Lavender - Varieties

Lavender 'Ellagance Ice'
Dwarf variety, full sun to part shade, has white flowers on spikes.
Requires little water once established. 
Prefers an alkaline soil, fertilise little and not often.
Prune lightly after flowering to maintain compact shape.
30cm to 50cm H x 30cm to 50cm W 

Purchases 3 plants in June '18, planted in planter behind pansies.

 5-8-18
Lavender establishing well, pansies beginning to flower

20-10-18
No pests, slow growing, has put on approx 20cm H and widened in past 3 months.

Lavender 'Elegans Ice' got a root fungus, diagnosed too late to save plants. 


Lavandula 'Avon view'
Vibrant dark blue flower heads with contrasting violet-purple bracts are produced throughout the warmer months and year round in hotter climates.  Foliage is soft and a bright greenish-grey
Excellent low hedge, screen or container shrub.  Mediterranean and cottage gardens
Prefers a warm, open sunny position in well drained soil.  Avoid sever frost.  Remove spent flowers in Summer to encourage continuous flowering.  Prune back by one third in Autumn
Grows to 80cm H
Full Sun
Flowers Spring to Autumn
'Avon View' was a gift, along with 2 perfumed gardeners soap bars from the Patchwork Girls to celebrate the Buderim Patchwork Blog's 10th Birthday.
Should have taken a pic the day I received it, flowers had died by next day....Will update when flowers re-appear after a good drink.

 Lavandula 'Avon View' died - lack of ability to understand growing conditions. 

Heliconia Augusta - 'Red Christmas'

A beautiful evergreen perennial with attractive, bright red bracts from June to September.  The large, green leaves grow up to 1.8M long.
Uses:  This Heliconia is well suited to tropical gardens, and the flower stalks make useful indoor decorations.
Position: Prefers a humus rich, well drained soil in a protected, warm location.
Care: Remove spent flower stalks, Keep moist during growing season.
Planting:  Cultivate soil before planting.  Dig hole twice the width of the container.  Remove plant from container and place into the hole so the soil leves is the same as surrounding ground.  Fill hole firmly and water in well even if the soil is moist.
Plant:  Part Shade
Height to 1M
Keep moist
Likes warm to hot conditions
Good in pots
Prune spent flowers.

Greg spotted these plants on a gardening/home renovation show.  Purchased one plant and popped it in behind the pool.  Purchased a second plant in a 7" pot with a view to subdividing plant when it finished flowering.
By the time it finished flowering, the pot was bursting.

18-10-18
First step was to soak the pot in a bucket of water to make subdividing easier.

Subdivided plant, we got 14 plants from the one pot, it was so root bound it was difficult to divide, a couple of tubers were lost in the dividing so fingers crossed not too many of the 14 will succumb to shock or whatever.

 Mixed cheap potting mix with Organic fertiliser, watered the plants in well.
Located in Utility area - very little sun until they establish then will move them to a part sun part shade position before re-locating to the pool fence area.

Just realised looking at pic, forgot to prune off the flower...ooops....job for tomorrow.

20-10-18 
Lots of watering, a little seasol, so far so good.

Next step is to clear out stones from garden bed along pool fence, add lots of 'Moo Poo' soil conditioner, organic fertiliser and plant these Heliconias into the bed, relay nice new rocks, after of course the rhizomes have formed a decent root ball.

 

Chives & Garlic Chives

Chives are a versatile herb that belong to the onion and garlic family.
Ther are 2 types of Chives, the Common Chives that has lavender flowers with tubular leaves and Garlic Chives that have white flowers and a flatter leaf. 
Chives die down in autumn and re shoot in spring however in subtropics they remain an evergreen.
To keep clumps growing healthily, divide every 2-3 years.  Dig out clump with a garden fork, divide into sub clumps of about 10 - 12 bulbs, cut leaves right back to about 1" - 1.5" and plant in a sunny or semi shaded position.
Chives can survive dry periods but the common chives really thrive on extra water during summer to keep their growth lush.  

Both types of chives grow well in the ground or in pots and can cope with extended periods indoors on a sunny window sill.  In the veggie patch or in the garden, chives make a great decorative border plant.

Common Chives
Our common chives are several years old and came with us from King Street, along with a mediterranean soft Oregano, a lovely plant that trails over the pot edge and doesn't object to being heavily pruned back.

 

16-10-18   1st Chive flower for this year.

20-10-18

Garlic Chives
Our Garlic Chives came to us as a wonderful gift of a herb barrel for Christmas 2017.

