Open Garden 2008

After months of preparation it was close to our opening weekend, as always you pray for good weather. Well, the week leading up to the opening was very, very wet, in fact we had 265 mm of rain and the yard on the Friday was absolutely waterlogged.The garden was looking very good as this was our first opening where we had not been in drought Saturday was forecast for severe storms, supposedly worse that what had hit Brisbane earlier that week, the state Premier even went on radio to advise people not to leave their homes.As a result of the weather only 200 visitors came on the Saturday and the storms did not eventuate although it was very hot and humid.Sunday turned out to be fine but very high winds all day, but the visitors did arrive and we had close to 450 that day.Everyone enjoyed the garden especially one ten year old who signed the visitors book with this comment, “gardens are boring, but yours sure isn’t”.A lot of our usual visitors did not come and after talking to people later it was the weather that put them off.We had lots of helpers and at one time had five Swiss helpers; our connection with the Swiss is quite amazing. As usual Warrick and Fabienne's dogs provided lots of entertainment, ‘Diggity’ by diving into the swimming pool and the children loved the new pup ‘Fifi’.The caladiums were a picture; best I have ever seen them and the new front gardens were also a hit.The Capalaba Lions were great and the catering went off without any problems, the ‘Lions’ raised over $1500 from the catering and raffle and were going to put in more to help a girl with multiple sclerosis.Everything was down by 25% including plant sales, Judy hardly sold any of her large  $20 Neos, which was a shame as they were very good healthy specimens, mainly plants $10 and down sold, may have something to do with the financial situation at the moment?It was a pity about visitor numbers, 1000 seems to be a magical figure that is very elusive, and it’s strange as all our visitors say our garden is far better than any other garden they have visited.There’s always next year and of course there will be a new garden for people to see, this one will see the landscaping of the back yard completed.

 

Preview of Open Garden

We have had 180mm of rain this week so the garden is going to look great for this weekends opening.

Just too busy at the moment to write too much, will give full narrative of opening when it's all over.

Open Garden

Australia's Open Garden Scheme

presents

Ian and Judy Wintle’s

‘Giving Garden’

 Carlton Court, Birkdale

Come spend an hour or two or more!!

‘Brisbane’s best visitor friendly garden’

‘It’s worth the visit as there’s always something new’

It’s worth taking the time to visit this wonderful ‘one-acre’ sub tropical garden paradise. This may be the only garden in Australia in which exotic tropical fruit trees provide the shade canopy.  A large collection of rare and unusual plants provide the under story plantings. This garden gives immense pleasure, relaxation and tranquillity just by being within its beautiful grounds. The opening is a garden experience; it is truly a gardener’s garden and will help you in your selection of plants to turn your Garden into a similar paradise. Homegrown plant sales specializing in beautiful named bromeliads. Owners are only too willing to give free garden information and advice. Lunches, home cooked delights and refreshments provided by the Capalaba ‘Lions Club’. This is a garden that you can easily spend several hours in and walk away relaxed and with new ideas for your garden. There is always something new in this garden and previous visitors certainly will not be disappointed in 2008 with a major front garden expansion and of course lots of new plantings. If you are interested in plants, landscaping and gardening or  just want a day out in a beautiful garden then don’t miss it.

 

Saturday November 22nd and Sunday November 23rd 2008

Garden is open from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm Directions: UBD Brisbane Map 184:A1

 

