Hello dear rose friends … have you ever spent time watching a Magpie have dinner? Quietly, cautiously step across the lawn, head leaning to one side … listening to hear the worms crawling through the earth … is it possible that a worm actually makes a noise while it slithers through the soil? The magpie hears something …?
The fascination of nature in a quiet moment sitting up on my veranda last evening! That beautiful female Magpie ate no less than 50 worms and grubs as she readies herself for mating, laying her eggs and the consequent routine of sitting till the chicks arrive.
How her life will change when the eggs hatch and she and her partner will share the feeding of the chicks – I will keep you informed as to how many she has this year … beautiful!
While the Magpies are a happy and non-invasive garden resident, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos look at me, pick a daffodil and destructively leave it on the ground … I’ll share all the food and resources of the garden, but please don’t just peck something off and then leave it as litter … so angry, I screamed at them, opened the wire-screen door and slammed it shut hoping to scare them …. ? They looked at me up on the veranda, railing at them and laughed at me … oh, I got so mad I was racing through the yard with my hands waving!
Surprised not to see an ambulance driving around the corner – here to come and pick me up and take me to the nearest available mental facility … newspaper headlines: “Local, highly respected rose nursery proprietor removed in great distress ..” giggle … should make it happen and have the press here ready to report something seriously funny for the evening news … would have to be better than all the negative stuff on the news!
Over the years, how I have despaired for all you beautiful rose gardeners that walk out in the morning to find the possums have feasted on your roses while you’ve been sleeping – there has to be a way of stopping this blatant garden destruction ..?
If you have a good idea or solution, please tell me so that I can share it with other very frustrated rose gardeners … thanks!
SAVE THE ROSES … THERE FOR THE TAKING … If you live in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne or are seriously keen to get some very old roses which have been raised by staunch rosarians, Mandy and Allen Brundrett – members of the BRUNDRETT ROSES family, please contact … Margaret Lawson on 0407 896 309 and she will give you directions and information about when you can access the property at 29 Kingswood Crescent, Noble Park North where more than 100 roses between 30-50 years old can be dug and rescued.
A HOST OF GOLDEN DAFFODILS … Such a wonderful sight
Yes, we are rosarians and for just as many years, we have been very keen daffodil growers with many of our collection of bulbs in the gardens here at Clonbinane.
If you take a close look at the photo, you will note that the bulbs closest to the Oak tree are smaller than the others … reason for this … I mowed them before they were ready to be mowed!
Never, ever, cut the foliage from your bulbs before that foliage is well and truly browned-off because all the energy from this year’s foliage goes down into the bulb as a food-store for the next year. Sometimes I have been impatient and not wanted to look at all the dead foliage, run the mower over it and yes, the following year, the flowering stems are shorter with fewer flowers!
Beautiful customers, Linda and Ray were in the other day and Linda was saying that Ray lifts the daffodils and separates them … Is that why they never get a true ‘drift of golden daffodils’ as they see in other people’s gardens ..?
Definitely do not lift and separate your daffodils and let the foliage completely disintegrate so that you can experience the true ‘host of golden daffodils’ … warming pleasure in the Winter/Spring garden!
IN CLOSING … Graham asks you to allow yourself to feel nature and enjoy the pleasure of growing some seeds, see them come to life with small green shoots which have amazing energy … music to the heart!
Birds singing in the gardens are starting to herald the closeness of Spring … those birds singing are stimulating the stomata of each plant leaf to open and drink the dew to nurture joyous growth. Liquid seaweed your plants regularly to increase their vigour and strengthen them in readiness for the bounty of the Spring.
Enjoy this last week of Winter … Diana & Graham at Clonbinane