Beautiful one day, perfect the next. Thats the slogan the tourist bureau use to entice people to Queensland for a holiday. It probably applies more to this time the year than any other. The mornings are crisp and the days are bright and sunny. Pictured is new growth of Syzygium luehmannii (small-leafed lillypilly) a native tree from the rainforests of eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It bears panicles of small creamy white flowers in the summer which in turn produce coral red pear-shaped fruits in dense bunches. I've actually tried the fruit, a little tart but quite edible. I'm not sure if it's this particular Lillypilly or not but some people make jam out of the fruit. So this last flush of new growth before the winter is our garden's offering of autumn colour.
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to fall trees
on May 4, 2006, 8:53PM
Posted by roybe Reblogged by Old Roses to fall, trees on 2006-05-05, 23:52:16
Last summer, my husband and I went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. But we also visited a much smaller garden (part of an old estate) just outside of Wilmington, Delaware. One of the gardens was a woodland garden and I saw these flowers that I liked a lot but had no idea what they were. When I got home, I looked them up: lycoris, sometimes nicknamed "Surprise Lily". Around here, they bloom in August and seem to be carefree.
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to lilies
on May 5, 2006, 11:40AM
Posted by jdolangreen Reblogged by Old Roses to lily on 2006-05-05, 23:51:26
Perhaps you’ve read it in the sidebar. In one of the random quotations I quote my friend Chan:
I am instinctively suspicious of any garden writer (or gardener) who is insufficiently fretful.
You don’t worry about your garden if you don’t care about it. And if you do care, you fret. At the beginning of the season, [...]
A "Currently Fretting About" column! A great idea. -OR
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to gardening
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to Gardening on 2006-05-05, 23:47:00
Well, the copper-colored Plant Defender base kinda fooled me into thinking it would repel snails and slugs (Ooh, it's copper colored and copper repels snails!), but it didn't fool the small snails and slugs that squeezed through the bars of the cage to eat my basil. My sweet peppers are being left alone now, but the new basil plants are in need of help. To show the depth of my devotion to basil, I have added real copper barriers to the Plant Defender cages. Let's hope this does the trick. . .
Hannah in Cleveland, Ohio, who has a blog called This Garden is Illegal, reminded me about the Starbucks Grounds for Your Garden program, where they give away free 5-lb. bags of used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are great for side-dressing plants in need of a little nitrogen and there's some evidence that snails and slugs are repelled by caffeine. At high enough concentrations, it kills them. The amount of caffeine in used grounds might be enough to repel them, which is all I ask. Either way, I'm feeding my soil. The worms in my kitchen worm bin love coffee grounds, so maybe "outside" worms will too. Worm activity is good for the soil!
So one of the problems of being an anal plant person like me is that people give me plants. Not a problem, you say? Well ... the enjoyment I get from my plants comes from knowing where they're from and how they fit into the great framework of nature - if I get a really neat plant that I cannot identify, all that great vicarious experience of world travel and oneness with nature is gone. . .
I had nothing to do with creating this week’s favorite spot. The shrub border along the SW edge of our property line remains as it was when we moved in. My changes have been limited to adding some columbine, killing the poison ivy, pruning some of the woody plants, and harvesting the self-propagated brunnera and ostrich ferns to use in other parts of the yard. . .
I love the untamed look! -OR
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to design
on May 5, 2006, 8:17AM
Posted by Kasmira Reblogged by Old Roses to design on 2006-05-05, 23:42:31
My husband and kids went to get some goldfish for the pond yesterday. My two youngest love to go get fish. They have been waiting with excitement since we cleaned the pond out.
My husband took them to PetsMart to get the goldfish. We just buy the cheap kind, either the ¢12 (1") or ¢25 (1 1/2") goldfish that they normally sell for food or bait. My husband opted for the ¢25 fish this time and they
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to pond
on May 5, 2006, 9:32AM
Posted by Hanna Reblogged by Old Roses to pond on 2006-05-05, 23:40:34
Ever on the look out for unusual plants, I noticed a copse of birches on the Princeton campus that seemed to be late in leafing out. On closer inspection there were leaves on the branches but the leaves were a dark purple in color and not the usual bright green. I tried to Google it to find more information but there's only a palty amount of information about this mutation. Apparently there's something called Betula "Crimson Frost" on a website and a photo of Betula "Royal Frost" that seems to match the photos I took. Not much more information than that.