September Garden

Well another month and again a wet start. Things are certainly looking up. If the rain keeps on falling we just may have our 82,500 litres in storage.
Unfortunately the rain did not last and there was not much of it
I have just fertilised the day lilies and with the rain we are hoping for a great show this year.
I have started retirement with a massive list of jobs that need doing both inside and outside.
I have just completed a new composting area which will hold two lots of 5 cubic metres and a new wood storage area, I am resurfacing all the paths with crusher dust and have trimmed the custard apple trees (5) and shredded all the leaves for compost. And that’s just the start.
Well I am into my third week and have not stopped; how an earth did I do it all just on weekends?
Many jobs done and in the process of mulching the whole garden, I do not think the 50 bales of sugar cane mulch will be enough.
Spring is in the air and the Hippeastrums are starting to flower, you can see and feel spring in the garden, this years opening should be the best ever, just hope the weather is fine, It would be my worst nightmare to be rained out, all 12 months work down the drain. Don’t want to even contemplate it.
It is the end of the month and very hot 35c today, the garden is very dry as we have had no rain for over three weeks.
I am still very busy in the garden and look like being that way until the ‘Open garden’.
I have installed a new ‘fishfinder’ and a ‘Bimini’ top on my boat and am looking forward to re starting fishing. Fishing is something I have not done since my eldest son became a paraplegic; I found I gave me too much time to think, that’s why I started gardening, it turned out to be the best rehabilitation tool for me.
The blog is a bit short this month as I am too busy in the garden.

August Garden

After a couple of wonderful days at the 50th anniversary of RAAF working Dogs it was time to catch up in the garden.
The first job was to put a tank stand in for the new 5000 litre tank; this was easy compared to some of the other ones I have done.
I am putting another 15,000 litre tank behind the shed, getting this area ready meant a new entry/exit door to shade house, removal of old tin 5000 litre tank and stand, emptying both existing tanks and moving the existing 15000 tank forward to make room for the new tank.
Lots of work (what isn’t) but will be worth it in the end and we should now be able to survive any drought and not have to pay top dollar for excess water.
The ‘Garden Gurus’ visited our garden for the third time, this visit had nothing to do with our garden, rather focusing on micro irrigation, as we have lots of tanks it made a good backdrop for the story.
What a busy day, first my new Olympus E-520 DSLR camera arrived then the ‘Garden Gurus’ team, then 50 bales of sugar cane mulch then our two new rainwater tanks.
As well as this I finished of the new entry to the shade house, plumbed one of the new tanks and started work on the new composting area. I am moving the rear garden compost and wood storage areas from back yard into front as I feel that these areas now detract from the garden flow. The new garden created by removing the old wood storage bin will be an ideal area for a showing of Heliconia ‘Rostrata’.
August has been especially cold; we have had almost a month where the morning temperature remained under 5c with a couple of frosts. The Heliconia’s all look pretty bad at the moment from cold-burn. To my mind the winters seem to be getting colder and this combined with last years cooler than normal summer makes me a global warming sceptic.
I am looking forward to a long weekend on 29 August, in fact a very long weekend, its called Retirement.

August Garden

After a couple of wonderful days at the 50th anniversary of RAAF working Dogs it was time to catch up in the garden.
The first job was to put a tank stand in for the new 5000 litre tank; this was easy compared to some of the other ones I have done.
I am putting another 15,000 litre tank behind the shed, getting this area ready meant a new entry/exit door to shade house, removal of old tin 5000 litre tank and stand, emptying both existing tanks and moving the existing 15000 tank forward to make room for the new tank.
Lots of work (what isn’t) but will be worth it in the end and we should now be able to survive any drought and not have to pay top dollar for excess water.
The ‘Garden Gurus’ visited our garden for the third time, this visit had nothing to do with our garden, rather focusing on micro irrigation, as we have lots of tanks it made a good backdrop for the story.
What a busy day, first my new Olympus E-520 DSLR camera arrived then the ‘Garden Gurus’ team, then 50 bales of sugar cane mulch then our two new rainwater tanks.
As well as this I finished of the new entry to the shade house, plumbed one of the new tanks and started work on the new composting area. I am moving the rear garden compost and wood storage areas from back yard into front as I feel that these areas now detract from the garden flow. The new garden created by removing the old wood storage bin will be an ideal area for a showing of Heliconia ‘Rostrata’.
August has been especially cold; we have had almost a month where the morning temperature remained under 5c with a couple of frosts. The Heliconia’s all look pretty bad at the moment from cold-burn. To my mind the winters seem to be getting colder and this combined with last years cooler than normal summer makes me a global warming sceptic.
I am looking forward to a long weekend on 29 August, in fact a very long weekend, its called Retirement.

