Greetings on Boxing Day!

Hope everyone had teh Christmas they wanted. We certainly did, especially with the wonderful rain after the ferocious heat. Made the alrge gathering really comfortable and cozy, even snow-like ;-)

Okay, the Firefighters didn't open in time (I now know how to force next year), but Young Lycidas came to the party, popping 10 blooms, fragrant nearly 4 inches full, and near-enough-is-good-enough darek magenta pink, which looked red enough. This one holds in a vase, too, if a bit short-necked.

Wishing you all an excellent Boxing Day holiday! Off to see The Hobbit :thud:, the choice of the family teenagers.

Hope you all had a good day. All the best for the year ahead!!

betsyw wrote:

Okay, the Firefighters didn't open in time (I now know how to force next year), .

Betty , with your FF, just go outside now and prune three canes to the third five leafer down from the top(where flower is).Now put a tag around these three canes, incase you cut other canes in the near future.....

Now record this action in a diary of when you prune the cane, when you first see the bud appear, when the bud starts to open and then when the flower is at the right time you want to pick it. You must do this soon as you can because you want to replicate this action next year.

This can be applied to any plant, but keep in mind that every plant grows differently

Neptune, I think I'd find it easier to make a croquembouche blindfolded in the middle of oncoming traffic LOLOL

Now you know how us rosarians have to go thru and they as a rule have over 100 plants to record and they need to do this twice a year...once in autumn, once in spring

I guess if you are showing flowers and you only used a few plants then you could do this but gee we have over 200 varieties with multiple plants of a lot of them so it would just not be possible to do them all.

Geez Gary, I hear you,...but then you only have to do it once and then you have it on record how they behave.....

True but I find that every year you have different weather, different bugs (or levels of bugs) which probably also relate to the wether, the affects of other plants nearby etc all of which affect the individual plant.

I guess you could prepare a matirx and include all the variablities of what can affect the timing, level and qualities of your plants flowering but I think that would take way the feeling you get when you wake up on that particular fine morning and look out and see one of you plants producing like never before.

New Year is coming up fast and that is exciting because the temps will drop and the autumn blooms will be larger, deeper in colour and plenty of them. It is said that in Qld we get 7 flushes a season and although the flowers are not as large as in cooler climates we sure see plenty of colour in our gardens. I gave Cornelia H Musk a thrashing yesterday so that the birds could drink from the birdbath and eat at the bird table to their heart's content. The sheep manure is going well but it was sold to me in old laying mash bags and the corn is growing well around the roses. We received 39mm rain on Christmas night - what a gift as it has been getting frighteningly dry.

mumble grumble bloody rain mumble mumble

Balinbear wrote:mumble grumble bloody rain mumble mumble

Gary doe s this mean you got nil/zilch or heaps

Its lightly drizzelling at present but not much.

Over the past week we have recieved about 2 -5mm. I guess that is more than we have had in most weeks since July so its improving.