16-10-18  Chives are doing well in the barrel, sadly the Sage got attacked but is now recovering nicely.  The dill of course died...dill does that, just turns up its toes.  Placed a pot of parsley at the edge of the pot to see how it likes to position, will have to transplant it shortly.

20-10-18

 

Succulents

Not previously being a fan of succulents I know nothing about the little suckers, but when I spotted this quartet at Aldi for the princley sum of $5ea, got them to help fill out the front garden space

...not sure what to call the front space, it is our front yard but full of stones with succulents, grasses, Agave and Cycads.  It went (well the stones did) all the way to the guttering, gave a whole new definition to the word ugly.
We have since had the 'nature strip' area turfed (an entire and long post could be written on that saga) but after the Darling stepped in and rescued the project, we now have some lovely green thick grass.

Relocated a few of the succulents from around the garden, to add to the 4 purchased.

 and planted them amoungst the small rocks unearthed by the garden guy.
Update: Not so sure this is a succulent - am thinking a variety of  Aechmeda Bromelaide

Apparently, succulents 'sit on' the earth, as opposed to being 'planted'.  I scratched back the stones and the weed mat...oh yeah, weed mat, it covers the entire bloody block. No wonder the soil is so starved and in poor condition...sorry, I digress, scratched back the weed mat and laid the succulents on the dirt, scooted the stones back up around the plants and gave them a short watering.


Bordered the edge along the driveway with Mondo 'Snow Storm'. Time is needed for these little guys to fill in but we all know what Mondo is like, a little water, a little food and move over baby!
They came in a 14 section punnet for $14, there was 2-3 plants in each section, pulled them apart, and again, scratched back the stones and weed mat. 

 More work needed, along with some vision, but this is it at the moment.

 Not really my cup of tea. 

Purple Pixie - Loropetalum chinese 'Peack'

A weeping ground cover with rich purple foliage.  Purple Pixie boasts showy pink ribbons of flowers in spring that compliment its foliage nicely.  This is a cold hardy, drought and humidity tolerant plant.
Size 30-50cm tall x 1.2 - 1.5m wide.
Full sun to part shade.  Purple Pixie handles clay, loam or sandy soils.
Fertilise in early spring.
Prune after flowering in spring.
Pruning every 2-3 years will kepp Purple Pixie below 30cm
visit www.ozbreed.com.au for more information.

29-4-18

 Really liked the look of the foliage on this plant when we came across it at Manawee nursery, since purchasing it in April '18 it has put on a couple of inches on the branches and come into flower.  

We chose to pot it into a bowl shaped plastic pot to go on a plant stand on the back patio, being plastic on a stand plastic is safer and will not dry out like terracotta.  The bowl shape may not be such a good idea as the shallow depth around the edges makes it a challenge for any other plants.  The unknow leafy green thing is just an experiment.

The plant will have to be potted up as it grows. 

18-8-18

 BLACK FLYING INSECTS

18th August '18, noticed tiny black flying insects around the plant.  Lightly sprayed it with white oil, (home made)  Seems to have killed the bugs but also killed the flowers, however there are lots of buds so not too distraught.

STILL WITH THE BLACK FLYING INSECTS
20-8-18.  More insects, quite the little cloud, only around this plant.  Taking a bit of 'advice' from a gardeners blog I just used a household flying insect spray to spray around, not directly onto, the plant.
Left it sit for 30-40mins then sprayed with water to wash off any insecticide residue....checked it at sundown and all looks good, no leaf damage and no insects.  Holding my breath till tomorrow, hopefully no damage.

Found this link to a native alternative: http://www.australianplantsonline.com.au/breynia-cernua-ironstone-range.html


 Breynia 'Ironstone Range'
Native shrub with deep burgundy-red foliage on cascading branches. Suited to accent planting screening and hedging when clipped. Use as a native alternative to Loropetalum "China Pink'.

20-10-18
Insects have moved on, plant is healthy and growing well. Branches are not starting to hang over edge of pot and little experiment (green leafy thingie - still have not found out what this plant is)...little experiment is forming roots and sending out new leaves, colour is a nice foil agains the dark red leaves of the Loropetalum.

Walking Iris - Neomarica Gracilis

Greg was very taken with this plant, it was a wee tad expensive being such a large plant so offered to get it for his birthday, along with an appropriately sized pot - wheww...
We managed to throw both our backs out lifting it into the pot 'just to see how it would look' and so there it sat for two months, in fact it is still unpotted as it started forming flower buds and we didn't want to shock it..