Retirement

This is the speech I made, tried to make it a bit different and about me as a person.

Residing: 20 years at Birkdale, Queensland, the longest we have lived anywhere.
Present employment: Probation & Parole Officer (Compliance) until 19 October 2009 when I cease my Long Service Leave at half pay and officially retire.
Ambitions: To be Australia’s ‘Gardener of the Year’.
Regrets: Not a lot.
Hopes: To have a long happy and healthy retirement, see my son ‘Scott’ walk again and having ‘grand-children’ not just ‘grand-dogs’.
Lucky: To have had two jobs in 43 years that I have really enjoyed and have been fortunate to have had the best workmates one could ask for I put Katrina into the special mention basket, what a lovely all round person she is, Katrina congratulations on your pregnancy, if it’s a boy please don’t call him Damien or Jason.
Best moments: Scott winning gold in the 2007 ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’ and the weekend we open our garden to the public through ‘Australia’s Open Garden Scheme’.
Worst moments: Obviously Scott’s accident and the fact that I think about it everyday. The Introduction of IOMS, and having to reapply for my job last year.
Achievement: Bringing up two great well adjusted sons (who are here with their partners, Fabienne and Eliza, who both give me great pride and joy, a good marriage, reaching the rank of RAAF Warrant Officer and believing I may have changed some lives in Cleveland through my work.
Marriage: Happily to Judy for 40 years on 5th October 2008.
Health: Excellent, never hospitalised, fingers crossed.
Hobby/ fixation/ passion: This may surprise you; it’s Garden, Garden and more Garden, Garden photography and wanting to re-start fishing.
Money: Cannot resist buying plants, all my $ $ goes into the garden.
Worst Insult: “and you wear your pants too high” this was an offenders last words to me leaving the office after to say the very least an unproductive interview.
Meaning of life: When visiting Amberley RAAF base a couple of weeks ago Fabienne said to me after watching the graduation parade “now I know why you are always pulling your pants up”.
Biggest challenges: trying to motivate some of the offenders to go to Community service. Speaking of challenges, who’s going to change the office calendars in the future? I have been doing it for the past 20 years.
A nice moment: After visiting Amberley RAAF base for 50th Anniversary of RAAF working dogs and meeting lots of long lost workmates, my sons said to me “they really respected you there”, that was nice, same as tonight is nice.
Future: I will be looking after the Stocklands Cleveland Centre ‘Community Garden’ and am hoping this will become a Community Service site, fishing, gardening and slowing down a bit; the last few years have just been a blur trying to maintain/build gardens just on weekends. Judy will also be retiring later this year; she is worried about me settling down and annoying her, interesting times ahead, I suppose there’s still time for Judy to divorce me.
It’s also nice to see Ernie, John, Bev here, it’s been a real privilege to help this community by providing community service to needy organisations.

It is especially nice to see 'Auntie Margaret' here from the Stradbroke Aboriginal Elders, I am reaally honoured that she came.
Thank you every one for coming here tonight, you have ‘made my day’, I will miss you all.

July 2008 news

So far winter has been very mild, today the first day of July the daytime temperature is 26c, it’s pretty weird as the mangos are in full flower and there are still plenty of insect pests around.
We are looking forward to the Nambour garden Expo; it’s probably the best show of the year and certainly one of our garden highlights.
We went to the Expo and of course bought many new plants then had a nice afternoon with some friends at Nambour.
The weather is still really strange, it’s only mid July and the Torch Haemanthus is coming into flower, it’s just too warm.
More winter rain has fallen; the garden is very wet, not complaining though.
We had a busload of visitors from a local Retirement Village through this month, organised through the ‘Open Garden Scheme’, they enjoyed the garden and found it hard to believe when I told them the garden was in winter mode and did not look the best,
Judy and I drove up to the Caboolture ‘Farm Fantastic’ and bought two more rainwater tanks from ‘Bundaberg Plastics’, another 15,000 litre and a 5000 litre, this will now bring our total capacity to 80,000 litres. That’s it ‘NO MORE TANKS”.
I had a bit of a splurge with this year’s tax cheque, a new Olympus E-520 DSLR Camera with three lenses including a macro; (the garden photos should be bigger and better) a colour fish finder and pushbike.
Yes, I am getting ready for retirement.
It’s the end of month and it’s wet, wet, and wetter, never thought I would say it but we DO need a spell of dry weather.
Finally having a cold spell, I am now hoping there is not a frost.
Have an interesting week coming up, it is the 50th anniversary of RAAF Military Working Dogs and there’s a parade and family BBQ on at the Amberley RAAF base. It will be interesting to catch up with old friends. I was in the RAAF from 1966 to 1987.

