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How's your flowers, Pops?

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burglar said:
It's a rich golden colour.
It must give you great joy to see them from indoors.





Regarding the cat: there are plants that will offend the neighbour's cat!
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Yes, very cheery. Responds well to a very harsh cut-back after flowering.

The neighbour's cat is a sore point. We've had the most lovely neighbour ever since building our house 16 years ago. Unfortunately his wife died, and the new wife came with a cat. She seems to think we should feel privileged at having her cat grace our yard with its presence (and poo) and makes no attempt to keep it at home. We really enjoyed the blue-tongued lizards and bearded dragons that liked to sun themselves on our bush rocks in the garden, and I enjoy the sight of native birds in my garden. The cat is a menace to both. Although her cat comes with a bell around its neck, it still manages to bail up the odd bird (baby, I expect) and I do my best to discourage it with judicious applications of water if I happen to be watering the garden at the time.:eek: It also has a most unfortunate habit of leaping upon geckos on the flyscreens over my windows and scaring me half to death, and ripping rents in the screens into the bargain.:banghead:
 
DocK said:
Yes, very cheery. Responds well to a very harsh cut-back after flowering.

The neighbour's cat is a sore point. We've had the most lovely neighbour ever since building our house 16 years ago. Unfortunately his wife died, and the new wife came with a cat. She seems to think we should feel privileged at having her cat grace our yard with its presence (and poo) and makes no attempt to keep it at home. We really enjoyed the blue-tongued lizards and bearded dragons that liked to sun themselves on our bush rocks in the garden, and I enjoy the sight of native birds in my garden. The cat is a menace to both. Although her cat comes with a bell around its neck, it still manages to bail up the odd bird (baby, I expect) and I do my best to discourage it with judicious applications of water if I happen to be watering the garden at the time.:eek: It also has a most unfortunate habit of leaping upon geckos on the flyscreens over my windows and scaring me half to death, and ripping rents in the screens into the bargain.:banghead:
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The wee lass in this video had a creative solution to a similar problem:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFiLvb3babs
 
DocK said:
yellow-flowered sterile hybrid, involving Lantana camara and Lantana montevidensis (Photo: Sheldon Navie

It's the hybrid version, sold as non-spreading and sterile. It has been in my garden for at least 5 years and has not spread at all. I don't have pets - and it certainly does not seem to offend the neighbour's cat - unfortunately.
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"sold as" is the operative phrase. Nurseries are more interested in making money than protecting the environment. Spreading in this context usually refers more to the fact that birds carry the seeds and drop them throughout the broader environment, where the plant is a particular pest in agricultural land.
 
Julia said:
"sold as" is the operative phrase. Nurseries are more interested in making money than protecting the environment. Spreading in this context usually refers more to the fact that birds carry the seeds and drop them throughout the broader environment, where the plant is a particular pest in agricultural land.
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But that's the point I was making, Julia - it doesn't produce seeds. It's a hybrid that has been bred to be sterile, non-seed producing and innocuous enough to use for landscaping purposes. Here's a link if you're really interested - http://waterwhendry.blogspot.com.au/2007/08/lantana-multiplicity-personified.html
and another:
http://www.outwestgardening.com/previousplants/lantananewgold.html
So, now comes the REALLY BIG IMPROVEMENT. The latest round of Lantanas are varieties that are sterile. They don’t produce seeds, so they aren’t a problem with the weed thing. And since they don’t produce seeds, they keep flowering like crazy! From the first touch of warm weather right up until frost these new varieties keep flowering with all of the energy of a run away freight train.

The best of the bunch is a variety called ‘New gold’. Lantana ‘New Gold’ gets about 15” to 20” tall & up to 4’ across. With its rich butter gold coloring, compact habit & non-stop flowering, it’s a show stopper. It gets by on less water than most plants. The hotter it gets, the better it flowers. Oh, and did I mention that it drives butterflies crazy!
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DocK said:
But that's the point I was making, Julia - it doesn't produce seeds. It's a hybrid that has been bred to be sterile, non-seed producing and innocuous enough to use for landscaping purposes. Here's a link if you're really interested -
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Sounds reasonable, so I was sufficiently interested to contact DAFF and speak to one of their plant biosecurity officers.

