Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Anthony Darby]

We had rain all day today (third day in a row) and the garden is a swamp. My wheelbarrow rain gauge is half full in less than a week! Now it is dark and virtually cloudless so I expect frost!

[Paul T]

.....I shouldn't laugh too much, as it makes my sunburn hurt !!     

Oh Giles, that is cruel.  But I like it !! 

Autumn, sunny here as well, although a bit breezy today. 

[annew]

The rain means it is really too horrible to play on the trampoline.

When you do get a chance, Maggi, can we come round and enjoy the spectacle?

[Paul T]

Anne,

I'd sort of noted that myself, too. 

[Carol Shaw]

The rain means it is really too horrible to play on the trampoline.

When you do get a chance, Maggi, can we come round and enjoy the spectacle?

I want to have a shotty too!

[David Shaw]

Maggie, can you arrange to hire the trampoline for Saturday morning so that we can nip up during Judging?

[Lesley Cox]

Winter has arrived in NZ with snow on the ground here this morning. Very cold weekend and more to come we're told. But the ground is at last getting some decent moisture. Pity it's too cold now to keep growth going. Might take Diane's Cardiocrinum seed out of the fridge and into the big outdoors.

[Sinchets]

Is snow this early 'normal' where you are Lesley?

[Ragged Robin]

It's raining down ants in the chalet      

A colony has decided to venture out from a nest in the wooden beams and they are everywhere - can't sit still for a second 

.....

Flashback to when I was about 5 sitting in the heather by a loch having a picnic - was told to stop fidgeting, sit still and eat my bap properly......a few seconds later I was covered in red ants, biting me everywhere....as few seconds later I was dunked in the loch 

[Lesley Cox]

Is snow this early 'normal' where you are Lesley?

No Simon, this is really early. Most forecasters have been predicting an early winter and with a good fall in the South Island mountains, the ski field people are rubbing their hands in glee. Usually we don't get snow that stays around until late June or July, going on until September if the skiers are lucky. I get three or four falls here, usually of 5 or 10 cms and they rarely stay more than a day or two at most.

I planted a large (1.5 metre high) Lonicera hildebrandiana against my house a couple of days ago. The leaves will go but the plant should be OK. My mother grew an enormous plant of the Burmese honeysuckle along a long verandah and it lasted for ever, probably still there actually.

[Rodger Whitlock]

The genus Vancouveria and I seem to have some kind of very weird love-hate relationship going on.

For starters, in this garden, I've never been able to establish V. hexandra, though in many local gardens it's a pest that is nearly impossible to eradicate. It grew well in my old garden, 20⁺ years ago, but here the best performance was growth for a few years followed by a slow decline and ultimate disappearance. Oddly enough, Ranunuculus ficaria 'Brazen Hussy', which is a pest in some gardens, also fails here, though other cultivars of R. ficaria do well enough.

The other two vancouverias, V. chrysantha and V. planipetala, survive, but don't grow vigorously. I must add that V. chrysantha did once set seed, believe it or not!

This morning I decided to lift a bit of each and pot it up as the first step toward distributing these plants more widely. The golden vancouveria was well behaved and allowed me, on my third try, to lift a growing point that actually had roots. The redwood ivy (V. planipetala), on the other hand, resolutely refused to provide anything better than a long rootless stolon with a tuft of leaves at one end. I potted it up anyway, but I am not optimistic.

I guess it's just an example of the sheer perversity of nature.

[johnw]

The genus Vancouveria and I seem to have some kind of very weird love-hate relationship going on.

For starters, in this garden, I've never been able to establish V. hexandra, though in many local gardens it's a pest that is nearly impossible to eradicate. It grew well in my old garden, 20⁺ years ago, but here the best performance was growth for a few years followed by a slow decline and ultimate disappearance. Oddly enough, Ranunuculus ficaria 'Brazen Hussy', which is a pest in some gardens, also fails here, though other cultivars of R. ficaria do well enough.

The other two vancouverias, V. chrysantha and V. planipetala, survive, but don't grow vigorously. I must add that V. chrysantha did once set seed, believe it or not!

This morning I decided to lift a bit of each and pot it up as the first step toward distributing these plants more widely. The golden vancouveria was well behaved and allowed me, on my third try, to lift a growing point that actually had roots. The redwood ivy (V. planipetala), on the other hand, resolutely refused to provide anything better than a long rootless stolon with a tuft of leaves at one end. I potted it up anyway, but I am not optimistic.

I guess it's just an example of the sheer perversity of nature.

Same here Rodger. V. hexandra was ramapant here in a bed of nasty worn out soil. When I re-made the bed with compost etc I re-planted a few pieces and it gave up the ghost. In another garden it is a tidy little clump.

V. planipeta merely exists. V. chrysantha we have not dared to put out yet.

johnw

[Paul T]

Bah, bleedin' humbug..... the darn flu is back at me again.    Thought it was over and it has kept resurfacing all week.  Go to work for a few hours and have to come home and sleep the afternoon.  And I'm supposed to have got seed together to send off to Tasmania but it just hasn't happened.  Arrrrrrrrgggggh!!

(moan, moan, moan!)

(grumble, grumble!)

(Pfffffft!)

 

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

Never mind, I hear Taswegians can be quite understanding.

[Ragged Robin]

Virtual mountain air to speed you recovery