Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[t00lie]

Oh to have some bare soil! Our house is rented so I'm stuck with the plants I have. Between the lollipop bushes (worse than lawns as they are three dimensional and an invention of the devil sent to torment me)

 

Here's the promised pics of the jade plants and lollipop bushes.

 

I think the lollipop bushes are one of the Pittosporum tenuifolium cultivars Anthony that have been limbed up --you'd pay big money at a nursery for that look.
A close up of the leaves would confirm either way.

Watch the pruning,(or else the devil will be after you   ), as in my experience they dislike cutting back onto old wood .

Cheers Dave
 

[angie]

Hi Anthony
That's a huge jade plant, mine one is in a tiny pot.
I like the lollipop trees  but maybe not a row of them . I have or should I say had one but he is looking dead. I would love to live there and grow all exotic plants.
Are plants expensive over there.

Angle 

[Anthony Darby]

Will take some close-ups tomorrow Dave. Angie, those ones are quite small. The two by the front door are well over a metre tall! As for exotics - I have frangipanis and proteas too!

[Houseslippers]

You have my deepest commiserations, Anthony. As Angie says, one is enough, already - I initially felt rather protective of my own small money tree in the face of your all-out-attack. I've kept mine in spite of the fact that it never flowers and is subject to regular depressing attacks from mealy bug, caterpillars and snails but staggers on regardless through it all. Your photo reminded me of the protest song someone almost sang:

Lollipop trees, lollipop trees
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
Lollipop trees, lollipop trees
And they all look just the same;
There are green ones, there are red ones
There are blue ones and there are yellow ones
Lollipop trees, lollipop trees
And they all look just the same

[Anthony Darby]

Thanks Tony. The two at the front door are about to flower. I can't wait!

[angie]

Oh Anthony I am so jealous, frangipani. I had one in my greenhouse but I only have a stick left now 
Bought it at Wisley, no chance of getting another one up in Aberdeen.

Angie

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Tony. The two at the front door are about to flower. I can't wait!

With a modicum of luck you'll find that money DOES grow on trees.

[Anthony Darby]

Oh Anthony I am so jealous, frangipani. I had one in my greenhouse but I only have a stick left now  
Bought it at Wisley, no chance of getting another one up in Aberdeen.

Angie

I had to leave two frangipani plants behind. One was a cutting brought back from Bali in 2004; the other was grown from T&M seed. They were on my classroom windowsill at school and can flower in a 6" pot. I had terrible trouble with red spider. The leaves would get covered and the plants would then drop all their leaves and start again! The best answer was the systemic vine weevil killer.

Thanks Tony. The two at the front door are about to flower. I can't wait!

With a modicum of luck you'll find that money DOES grow on trees.

I wish.   Here are the close ups of the various lollipop bushes plus a view of the plants to the left of my drive and front door. The frangipani is behind Protea cynaroides. The two grey plants with the thick pointed leaves are Agave attenuata. There are some really big clumps of this in some front gardens! The lollipop bushes by the driveway appear to be different from the ones in the back garden.

We have had 5 days rain which has put 4" of water in the jar perched on a spar of my fence, which faces north. Nearby there are settling ponds to settle out sediment in flood waters. The outflow was higher over night, as can be seen by the weed on the barrier above the waterfall. Normally the water just goes down a Z-shaped channel. I've seen two species of shag - the little black (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) and the little (P. melanoleucos) - perched at different times on that barrier.

[angie]

Anthony I used to keep my frangipani in my conservatory but it always got covered in red spiders, just couldn't control them. Interesting to hear that you used a vine weevil control. I put it in my greenhouse and the tops have went a bit mushy. I have cut it down but whether it will grow again will just have to wait and see.
Love the Agave attenuata
I think I would love gardening over there.

Angie

[t00lie]

Hello Anthony

Thanks for the close up pics of the lollipop plants.

They show as i thought that your back door ones are a Pittosporum tenuifolium cultivar .

The different front of the house ones i think are Coprosma --maybe C.lucida

Cheers Dave.

[Anthony Darby]

Thanks Dave. Natives, which is OK, although fewer would have been good. I notice a depression in the grass border in front of my house which used to contain a tree. All the streets around have trees 30 - 40 metres apart. The ones in my section are deciduous magnolias. Mine is missing! Further up the street are callistemon and round the corner are pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). Don't fancy any of those. Would prefer a kuari, but I suspect it may grow too large? Moreton Bay fig? They have their own gravity, so need to think of an attractive small tree that wouldn't look out of place. I like sweet gum (Liquidambar spp.), which is planted in some of the borders at the Botany Shopping Centre, but maybe not? Any suggestions?

[Maren]

Hi,

I cultivated a Pittosporum tenuifolium for 10 years on my allotment, carefully crafting it into a huge ball, ready to be placed outside my front door. Sadly, just at the time when it was at its best, it was stolen, together with a wheelbarrow and a lovely Corylus contorta, which I kept there to provide early food for bees. The thieves were obviously tipped off by one of my allotment colleagues (lovely bunch).  Whatever you may think of your trees, Anthony, I treasured mine. 

[JohnnyD]

What a great spell of weather. 
Just great for shifting all those pots off the patio and cleaning the paving.
Just the job too for the heron which, free of all those pots, was able to walk to the pond, remove fish and stab seven holes in the butyl.
Spent yesterday emptying the pond, removing the sludge, finding the holes, sealing the holes then straining the sludge to catch the taddies and damselfly nymphs!
AAAAAGHHHHH!!!!!!!
JohnnyD

p.s.
Repair was successfully effected using butyl jointing tape at £1.99 per metre rather than the extortionate cost of a 'butyl repair kit'. 

[Lesley Cox]

Hope you weren't shopping at Albany yesterday Anthony.

[angie]

Hi John, yesterday I came out of my house with a coffee thinking I will sit at my pond a watch my fish in this lovely sunny day. I walked over and couldn't believe my eyes, I had a heron standing in my pond with a big fat goldfish in his beak. I threw my coffee cup at him thinking he would drop my goldfish but no he just kept trying to swallow it. I then threw my kneeling mat at him and finally he flew off. I am sure someone said these birds are protected. I wonder why. My poor goldfish was dead but at least he never got it and my cup was ok, these SRGC cups are indestructible 
Glad to hear that you managed to repair your liner, must have been a lot of work. I have fishing wire over my pond doesn't look that good but I get to many herons coming to visit. Wish they would find somewhere else to go.

Angie