Care and gardening information
Neomarica plants are clumping perennials that reach anywhere from 18 to 36 inches. And once you see their flowers, you will appreciate another of its common names—the poor man’s orchid (not to be confused with the Schizanthus poor man’s orchid). This exotic-looking plant with its graceful sword-like foliage has white, yellow or blue flowers that resemble a cross between that of an orchid and an iris. Although they are short lived, lasting only a day, numerous blooms continue to follow over an extended period of time throughout spring, summer and fall. 

When the new plantlet is formed at the tip of the flower stalk, it bends to the ground and takes root.
In addition to propagating themselves, the walking iris can be easily propagated through division of offsets or by seed in spring, 

Rhizomes can be planted in the ground or pots just beneath the soil. Walking iris grows best in moist, well-draining soil in areas with light to full shade but will also tolerate some sun as long as they receive adequate moisture.

Allow the plant to go dormant in winter and limit its watering to once monthly. You can feed the plant every two weeks with a water soluble fertilizer in the summer, or use a granular slow release fertilizer annually in early spring as part of your walking iris care.
There is some great info at this site that the above has been taken from
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/bulbs/walking-iris/walking-iris-plants.htm

We had the plant against the Alfresco trellis but it seemed to be going backwards, leaves were getting lighter and something is chewing it.  Thinking it was getting a little too much direct sun we moved it to against the Alfresco pillar.  It is doing better but I think I was not watering it correctly, using a hose on shower the water was more inclined to run down the leaves past the pot.  Am now watering it at the base with a watering can, this way I can measure how much water it is getting. 

18th August 2018

 
Great excitement over our breakfast coffee...Greg spotted the very first flower on our Walking Lilly. 
The bud was obviously chewed so the flower is a little deformed but what the heck, we are besotted!

 There has been several bursts of flowers since this exciting pic.
The flowers only last one day, and after each flush of flowers there are several days while the next lot of flower buds swell and then burst forth.  
22-9-18 today has been the most prolific flowering yet - 16 flowers on the plant.  Happiness is...

20-10-18
The Neomarica got rather damaged in its flowering process, the strappy leaves really put on some length and wound up getting trampled somewhat.
We have raised the pot on a pot stand, hopefully this will protect it somewhat.  We plan to subdivide the plant, not radically, just remove a few of the smaller plants and re-pot into the self-watering pot that the plant is simply resting in at the moment.

SEPT 2020

The original plant, we need to take this pot into hand and divide the plants. Relocated from Alfresco into Courtyard Garden 2019

These plants are from the first offshoots. Other shoots were planted, anything in a shallow pot hung on but did not flourish, shoots planted into deeper pots flourished: barrel pot with Red Christmas. Shoots from first flowering, planted directly into this pot and relocated to Courtyard garden 2019.

Who am I? - Leafy green thingy--I AM A DWARF PEACE LILLY ! !

Well, this little unloved guy must have a story.
We know that when the previous house owners moved out they sold all the plants to some guy who turned up with a ute and trailer, loaded up and away he went...so why did he leave this little guy behind?  He was in a very old & fragile pot but was gamely hanging on and making quite a show of his lovely light green leaves.  We let him sit for the year, watered and lightly...occasionally...fed him, he rewarded us with even fresher lovely leaves.
So, time came to do some dividing and re-potting.  The roots were in such a tightly woven mat that separation was impossible.  In desperation I grabbed a big knife and just hacked, I wouldn't say it was impossible to make clean sharp cuts through the root ball, but I am no muscle bound hunk and that - to me - was clearly the only way to get a clean cut, so I hacked.
I ended up with quite a number of bits, even one tiny little single leafed bit with the tiniest hair root, and yep, popped him into some mix and he is kind of coming along, shakily, but coming along.
So is this the plant from Hell that you cannot kill...ever? or just a grateful little plant that just wants to live and bring joy?
Time will tell...and hopefully, one day, on Pinterest or Houzz or some gardening site I will spy a piccie and be able to identify him.
Here with some new leaves just visible coming up and a little 'Snow Storm' Mondo for interest and company.

Added to a pot with an ivy cutting

Another large piece potted with a couple of Cordyline cuttings.  Not sure if they will all survive, but if they do....free plants!

20-10-18
Despite all the net searches I have not managed to identify this plant, however, since dividing and re-potting it is doing well in all of its locations

At home in the 'Utility' area

Mainly shady area with a little afternoon sun against the Alfresco area.

Planted with some Ivy by the Dining Room window, gets approx 4hrs direct sun.

Just a few straggly leaves planted with the Loropetalum that are now forming a root ball.

