'Bad start to the morning' or 'The dog's revenge'.

After carefully relocating my precious Reine des Violettes rose to her new bed, and molly-coddling her, praising each new leaf as she decided to accept her new home, and chasing Yuki the maremma off the new garden bed repeatedly and with increasing indignation, last night I finally smacked his rump as I yet again shooed him off the perennials.
This morning, as I was greeting the plants and going on my rounds, I was greeted with a pile of chewed, masticated splinters where yesterday my Violet Queen held court!
Several hours later I have finally stopped gibbering and twitching but Yuki is still nowhere to be seen... Celebrating quietly I suspect....

The Queen has probably got her revenge in the form of thorns lodged in ouchy places!

Do you have trouble growing her generally?

It was the night for it, I'm afraid. Coorinated by dogs all over the ountry I'm sure. Last night mine did a tap-dance all over some newly planted seedlings and broke Coral Drift in half too... some bunnies got out of their enclosure and the dog proceeded to chase them all over the garden causing damage where ever his big boof feet landed

Oh dear and I thought my cats, chickens and goat could do damage.
As soon as we plant seedlings the chickens dig them out and David wont let me leave them locked in their pen I should add, I dont even like eggs.

So the poochy from Gootchie has gone to ground. I think you might become the Violent Queen if he is not careful.

Simon, I had to laugh when I read the part about your bunnies getting out of their enclosure and causing trouble. We have lots of trouble with bunnies in the garden. Unfortunately, they are not the variety that live in enclosures and with the good season they are breeding like ... rabbits!
I have given up on 'Reine des Violettes'. She actually requires looking after in order to perform, unlike all my other toughies, and it just isn't going to happen.
Maree

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Maree, these are my 'special' bunnies. They are long haired rex bunnies. They don't contain guard hairs and they don't tangle and I've been trying to breed them with longer and longer coats so they can be clipped for their wool. I've all but given up because as fast as I can breed them, myxo kills them. I could spend large amounts of $$$$ building insect proof enclosures but.. I haven't got large amounts of $$$ to spare...

Well look what we people who live north of the rabbit fence miss out on!

I once hired two bunnies for the birthday party of my daughter Sonia. In Qld they have to be registered and our bunnies came from a kindergarten. Well they did nothing but wee and poo in fright all afternoon. The petting pen was a disaster! I ended up putting plastic bags on their rear ends so that the braver children could hold them.

In general Reine de Violettes seems to do fine for me, as long as she has some protection from roasty sun, lots of good compost -never a problem here... and as long as canines and caprines stay away.. sigh.. I love fussing and putting in the effort with the roses and other plants, maybe cos the kids are grown and have flown the nest..lol..
I didn't know bunnies could be registered in Qld, we have been told you can't even have them if desexed and can't register them... same with ferrets. The two main gripes I have with Qld! I love both, and have always had them as pets.. snif.. Then again, they'd probably just team up with Yuki and co., to gang up on the roses. I have a few siamese fighting fish, lovely little creatures, and am fast coming to the conclusion that if you love pets AND plants, fish are probably the pet to have!

Either that, or stick with the fur-kids and develop a wild passion to grow cactus!!

I have 7 dogs and the only trouble I have ever had was one of my cattle dogs getting onto a garden bed, trampling my young Delphiniums while eating Dynamic Lifter. Oh, she did that to my irises another time for the same reason. But then, my dogs get supervised exercise seeing I know they'd go after any Brown snake that slithered into the garden. She was cunning though, and plain disobedient.
Sorry to read what happened to Reine des Violettes.

Gotta be honest Betty, I'm with your dogs, I go after any brown snake I see in our main yards too... or any other snake.. I am not racist! I am an equal opportunity snake-whacker! And to think... I used to relocate the 'poor little things'....

My place is the Brown snake capital. We get some whoppers from a State Forest opposite us. Whenever I have nets on fruit trees I go check they aren't holding an irate snake before I let the dogs out seeing I once had all my dogs running around for nearly an hour without realising one was tangled up in a net in their exercise area. I had to pick up and almost hurl one of my sheltie girls away from it seeing she had selective deafness and wouldn't call off. Must say I've never had a dog tackle a rose, mine show a preference for my weeping mulberry tree which they trim to their head height at certain times of the year.

haha we have goats for the mulberry trees... and have had a couple of taipans in the pigeon houses.. grrrrr...
I guess yuki figured by removing the rosebush, there would be no more smacks for digging and snoring in the garden bed...
Need roses with BIG thorns, none of these pussy thornless roses...

LOL. Try the rose called 'Isn't She Lovely' then, or 'Fishermans Friend'. Your Maremma's tongue would be in tatters.

Betty wrote:I had to pick up and almost hurl one of my sheltie girls away from it seeing she had selective deafness and wouldn't call off.

My sheltie had a thing for snakes too. She always wanted to "help" me relocate it! She got better as she got older though - she would give the warning bark and then allow herself to be locked in the house while I dealt with the snake!

I have seen pictures of Fisherman's Friend, it looks gorgeous! Tatters hey??!!... hmmmmmm...

Gee, your and my shelties could have had fun together, though with mine the alpha of the sheltie pack here, and yours obviously a very brave girl, they'd probably fight over who got to be the boss. LOL.
Fisherman's Friend is lovely, flowers wonderfully for me and has a lovely fragrance. I was amazed by the thorns on Isn't She Lovely though, one to beware of when weeding for sure.

My sheltie was not an alpha. Very gentle and never, EVER picked a fight or got into a fight. Brave, yes. She was willing to take on sheep that had sent kelpies yelping... If they bowled her over she'd get up, dust herself off and then launch herself at them with more vigour. LOL

I have never seen "Isn't She Lovely", but you've definitely got my attention! Would surely stop Yuki 'weeding' and 'pruning'! I do love the Shelties, they are a delight Them and the Cocker Spaniels.... We have 3 Cockers.. They are well-behaved with the gardens, just love snuffling off around the dam and through the dam... and bringing the dam home on them.. lol

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Isn't She Lovely. Now you owe me a photo of those Cockers. LOL. We had a blue roan one when I was very young. I assume they are English, not American?
AutumnDamask, I was rather surprised when I got my first shelties. They are not entirely the fluffy sweet little lapdog people assume them to be, are they? More a very pretty working dog. A friend used to sell them to work on dairy farms if you can believe that! Our Tammy, the boss lady, would tell us to hurry up when we took them out for exercise with a nip or two on the heel if we went too slow for her.

Now if only I can work out how to post pics.. lol... yes, English Cockers, one has a bit of King Charles. An old Golden gentleman, and the two young lads, one red roan, the other red and white.. Never seen a Sheltie as a lap dog, in actual fact a lot of the small breeds were not lapdogs originally, probably why the can be snappy and cranky... They need to have a job to do lol.. Shelties are great working with sheep, whereas a lot of other breeds I wouldn't want near sheep or goats. Goats in particular... they hate dogs in general, but love our maremmas.