His advice is that all varieties are a Class 3 Weed.
He offered this link which you might like to read.
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/documents/Biosecurity_EnvironmentalPests/IPA-Lantana-PP34.pdf

Re the cat, I had a similar problem. The feline concerned is very bold. It went in through another neighbour's open back door, jumped up on the table and ate the food on there.
It comes in here in the middle of the night. My dog immediately knows it's there and loudly expresses her outrage. As a result I and all the other neighbours are woken up.

Eventually I went to the council and brought home a cat trap, a large cage into which you place some cat-tasty food. The cat is supposed to follow its nose into the back of the cage to the food, in the process tripping the slider which blocks its egress.

I faithfully put the food out over several nights. Untouched. Then about 1am there was a loud slamming of metal, some outraged yelling from the cat, and the cat obviously very much caught. It's yowling quietened down quite quickly and we could all go back to sleep. At dawn, I felt sorry for the creature, thought it might be thirsty, knew I couldn't get the council to collect it until 8am, so went out with very shallow container of water to slip under the door which I raised by about 3cm. Well, the cat was a lot smarter than I was. Before I knew what had happened there was a mighty hiss and it must have got a foreleg in the tiny gap, pushed it up and was gone in a flash, a second later sitting smugly on the fence staring me down.

It seems to have had enough of a fright, however, to have stayed away since.
 
Julia said:
Sounds reasonable, so I was sufficiently interested to contact DAFF and speak to one of their plant biosecurity officers.

His advice is that all varieties are a Class 3 Weed.
He offered this link which you might like to read.
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/documents/Biosecurity_EnvironmentalPests/IPA-Lantana-PP34.pdf
Click to expand...
I concede. That article covers aspects I was unaware of, namely:
Despite being sold and marketed as ‘sterile’ plants, research indicates some ornamental lantana varieties have the ability to set seed and can spread vegetatively. They also produce some viable pollen and have the potential to cross-pollinate with wild forms, creating new varieties that could naturalise in the environment.
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I was genuinely mistaken in my belief that my plants posed no problem to the environment. I grew up in a little country town in Qld and would not willingly do anything to jeopardise our agriculture. Having said that, I can't see any seeds on my plants, they have not spread within the near vicinity, and as I live on the Gold Coast and not a rural area I shall keep them as they brighten up my garden (and my mood) immensely. I can live with the guilt.;)

Julia said:
Re the cat, I had a similar problem. The feline concerned is very bold. It went in through another neighbour's open back door, jumped up on the table and ate the food on there.
It comes in here in the middle of the night. My dog immediately knows it's there and loudly expresses her outrage. As a result I and all the other neighbours are woken up.

Eventually I went to the council and brought home a cat trap, a large cage into which you place some cat-tasty food. The cat is supposed to follow its nose into the back of the cage to the food, in the process tripping the slider which blocks its egress.

I faithfully put the food out over several nights. Untouched. Then about 1am there was a loud slamming of metal, some outraged yelling from the cat, and the cat obviously very much caught. It's yowling quietened down quite quickly and we could all go back to sleep. At dawn, I felt sorry for the creature, thought it might be thirsty, knew I couldn't get the council to collect it until 8am, so went out with very shallow container of water to slip under the door which I raised by about 3cm. Well, the cat was a lot smarter than I was. Before I knew what had happened there was a mighty hiss and it must have got a foreleg in the tiny gap, pushed it up and was gone in a flash, a second later sitting smugly on the fence staring me down.

It seems to have had enough of a fright, however, to have stayed away since.
Click to expand...

Very tempting. If I didn't value the relationship I have with my neighbour I'd consider it, but if Mrs Neighbour happened to peek over the fence and spot a cat trap in my yard - I'd have to sell up and move:p: In the meantime I'll continue to put the hose on it when the opportunity presents, and make obvious by my fairly loud "shoo" instructions that I would prefer she did something to contain it within her yard.
 