Blue Eyes - Osteospermum ecklonis

Osterospermum, low growing grund covers are heat and frost tolerant and bloom repeatedly.  Once established the weeds will really struggle to push through and over run these.  Prefers a full sun to part shade position and are extremely low maintenance.  Ideal ground cover for garden beds, rockeries and container planting.  Prune lightly after flowering to maintain shape and extend the lifespan of the plant.

Full Sun or Part shade

Grows 60cm W x 30cm H

Flowers most of the year.

 

A trip to Rosemount nurseries found us faced with a bank of daisy plants.  Love daisies, love, love, love.  but...no plan to incorporate them in the Portmarnock plan.
So, o.k., a quick rethink.  We had a large pot planted with French Mixed Marigolds, they were not doing so hot...


 so in my minds eye I could see this beauty

planted in the pot center with daisies spilling over onto marigolds, and the odd flash of white from self sown Assyliums in a colour contrast.

21-9-18
Daisies last a long time on plant, have been watering around marigolds and at the base of the Osteospermum, have had some prolific displays.  Doesn't react to heavy rainfall, but always sends up a new bunch of blooms.
2nd week of September, fertilised with Osmocote.

20-10-18
The extend period of torrential rain we have had has decimated both the Marigolds and the Osteospermum flowers, however, the plant is looking healthy so am hopeful that there will be another flush of flowers soon.  The Alyssum are going wild, obviously love the rain.  Hardy little plants.

As this plant grew the center became a mess of stalks with deaad leaves, very messy, tried to cut it back but not severly enough - It got the flick!

Pilea - Pilea cadierei

An attractive house plant with rounded deep green leaves and raised silvery metallic patches.  Tip prune to encourage a compact habit
This plant performs best in a moist but well drained potting medium in a warm filtered light interior location.  To maintain quality, water and liquid feed more frequently during the warmer months
Grows to 30cm High x 30cm Wide

Having read that a Pilea would be great for shady spots I purchased one from Rosemount nurseries not long after moving into Portmarnock.  Well, what with all the other projects on the go, buying plants was a big mistake, really I had no time to look into or after any plant, so this poor little thing just languished and almost died.


 Originally I had hoped to create a little 'greenery' area in the predominatly shady area on the outside of my sewing space door, the Pilea and the Ivy were the first - and only- (thank goodness) plants I consigned to this space, this enviroment, this almost graveyard.
But NO...
A Pilea is a very hardy little plant, it hung in there, with almost no leaves on the original stems it still managed, when offered a little water and care, to put forward new growth.  I let the lanky stems hold themselves high while tiny new growth sprouted from the base.  When the new growth established I pruned off the lanky stems and left it to recover for a bit. 

After a while I re-potted the plant into a small version of the plastic bowl shaped pot.
Re-homed on the Alfresco dining table, it seems to be as happy as a sandpiper.

20-10-18 

Continuing to thrive in the Alfresco Area, lots of new growth, no direct sunlight, but plenty of diffused light.

Changed this plants location and lost it.  

Ivy - Hedera

One of the first plants purchased in 2017 after we unpacked and settled in.  Purchased from Rosemount nursery 8th April 2017 for $10, along with the Pilea as shade lovers to cheer up the area outside my sewing space door.

Evergreen, woody stemmed, trailing self-clinging or climbing plant with attractive foliage.  Groundcover for difficult sites.  Train over topiary frames.  Indoors or outdoors in pots and hanging baskets.  Suited to most soils.  Green leaved varieties are more tolerand of heavier shade and frost than variegated ones.  Prune and train as required.  Take precautions to prevent garded specimens from escaping into the wild

Full Sun or Part Shade. 

Pic April 2017 

 Ivy now lives over the other side of the block against the Alfresco wall. The plants around and below are a bit of a mess and need work.  One step at a time.

Pic December 2020

With a little help the Ivy managed to take a tumble from that plinth, it had 3' lengths of leaves and had to have a severe trim but as you can see, it has bounced back, so much so that a couple of cuttings were taken and rooted in water, one was given to young Riley next door and the other potted into a small seedling cup on 2-8-18 (Update: gave this cutting to Riley in October, months later her complained that it had not rooted, but the one in the red pot did as well as the one in the vase of water in the dining room)

Another cutting added to the unknown leafy thing. - (Update found leafy thing to be a Dwarf Peace Lilly, got a few pots of these now. (2020)

20-10-18
The heavy rains have not adversely affected the Ivy, it is going great guns, spilling down the side of the plinth...

and putting on some length in the red pot.

as well as establishing itself in the small indoor pot.(Update: 2020 Peace Lilly has forced Ivy out, now gone....ooops)