The plants/gardening thread!

**Mira** · May 5th, 2007, 12:16 AM

Is this your tree, Soj? Very pretty. Sounds like it's one strong little tree.

**Sojiita** · May 5th, 2007, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by Mira

Is this your tree, Soj? Very pretty. Sounds like it's one strong little tree.

Yes that looks like it. I have the regular one(about 10 feet away from my other one) that is like that..about 4 feet tall..no blooms on it yet. The one I like the best is the dwarf contorted form (Poncirus Trfoliata 'Flying Dragon" )which is tougher than the regular one(hardy down to -15 F). It is the one that was frozen out and still put out a second bloom that has hopefully been pollinated in the nice 8o degree weather we have been having.

*the thorns on it are long, twisted, and very sharp..and are green and hard to distinguish from the rest of the plant...of course being twisted the way I am I planted it right next to the main walk..I warn people(I like) who are coming over to not touch it(it looks very soft and inviting to stroke)..others who are NOT invited and unwelcome..well..lol..a few have pulled back a blood-specked hand from the plant! LOL!!!

*

**Mira** · May 5th, 2007, 11:17 AM

SO Feng Shui dahlink! And can we please have your 80-degree weather now that you've had it a while. We deserve it

**pacific breeze** · May 10th, 2007, 10:33 PM

What are your favourite spring flowers? I love azaleas and rhododendrens because they are so showy, but I think the lowly lilac is my all-time favourite. They remind me of everything good -- spring, growth, rebirth, beauty and youth. Plus they smell incredibly good. Can't beat that. I love 'em all, but white lilacs are my favourite.

**Mira** · May 10th, 2007, 10:34 PM

I love all those too, plus hydrangeas, and my fave: roses. I have a plot in one of the public rose gardens here with my name on it. (I'm an adopter, and I'm responsible for the care of that bed.) It's my baby.

**pacific breeze** · May 10th, 2007, 10:37 PM

It's been so damn cold here that my hydrangeas are barely out yet. And forget about roses.

**A*O** · May 10th, 2007, 10:39 PM

Exciting news. There's an Open Garden scheme in Oz where people allow the public to come and look at their gardens for $5 entry and the money goes to charity. And my garden has been selected! Eeeeeek! I have a LOT of work to get it looking just right. It's entirely planted with drought-resistant Australian native species now and since I'm a bit of a water nazi about idiots pouring gallons of precious drinking water onto their lawns I'm happy to show people there IS an alternative. Apart from the worryingly small amount of rain we've had over the last year or so I don't water my garden at all and it looks great. The Open Day isn't until the end of October so I have plenty of time to straighten it all out but I will take some pics when it's looking its best.

**pacific breeze** · May 10th, 2007, 10:41 PM

I would love to have a garden again. But we can't have one where we live now, sigh. I have a lot of stuff in containers, but I haven't even planted annuals yet. Just not motivated this year. Luckily I live in a city where there are lots of gorgeous gardens.

**Mira** · May 10th, 2007, 10:42 PM

AO you are exactly like my father's wife. She's a water nazi too. They have an indigenous garden (my dad is a botanic garden docent in Southern California), and their yards don't require much water. Personally I think they should be misting them, because it looks pretty desert-y in the summer. Not pretty. But the rest of the year, it holds up really well.

**A*O** · May 10th, 2007, 10:43 PM

My sister now lives in Victoria BC and is loving the fact she can have a proper garden. Keeping anything alive where she used to live in Calgary was more or less impossible.

@ Mira. We HAVE to be water nazis here. This drought is very serious indeed. Melbourne relies entirely on rainwater catchment dams for our water supply and they are currently under 30% full and falling. Water restrictions are in place to stop people being wasteful and I think the message is FINALLY sinking in that water isn't a limitless, cheap resource. It's actually our most precious one. Rural towns are having water brought in by road tanker because their local supplies have dried up. Livestock is dying because there is no grazing left and fresh food prices are going up because the market gardeners can't produce the quantity and quality of fresh fruit and veg.

**McJag** · May 10th, 2007, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by A*O

My sister now lives in Victoria BC and is loving the fact she can have a proper garden. Keeping anything alive where she used to live in Calgary was more or less impossible.

@ Mira. We HAVE to be water nazis here. This drought is very serious indeed. Melbourne relies entirely on rainwater catchment dams for our water supply and they are currently under 30% full and falling. Water restrictions are in place to stop people being wasteful and I think the message is FINALLY sinking in that water isn't a limitless, cheap resource. It's actually our most precious one. Rural towns are having water brought in by road tanker because their local supplies have dried up. Livestock is dying because there is no grazing left and fresh food prices are going up because the market gardeners can't produce the quantity and quality of fresh fruit and veg.

How long has the drought lasted? Ours was a little over 2 years-the lakes were 16-17 feet below nomal. Just the last month & a half-presto! Rain!!! Wonderful tropic sounding gully washers! Most lakes are within a foot now-only one remains 10 ft low. No one is taking it for granted & we still have restrictions in place. You garden must be beautiful-pictures? And what an honor to have been selected! Have you seen this web site? http://www.highcountrygardens.com? It's all about Xeriscape Gardens .

**Mira** · May 10th, 2007, 11:01 PM

AO I would have thought that Melbourne wouldn't have the same probs L.A. does. Of course, there was a huge horrible drought in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997 while I was living there - and it's about on the same latitude as Melbourne. I was a 20-something and lived in a house with 2 others... we had terrible fights over the bathrooms. We finally made one into a mellow yellow and the other into an instant flush. There were gonna to be fistfights otherwise.

**A*O** · May 11th, 2007, 12:37 AM

We had had below average rainfall for almost 10 years. Blame El Nino. It's been a cumulative thing but things have been particularly bad the last 2-3 years. The meteo people say there are encouraging signs that we will get some near-average rain this winter, ie, now until October, but we need several years of ABOVE average rainfall to get anywhere near back on track.

**sherbear905** · May 11th, 2007, 06:45 AM

Just finished watering the garden, with a wonderful cup of coffee.

I've been in this house for what will be my 5th summer, and I just put in my first vegetable garden here. Pretty basic, just a salad/salsa garden. The soil has a high % of clay.
At my old house though, I had planted everywhere! I had a hill going up to the pool covered with lemon thyme, rosemary, lavendar, pineapple mint, etc., leading up to tall grasses, so when the wind blew, you got a beautiful mixture of scents, plus the sound of the wind through the grass.

**Zee** · May 11th, 2007, 06:55 AM

Your old garden sounds wonderful. Give it time and the new garden will flourish.

I've been dividing day lilies and hostas. Made new flower beds and didn't get to it earlier in the year.

AO- that's great news about your garden being selected. I hadn't realized that the drought was so severe.