SPOILS FROM A WINTERY GARDEN

Do you remember Sunday 7th July? Something strange happened on that day and Roadside Ikebana failed to publish the post I wrote. Well here it is, my apologies for the silence.

Winter in the garden is time for a number of annual tasks including pruning and spreading mulch to settle down a bit before the summer comes around. This year I have also managed to pot-up a couple of plants for ikebana friends. Both the red Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles Japonica, and the tall Nandina domestica have sent out suckers beyond where I want them growing. So it has been an easy decision to lift them and give them away.

   

Here you can see the spread of the Flowering Quince...

...and this nandina has come up among the stems of a strelitzia.

A couple of months ago I cut the top off our Cootamundra wattle, Acacia baileyana, because it was looking rather ragged. I had earlier identified borer holes at some branch junctions with the trunk. Unfortunately, this tree was seriously stressed by our very dry summer, making it more vulnerable to insect infestation. This is a short-lived small tree under the best of circumstances and I doubt that it will survive much longer. I think the pest is the same one that infected the Casaurinas in the front garden a few years ago, which have now been removed.

Today I decided to remove a Correa, a small native shrub, by the garden path as it looked to be suffering the same fate.

Then the proof. I admit to being a bit horrified when I snapped this stem and found a winged insect inside. I think it is a Long-Horned beetle (Family, Cerambicydae). I promptly removed all of the plant and removed the prunings from the garden. 

On a more cheerful note, the very hardy and much loved Rosemary is flowering prolifically just now.

It is also growing beside the garden path along with one of the lavenders.

Here you can see the two plants rather intermingled. To the right of this photo I have recently replaced one of the Cecile Brunner bushes with a couple of small Lavandula dentata plants, which I expect to do better than the rose in the rather dry raised bed.

   

Three weeks ago I showed this branch of Japanese Flowering Quince in the garden, and today I felt there were enough flowers to be able to make a winter ikebana from them. 

I have used only two branches in this unusual 'modern' ceramic ikebana vessel. I liked the distinct lines of the branches and the small number of intense red flowers. This photo is an interesting example of the flattening effect of photography. Below is the same arrangement from the left hand side. 

As you can see the whole arrangement leans markedly forward. The result is that the first photo looses the true sense of depth to the work. It is one of those occasions when the 'real life' experience is significantly different to the photograph.

Greetings from Christopher

14th July 2019