It seems like it would be a very nice addition to a landscape. Unfortunately we have no more room to plant a nice copse let alone one. A truly sad state of affairs.
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to birch trees
on May 5, 2006, 1:24PM
Posted by Ki Reblogged by Old Roses to birch, trees on 2006-05-05, 23:39:50
Are you open to experimenting with new flowers, or are you committed to the classics? Take this quiz and find out if it's time for you to give your garden a makeover.
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to design
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to design on 2006-05-05, 23:36:51
I unfortunately have a cold on top of my allergies, so between that and the cold meds, I am not getting much done.
I've got a few tiny petunias popping up from the seeds I planted last Friday. They are so tiny. I mean I expected small, given the fact the seeds are the size of a needle point, but not that tiny! They are not much bigger than the seed!
And my iris are blooming away. It seems all three with stalks are the same variety. Forgive the quality of the picture, the light was fading quickly from rain clouds.
Love the dandelions! I have lots too. -OR
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to iris
on May 5, 2006, 7:10AM
Posted by millionbells Reblogged by Old Roses to iris on 2006-05-05, 23:35:27
I guess when you get to being 60 years old, reminiscing is a common pastime. I know that it has become part of my life. It seems inevitable. Often it involves my Gran - Big Granny as we used to call her - a lovely country lady, full of wisdom, who lived to within a few months of her 100th birthday. She was passionate about gardening and cooking, and was always willing to pass on practical information and country lore, that in her later years I soaked up like a sponge. One of her great passions was making jam from the fruit that she harvested from her own garden and and she gathered from the surrounding countryside. My recent drift into nostalgia concerned her high quality damson jam, along with a very fine damson wine made from the fruit in her garden. . .
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to fruit
on May 5, 2006, 1:47AM
Posted by GardenMessenger Reblogged by Old Roses to fruit on 2006-05-05, 23:34:49
Anyone have a clean method for getting spittlebugs to leave? My yard is seemingly infested!
All I keep reading is a spray w/ a strong hose- is it true? Even if they are everywhere? My bloomin yard is suffering for sure!
thanks,
Chandrika
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to pests
on May 5, 2006, 4:55AM
Posted by soma~chandra
Reblogged by Old Roses to pests on 2006-05-05, 23:33:53
You know her as Takoma Gardener. Now, if you're in the DC area, you can hire her as a garden consultant and coach. I understand about the need for a service like this: as the garden columnist for the local paper in my small town, I often get calls from people who would like me to come over to their garden and offer advice. They don't want me to do the work for them (well, maybe they do, but who can afford it?), and they don't want to hire a landscape architect who will draw up extensive plans--they just want some pointers and a nudge in the right direction. Well, that's precisely what happened to Susan, and it turned into a business. She's opinionated, experienced, and oh-so-stylish. Check it out here:
Finals week is over, the grades are in, and my Netflix subscription is renewed. Life is good.
In 2005, I listed some of my favorite Gardening Movies. It's time to revise the top 10. Keep in mind that not all of these movies are actually about gardening; some are just good movies with botanical symbolism and/or flowery names. . .
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to gardening
on May 5, 2006, 1:34AM
Posted by Nelumbo Reblogged by Old Roses to Gardening on 2006-05-05, 23:33:23
Just read a very informative post by Don over at An Iowa Garden. He describes the hybrid primroses that grow well in his garden, what species they’re descended from, and how they’re labeled–and mislabeled–in the trade. The only thing he didn’t include was the name of merchants who sell accurately labelled plants. Maybe he doesn’t [...]
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to primroses
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to primroses on 2006-05-05, 23:32:47
I love the patterning and texture of this Ferocactus latispinus fruit. It is ripe and contains a zillion tiny, hard, black seeds. You can plant them and get a zillion cactettes.