DocK said:
I concede. That article covers aspects I was unaware of, namely: I was genuinely mistaken in my belief that my plants posed no problem to the environment.
Click to expand...
As a dedicated gardener of many decades, I couldn't count the number of times I've been taken in by claims by plant sellers. Trees guaranteed to have a maximum height of three metres grow to five times that. "Non-invasive" and it gets into everything within several metres, then drops its seed and you're getting rid of it for years afterwards.

I'm forever removing unwanted plants that just arrive in my garden, presumably due to birds transporting either seeds or pollen. The fruit bats are also a problem here as they eat stuff and then crap it everywhere.


Very tempting. If I didn't value the relationship I have with my neighbour I'd consider it, but if Mrs Neighbour happened to peek over the fence and spot a cat trap in my yard - I'd have to sell up and move:p: In the meantime I'll continue to put the hose on it when the opportunity presents, and make obvious by my fairly loud "shoo" instructions that I would prefer she did something to contain it within her yard.
Click to expand...
Agree that you wouldn't jeopardise a good neighbourly relationship. The cat I was describing comes from half a block away and is a serial pest to multiple households.
I just related the anecdote more with a view to my stupidity than anything else.
 
Could someone please tell me what this flower / plants is ? Have it in my garden and I've never seen one before .
Thanks in advance.

unknown flower.jpg
 
burglar said:
I'll hazard a guess! Dahlia
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Yep. Where are you, Ijustnewit? I've never had any luck in coastal Qld with lovely perennial specimens such as you have found here, though grew a wide variety very successfully in Christchurch.
It's a tuber so you should be able to lift it when it dies off and divide up if you wanted to have it growing in more than one place. What would be its enemy would be a wet summer which would rot the tuber.

It's beautiful. I'm most envious.
 
Julia said:
Yep. Where are you, Ijustnewit? I've never had any luck in coastal Qld with lovely perennial specimens such as you have found here, though grew a wide variety very successfully in Christchurch.
It's a tuber so you should be able to lift it when it dies off and divide up if you wanted to have it growing in more than one place. What would be its enemy would be a wet summer which would rot the tuber.

It's beautiful. I'm most envious.
Click to expand...

Thank You so much Julia and Burglar , I'm in Hobart but a former Queenslander so I'm really unfamiliar with many of the plants and flowers here. I seem to have some of those Proteas as well . Julia thank you for the info on how to divide these up ect. That would be great , but I'm no Peter Cundall but will give it a go when the time seems right.
Anyways back to the bush fire reports , no fires around me so staying on the lookout and praying for the less fortunate.
 
Hi again keen gardeners, I have another plant that needs a name . I'm trying to gather a list of plants that seemed to have survived the extreme heat and drought like conditions. Could it be another variety of Dhalia ? I don't want to go looking for tubers as there has been a few joe blakes hanging around.

bumble bee.jpglavander unknown.jpg
 
burglar said:
I have used them in the past for a splash of summer colour.
Click to expand...

Most of our most beautiful flowers are hybrids...especially the roses.

At this time of the year we have dozens of Buckinghamias in full display lining the footpaths in my locality.They are a wonderful footpath tree. but I think why there is not much comment on them, is because of their lack of colour. Imagine how magnificent they would look if their cascading fronds were the colour of the Flame Tree display. They would be really in your face.

ca25ff.jpg flame_tree_2.jpg
 
Calliope said:
... At this time of the year we have dozens of Buckinghamias in full display lining the footpaths in my locality. ...
Click to expand...
I found them sufficiently interesting to Google!

b-cels.gif


What Is Buckinghamias?
Buckinghamia is a small genus of flowering plants that belong to the Proteaceae family. The species habitats are in rainforest areas in northern Queensland, Australia. Naming of the genus was by Ferdinand von Mueller who did it in honour of Richard Grenville who was the Duke of Buckingham at that time.
 

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