Queensland Gardening

For Queensland gardening information you cant go past http://queenslandgardening.com/

Jaboticaba Jam

Have a couple of bowls handy and a sharp pointed knife then pick up the washed fruit, pierce the skin and squeeze the pulp and seed into one bowl and the skin into another. Do this a few hundred times and you will have enough for quite a few bottles of jam. Simmer the pulp for 10 minutes then put through a strainer then throw out the seeds.

Chop up the skins in a food processor or similar to a rough texture only adding minimum water. Simmer the skins for 10 minutes then add the pulp and skins together, measure amount in number of cupfuls. Heat up this mix and add sugar cup for cup with the mix then boil until jam thickens. If you have trouble setting the Jam add 'Jam setter', if you need to do this then you have added too much water in the skin chopping process.Judy has been standing over my shoulder while I have been writing this telling me she is the jam maker not me.

June Garden

Well, finally a wet start to a month.
We had 6.5 inches of rain in the first week of June with good follow up showers for the next couple of weeks. All the water tanks are full, so the water outlook is looking good for winter.
I haven’t said this for a long time, but we need a small dry spell so I can do some of the dry weather jobs that need doing.
I have used all of our sugar cane mulch and cannot get any more until the end of July.
I have started to use last Septembers compost, it is very good brew, dark, fine and rich, this was all the shredded material from last years custard apple prune, I know it takes a long time but it’s well worth the wait.
We are having a meeting of the ‘Internatonal Cordyline Society’ at our home during June, of course the garden is in winter mode so it will not be at it’s best, but, Cordylines always look good at this time of year.

There was a display of photos on canvas at our local shopping centre and that set me thinking, how good would the shade house wall look with a selection of pictures from our garden, so I have ordered three at 750mm x 750mm and perhaps I will order one rectangular one once I see the quality, should look good.
I have also come up with the idea of two battery-operated waterfalls for two of the small ponds along the garden trails.
The photos on canvas are brilliant and will be a great addition to the ‘Open Garden’.
The meeting went well and all enjoyed our garden.

May Garden 2008

Sorry to keep on harping on the same old subject but it’s so bloody dry, it’s been over eight weeks since we last had rain and everything has turned brown again, so much for ‘La Nina’ which was supposed to bring good autumn and winter rain.
Had a nice little break at Caloundra and of course brought back a car load of plants.
I went back to the Redland Bay nursery and bought enough plants to fill some holes in the garden, not many left now.
The big job this month has been to cut out old mother Bromeliads and mulch the garden, cannot get the small bales this time of year, so had some of the massive bales (equivalent to 10 normal bales) delivered.
It finally rained on 17th but was only a few mills, anything is better than nothing, and then the next day we had gale force winds which dried up what little moisture left.
Big jobs this month have been to take the chainsaw to the Mulberry Tree and give it a severe haircut, take out shred and compost the old mother Bromeliad plants and to plant a number of Tree Aloes in the front garden.
Then I decided to re-shade the neo house, we had previously made a big mistake putting 70% shade when I built it, now we realise the neo’s do not have the colour they should have, so I bought a 50 metre roll of premium shade cloth and cut the whole roll into four lengths and stapled together with chicken wire staples, then old cloth off and new on, mind you I had to enlist the help of our Subaru forester and a length of rope as it was too heavy for me either to take down or put up.
The end of the month and finally some decent rain, thank goodness.
I am really happy with the garden at the moment it’s going to look great for 2008 ‘Open Garden’.