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to cacti fruit seeds
on May 5, 2006, 10:35AM
Posted by Diane Reblogged by Old Roses to cacti, fruit, seeds on 2006-05-05, 23:30:35
This is a transplant of annual: Sphaeralcea coulteri and I have found that putting a few rocks as mulch around the base of transplants seems to help them start growing sooner. I've gone from pulling this plant out as a weed, to transplanting it where I want it.
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to transplants
on May 5, 2006, 10:42AM
Posted by Diane Reblogged by Old Roses to transplants on 2006-05-05, 23:30:11
I hadn't been aware until this season of how many plants are dormant here in the winter. I had thought that if you gave most tropical plants water, they would grow. Not so. Many plants simply didn't grow at all until March (when it got warmer), even though they had plenty of water. This Plumeria started growing leaves and flowers a few weeks ago. It is tapped into out septic system and gets no supplemental water or fertilizer. I took it off the drip system a couple of years ago.
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to plumeria
on May 5, 2006, 10:52AM
Posted by Diane Reblogged by Old Roses to plumeria on 2006-05-05, 23:30:00
Those "red" tulips have turned a nice bright pink. So pretty. I'm glad I brought them indoors.
New leaves are emerging from the elm. When my son is being his snarky ten-year-old self, I like to get out the baby pictures and remember how he used to be. I anticipate that this photo will serve the same purpose when the elm tree is covered in dark green leaves that are being eaten alive by leaf miners.
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to tulips trees elm
on May 5, 2006, 11:35AM
Posted by Karen Reblogged by Old Roses to elm, trees, tulips on 2006-05-05, 23:29:08
Just out -- two new lilacs from the US National Arboretum. 'Old Glory' (left) (Syringa x hyacinthiflora) has been in testing for 25 years. It has fragrant, bluish-purple blooms, a rounded growth habit, and foliage that has better than average tolerance to powdery mildew (a particular problem in warmer climates) and it's also tolerant to Cercospora blight. This lilac is 11.5 feet tall and 13 feet wide, so give it plenty of space. . .
My lilac is finally blooming! It only took a decade. -OR
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to lilac
on May 5, 2006, 12:52PM
Posted by Jane Berger Reblogged by Old Roses to lilac on 2006-05-05, 23:26:51
Warmer weather means vacation time. I think people are planning their vacations right at this moment you are reading this. But if you are a gardener, it can cause worry and stress. Why? It means you will have to leave your gardens. You may worry about who will take care of the gardens, who will weed, water and take care of other general duties involved in gardening. . . .
Thought I'd make up for the absense of pictures in my last post by doing a little bloom-a-thon here as we head into the weekend. The doomed rudbeckia redeemed itself (and may get to stay after all, but in a...
Nice job with the pavers! -OR
reBlogged
to landscape flowers
on May 5, 2006, 12:52PM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers, landscape on 2006-05-05, 23:24:28
Uncle Tom's vegetable garden takes over the front yard! Go, go! Once, in Santa Cruz, I decided to stop worrying about all the tourists (those dreadful garden pests) picking flowers from my narrow strip of a front garden and to indulge them instead. . .
What a great idea to encourage people to pick flowers and veggies! -OR
reBlogged
to flowers vegetables lawn
on May 5, 2006, 12:19PM
I love all these photos from Casa Decrepit, a blog about a Bay Area house renovation, showing the garden in all its glory with little labels pointing to what is there and what may someday be there.
My first daylily scape is here.. I know it is a the old fashioned orange daylily, but that means my hybrids are not that far behind.. This also means a couple of others are not far behind, the peony and asiatic lily!!!
I love my old-fashioned orange daylilies! -OR
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to lilies
on May 5, 2006, 12:26PM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to lily on 2006-05-05, 23:18:55
In late 2003, Sophie Delezio was a little 3 year old girl attending a childcare centre in Sydney. One afternoon a car crashed through the front of the building, caught fire and landed on top of a number of little children. Sophie's injuries included 3rd degree burns to 80% of her body and also resulted in the loss of her feet and several fingers.
Sophie spent more than a year in hospital and was
reBlogged
on May 5, 2006, 5:59AM
Posted by Alice Reblogged by Old Roses to on 2006-05-05, 23:17:50
via Frog Garden on 1969-12-31, 19:00:00
