Garden News January 2021

 

First blog for 2021, oh, how the years fly by.

First, I would like to make a comment on the Aroid craze and it’s not just Australia it’s all over the world.

Crazy prices, up to 1000s of dollars just for cuttings. Personally, I would really baulk at paying any more than $50 for a plant but made one exception and that was to buy an Amorphophallus titanium for $120, unfortunately it rotted this season.

Hoping this year will be better than 2020, what a disaster that was, all garden meetings and shows cancelled and we had to cancel our 19^th Open Garden.

We would have liked to have opened but Queensland Health would not listen despite two letters stating exactly how we would implement a Covid plan and not let excess numbers of visitors into the garden.

To cut it short we would have a limit of 50 into garden regulated at the gate and another 50 waiting on the front lawn where there would be refreshments.

I really doubt that they even read my letters properly as all we received back was an Email to advise us to go to the Covid site, and that was a useless exercise.

So, we cancelled despite hearing that others had opened their garden and were not worried about numbers but having been dobbed in a couple of times to authorities we were not prepared to take the risk as there’s always one nasty person in a crowd.

So, lots of work raising garden beds, building benches and new shade areas and of course buying and planting more plants.

I am very pleased how the garden is looking and it should look spectacular for 2021 opening.

We are starting to get bookings for bus tours and garden presentations. I have finished a new presentation ‘Aroids and Colour in the Giving Garden’.

I bought Judy a Heat mat for Christmas and built a double story hothouse, it’s now full of seedings that Judy is raising.

We have really been disappointed in Rocky Point potting mix and have changed to a mix available from Centenary landscapes, how a business could ruin a good product astounds me, anyway we are happy with the new mix.

Massive Amorphophallus paeoniifolus.

Aroids from our garden.