Sorry to keep on harping on the same old subject but it’s so bloody dry, it’s been over eight weeks since we last had rain and everything has turned brown again, so much for ‘La Nina’ which was supposed to bring good autumn and winter rain.
Had a nice little break at Caloundra and of course brought back a car load of plants.
I went back to the Redland Bay nursery and bought enough plants to fill some holes in the garden, not many left now.
The big job this month has been to cut out old mother Bromeliads and mulch the garden, cannot get the small bales this time of year, so had some of the massive bales (equivalent to 10 normal bales) delivered.
It finally rained on 17th but was only a few mills, anything is better than nothing, and then the next day we had gale force winds which dried up what little moisture left.
Big jobs this month have been to take the chainsaw to the Mulberry Tree and give it a severe haircut, take out shred and compost the old mother Bromeliad plants and to plant a number of Tree Aloes in the front garden.
Then I decided to re-shade the neo house, we had previously made a big mistake putting 70% shade when I built it, now we realise the neo’s do not have the colour they should have, so I bought a 50 metre roll of premium shade cloth and cut the whole roll into four lengths and stapled together with chicken wire staples, then old cloth off and new on, mind you I had to enlist the help of our Subaru forester and a length of rope as it was too heavy for me either to take down or put up.
The end of the month and finally some decent rain, thank goodness.
I am really happy with the garden at the moment it’s going to look great for 2008 ‘Open Garden’.

April Garden

Still slaving away every weekend shovelling soil, the refurbishment of the long side garden which is about 50 metres long has taken much more soil than I thought, altogether I will have carted in 13 metres all at one metre trailer loads. I will be really happy to have a weekend where I am not shovelling something.
I have booked a four-day holiday up at Caloundra. My body needs a rest as I have gone pretty hard every weekend since last years open garden.
I must admit the garden is looking very nice at the moment and that’s with all the caladiums and most of gingers dormant.
I am again going to try for ‘Gardening Australia’s’, ‘Gardener of the Year’. Why not! I certainly put the hard work and effort into our garden and it’s all a love job, not a business and I do not get any assistance other that what Judy can do with her bad Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Our new neighbours have started on their new home and have removed a massive silky oak tree, which was only a metre from our back fence; it was a very dirty tree (leaf drop) and roots everywhere, so I am not sad to see it go.
A local nursery was having a plant sale and we bought two carloads of very nice sub tropical plants.
The side garden is now completed after a very hard long weekend of trimming trees, going to the dump and trailer loads of soil, pine bark and mushroom compost.
The mushroom compost is what I mix with the leaf, lawn and shredded material to make my garden compost.
This month has been one of those months that has made a ‘difference’ to our garden.
No rain during the month of April.

Video of our Garden

Garden News March 2008

It’s been a month of hard work, the new front garden is finally complete and Judy has started to put in the plants, it is a nice addition to the garden and will be very colourful when the day Lilies are in full bloom.
As usual it cost about twice as much as I planned and that’s doing it all myself.
The price of good soil has gone up, now costing $57 a metre; the new garden took 11 metres all hand shovelled into place.
There was cementing, paving stones, another shade area, a trellis to hide the new water tank, a post for the dragon fruit, hot house, and bridge over drain.
That was the last major job in the garden, still plenty of small jobs to do which all go together to improve the garden.
One thing I am really looking forward to is a weekend where I am not shovelling soil, I seem to of been doing this forever and my bones are telling me that I need a break.
I wish I had a dollar refund for every metre of stuff I have brought in; I think I could have been very rich.
March has been very dry and we are back to hand watering, it’s a pity because the sub soil is becoming dry again.
The bugs are still really bad, grasshoppers, caterpillars, grubs are eating everything and the cockatoos have just about finished off this years crop of pecan nuts.

