My grapes are red and juicy, not sure what variety they are, as I didn't plant them. It may have come from a cutting from the grapevine we used to have at the side of the house. I am trying to grow more from cuttings so that they are all along the fence. The other known varieties are 'Albany' and 'Niagara'. Don't mind the weeds! To the left is an echium that hasn't flowered yet. When it does it will attract butterflies. All these plants put in a lot of growth over the year and now grown to be quite bushy.

Miss Scissorhands

My garden needed a trim and I'd just come back from a pruning workshop at Woodside where we shaped fruit trees into vases so that we could throw a cat through it. Or a bird could fly through. One of those anyway.

So I was busy pruning and clipping the grapevine into shape by the back fence which had grown into a massive tangle. My own fault for neglecting it, although we did have some tasty fruit from it, if it was out of reach from the chickens (they could jump up). I then pruned the meyer lemon tree as well, and even took cuttings from my Chinese lantern. Maybe those cuttings from the lemon tree, the grapevines and the chinese lantern will take if I poke them in the ground? Who knows, but can't hurt to try...

Mum reluctantly agreed to come along to the community garden as I promised her kumara which needed to be cleared. We harvested masses of kumara leaves and big fat tubers that made good eating. Then yesterday she trimmed all of the ginger lily that had flowered. Of course I didn't plant those and there are too many massed in front of my bedroom, blocking the path. So I will need to remove some of them maybe today.

Beth bequeathed me another mini glasshouse and so now I have two. It's on loan though, until she gets her place sorted. However all the plants she gives me from her abundance are starting to flourish. I planted another cutting of new guinea impatiens in the back corner and moved three renga renga lilies to the log burner bed. The celosias didn't look very happy there nor the lavender and they hadn't grown an inch. But beefsteak plant, iresine, had taken, and of course the bronze carex didn't care, they just waved their tousled blades at me. They are not dead but actually are already brown. But I think anyone unsuspecting  or horticulturally illiterate would think that my grass had died.

I'm worried about my magnolia. Her leaves are looking a bit spotty and brown curling at the edges I'm not sure that bark mulch is any good. I have taken to feeding her seaweed fertiliser hoping she will perk up but at loss of what to do.  She has flowered twice but the second time round wasn't so spectacular. I can't risk transplanting her again, if I do that she'd leave a massive hole in the ground...although I suppose thats where the pond would go...