Garden News February 2008

I have my boat being serviced, I have come to the realisation that the garden is starting to own me, so I am determined to go prawning/fishing at the very least once a month. I have almost finished the new front garden and have decided on the new feature for the back garden, it’s going to be very simple, a little difficult to put into place, will look very natural and WILL stand out as a feature. I had toyed with the idea of a garden statue but thinking about it statues are not really my style.
On Sunday 3/2 we had 175mm of rain in the morning, all my drains worked very well as the rear patio remained dry. It was really strange not to be completely ‘shagged’ by Sunday night.
I spent most of Sunday cleaning up the shed and repairing prawn cast nets.
More heavy rain during the week, by Wednesday we had 300mm, almost 12 inches of beautiful rain, cannot ever remember so much rain in such a short time. All tanks are full, a whole 65,000 litres in storage.
The front is too wet for a truckload of soil to be delivered for the front garden so I have been trimming fruit trees and doing other garden tasks.
I have had to hand mow for the past few weeks and was glad to get my ride on mower back, but at a price, over $700, of that nearly $500 in parts, a drive belt is $140, it wants to go well for the next few years.
Towards the end of the month we had a day where the temperature reached 42c and it was very hot, all the plants started to wilt in the heat.
In the space of a week the lawn grubs have destroyed a major part of my back lawn, I have never seen so many insect pests as there are at the moment. Grasshoppers are eating the cordylines, grubs in the crinnins and alocasias, cockatoos in the pecan’s and flying foxes in the longans, very frustrating gardening at the moment.

Costus

I must admit costus are my favourite plant, they are sometimes known as spiral gingers due to the growth habit of spiralling upwards.
One of the biggest problems when purchasing these plants is the misnaming by nurseries either on purpose of by mistake; our local nursery recently was selling ‘french kiss’ as costus ‘malortieanus’.
Most costus look the same when young and sometimes it is not until a couple of years later that you realise that you have been done, either through ignorance or on purpose. I know as I have bought a rare costus by mail order only to find later that it is really a ‘spicatus’ (Indian head) which is probably one of the most common of the costus family.
There are many different names for each one, take ‘barbatus’ sometimes known as ‘comosus’ or ‘red tower ginger’.

Propagation is quite easy; the ‘speciosus’ variety give off small side shoots and all these will give you a new plant. With ‘barbatus’ the root rhizome can be divided or you can cut the old stalk off after flowering and cut into pieces about 8inches long and place in a good potting mix, we have a high success rate with this method, otherwise just place the whole stalk just under a layer of mulch in semi shaded spot in your garden and leave it, eventually it will give you several new plants, Couldn’t get much easier than that.
Costus flowers range from white, yellow and red, some cone on the top and others cone on the base of the plant.
Costus ‘dubius’ has an excellent green cone with white flowers and when massed makes a great show.

The yellow flower offshoots on the costus ‘barbatus’ flowers are very edible and can be eaten straight off the plant or are excellent in a salad, another interesting factor with ‘barbatus’ is the smooth silk feeling of the underside of the leaves, I call this the sexiest plant in my garden.
The largest Costus in my experience is guyanenis ‘buddas belly’ this can grow up to three metres in height.
Costus rhizomes are used in Asia for medicinal purposes.
My favourite costus are ‘barbartus’, ‘productus’, ‘green mountain’, ‘pulverulentus’, ‘costa flores’ ‘red stem’, ‘asplundii’, ‘dubius’ and ‘french kiss’ all of these grow well for me. I have had problems with variegated ‘amazonius’, ‘eskimo kiss’, ‘tappenbeckianus’, and sorry to say cuspidosis ‘fiery’.
I have about 36 different varieties of costus.
Costus do well in understorey positions with filtered light, they like plenty of water but not waterlogged.
Remember the more hairy the costus is the more cold sensitive it is.
All in all they are a great landscaping plant which will give you years of pleasure, of course the better the soil and having the ability to give them good watering will make them healthier.

January 2008 Garden News

Well a rough start to 2008, we have had gale winds for a week and one of my nice pink brumansia’s was ripped from the ground, pity as it was just flowering and would of looked really good, the good news was several days of soaking rain and cool weather.
I made a good start on this year’s new project having all rocks, paver mowing strip and drain cemented into place and the base is ready for the new tank which arrives next week.
Lots of soaking rain, best I have seen for years, not much I could do in the garden due to the wet weather, and that something that has not happened at least for seven years.
Another rain water tank arrived from Bundaberg Plastics and is in place. This now gives us 65000 litres of water, I am pretty sure this will make us drought proof.
I have now plumbed all tanks with proper fittings and pipe with taps situated where they are most needed.
The lawns are growing like crazy and of course my ride on has broken down and so far it’s been three weeks waiting for parts, it’s a big job to mow it all with the hand mower as I did last weekend.
I am always thinking that my weekends will get easier but of course that is just not true, now that things are finally growing there are lots of trees and shrubs to trim.
If it’s not the cycads being eaten then it’s the abutilons now I find there is a plague of grasshoppers munching merrily through my beautiful cordylines, pests are becoming rampant. Not sure if I have mentioned it before but the lychee crop was eaten by flying foxes way before becoming ripe.
This weekend’s job is to mow, then point in between the rocks in the new garden then build a bridge across the new front drain.
After a hard long weekend the new front garden is complete all but a truck load of soil, rocks have been pointed and a bridge built, all looks good.

Heliconia Struggle

In my imagination I pictured my garden with many beautiful Heliconia’s all in flower both upright and pendant; in my mind it was certainly going to be a beautiful sight.
Over a period of time we bought a total of 56 different varieties, being told that all the varieties we picked would perform in the Brisbane area. We spent up to $75 for some of the better plants. All that was left was to wait for the flowers to come.
Well, we waited and waited and eventually found that only certain varieties would flower here and even then some of those would not survive a cold winter.
All in all it’s been a disappointing and expensive experiment.
Out of the 56 different Heliconia’s about 25 have survived with a number of those yet to flower.
So, here in Birkdale with poor soil and little water I can give you some recommendations based upon my experiences, the following Heliconia’s will grow, and believe me if these varieties can survive in my garden they will survive in any Brisbane Garden.

Here are my recommendations:
Caribaea ‘Kawachi’ has been a prolific flowerer.
Bihai ‘Lobster Claw’s’ one & two have also been good.
Bihai ‘Yellow Dancer’ has been good.
Orthotricas are perhaps my favourite Heliconia, but are temperamental, hate the cold and do not reproduce well here.
Augusta’s grow well ‘Red holiday’ and ‘Yellow Christmas’
The best of all Rostrata ‘Parrots Beak’, thank goodness it flowers well; in my opinion when in flower it is the most spectacular Heliconia of all.
Jamaican Dwarf has done well and always flowers.
Bihai ‘Chocolate Dancer’ is good.
Papsiana is good
Pseudoemygdiana ‘Birdiana’ has a great yellow flower and has survived for a number of years.
Hirsuta ‘costa flores’ is a great looking Heliconia and flowered spectacularly for me last year but was hit especially hard last winter’s cold, I am trying again, this time in a more sheltered position.
Spissa ‘Mexican Red’ flowered well but then died on me.
I know ‘Hot Rio Nights’ can grow well here but not for me.
I soon dug out the strictas as they were ‘travellers’.
Richmond red foliage grows well but has never flowered.
Chartacea ‘extra sexy’ and ‘sexy pink’ are not worth trying, not at all cold tolerant.
No luck whatsoever with Champneiana ‘Maya blood’ and ‘Maya gold’.
I am still trying with several others such as ‘emerald forest’, ‘prince of darkness’ ‘manoa sunrise’ ect.
I am not saying that given the right circumstances some of the ones that will not grow for me will not grow else where in Brisbane, given good soil plenty of water and a sheltered position they may do very well; all you can do is to keep trying.

Hope this is of some help to those of you who want to bring the tropics to Brisbane.