Gardening Blog

Ahh Jean Ducher you beautiful thing you! We have a few left online if you want to pick bunches off your own plants 💚

I love growing these little annual Nemesias they are so beautiful in the garden for spring. Thank goodness for our smaller independent garden centres sourcing and stocking these plants, you won’t find these old fashioned beauties in big box stores!

Simple and absolutely delicious! Nothing better than fresh tomatoes and beautiful home grown lemons to make 5 bottles of Tomato Jam for less than $8 🍅🍅🍅🍅

Plants are fantastic things, look at the colour of the roots of this Wachendorfia paniculata! Can’t wait to see how this plant grow, weirdly enough it’s related to Kangaroo Paws and other clumping perennial species mostly from the southern hemisphere. I won’t get to enjoy its lovely root colour now that it’s planted but I know it’s there and I get to enjoy that and it’s beautiful spring blooms!

Today was a wonderful day! 340 annuals planted, 200 Italian Ranunculus and 50 Dutch Iris are now planted in preparation for spring! I still have about 120 more seedlings to go to finish this week. This is by far and away the single most ambitious annual project I have ever done, and I know it absolutely pales in comparison to what most @toowoombacarnivalflowers gardeners do but I am so excited to watch this space transform over the coming months into a spectacular blaze of spring colours!

Remember to soak your Ranunculus before planting. It’s the most common complaint we get and 9/10 times they hadn’t been soaked before planting. Just an hour in a little water with a splash of seaweed concentrate and you’ll be surprised by the results! I have planted 150 Italian Ranunculus today in preparation for spring and I can’t wait to show you the results!

So hard to believe this is the same garden, just 18 months of growth! The garden is looking so nice and prepared ready for annuals to arrive today! Such an exciting time of the year getting ready for spring 💚 enjoy your Friday everyone

Sneaky new addition to the wyreema garden in preparation for Carnival, I’m growing sweet peas up it. Always a fun time getting ready for carnival and spring!

Busy day potting and propagating! More roses were ready to be potted which was a surprise as they were only 3 weeks old but it’s not an exact science and you need to listen to your plants. We are getting such good numbers of the roses now I’m potting some up and growing them out for those of you who like something bigger. Just over 1000 salvias went into propagation today, from creams to pinks blues and purples all the colours went into propagation today and another 1000 still need to go in for spring sales! Feet are up now and here is to another fun day playing with plants tomorrow

I have just 5 of these stunning own root roses available, Penelope is an Australian bred cultivar from 1906. Originating in Queensland it’s a toughie and build for warmer climates, she is slow to establish but once she does look at the reward 🩷 Limit of 1 per person so that we can share her around https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Tea-Penelope-p653385834

One of my favourite fragrant roses I have Sarah Van Fleet is a wonderful addition to our rose collection and can be ordered online now 💚 #heritagerose #heritage #rose #oldfashioned

Sarah Van Fleet A beautiful hybrid rugosa rose with a luscious perfume, some beautiful Tubestock available now ready for planting out or growing on. https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Rugosa-Hybrid-Sarah-Van-Fleet-p648276362

Sneaky bunch of flowers from the garden, Else Poulsen, Jean Ducher and Madame de Tartas make up this beautiful bunch 🩷🩷🩷

Heritage Roses are available for sale online now, all cutting grown and ready for planting 💚🌹💚

One of the handful on modern roses I grow, Just Joey a classic untidy Hybrid Tea. Thankfully those rich apricot flowers are packed with classic HT perfume that makes it worth growing. Hope everyone enjoys their Tuesday 💚

I planted this beautiful Climbing Mamon Crochet last June, safe to say she loves her new home 😅 She’s very vigorous and is enthusiastically covering the fence which is what I wanted her to do, climbing roses can be maintained in a few different ways, I’m trying to keep her canes to the fence and her laterals short 🤣 but she seems to have other ideas! She does have many buds at the moment so she must be relatively happy 🩷 pruning her back gives me lots of cuttings so watch out for her soon online! Have a great Monday all I am off to pack orders!

Excited to share that the wyreema garden is opening for @toowoombacarnivalflowers as apart of @twbachronicle Garden Competition! Planting has started and I can’t wait to share the journey with you all #tcof2024 #toowoombaregion

Our sweet peas we planted 14 days ago are up and racing! There is nothing like their perfume and there is still plenty of time to sow them!

Empty tables are the best feeling at the end of a market! Thanks for coming out to support Blooming Pittsworth and me, it’s so good seeing familiar faces that I only usually get to see at these events!

Nice and simple 💚 It’s all about the plants at the end of the day isn’t it! Look forward to seeing you all today 9-2 Anglican Church Pittsworth 💚 #nursery #toowoombaregion #garden #pittsworth #bloomwhereyouareplanted #flowers #smallbusiness #flowersofinstagram #winner #focushrbea22 #roses #heritage #heirloomroses #heritagerose #rosesofinstagram #heirloom #rose #frosthardy #sage #droughttolerant #frosthardygarden #frosthardyflowers #salvia #droughttolerantplants #hardy #droughttolerantlandscape

On tomorrow! We can’t wait to see you all tomorrow as we attend this years Blooming Pittsworth 9-2 at the Anglican Church Hall. Over 30 planty stalls tomorrow and 3 open gardens in town plus many other fun things to do! I’ll have lots of Roses, Salvias and perennials available as per usual and this is doubling as our Autumn opening so make sure you get along and get your in person planty fix ☺️🌹💚

After much effort a few choice words, a maddock a chainsaw and the axe the tree and its stump are gone from the front garden! Marking the end of the major projects for the wyreema front garden this year. Now that it’s done the grass is planted and watered in there is just one last thing to say.. but you’ll have to wait on that one till later!

Autumn in the veggie garden is one of my favourite times. Garlic is going in, the leafy greens are powering away and the early planted brassicas are getting a good grow on as well. One of the hardest lessons to learn I think when growing your own food is learning what to plant in bulk and what to plant in smaller amounts. Garlic is something you need to plant in bulk all at once, we are big garlic eaters so I am planning on 2 cloves a week so that’s 100 bulbs give or take, lettuce on the other hand my partner doesn’t enjoy so I plant a little every few months and it’s plenty for us. We eat lots of carrots so I plant big blocks of it every 6 weeks so I have a constant supply. Start with less than what you think you will need, only eat one cauliflower a week? Well don’t plant 6 at a time (cause they will all be ready within the same week) plant 3 and then another month later plant another 3. It’s so hard to do and it’s trial and error but in the end it’s so worthwhile, there is nothing like the taste of a home grown carrot!

Four of the lovely roses into propagation today Comtesse du Cayla, Madame De Tartas, Anna Olivea and Squatters Dream. All beautiful in their own ways, lovely tea scents, although the strongest perfume today definitely belonged to Madame Alfred Carrière who I don’t have a picture of but if you saw it you would fall in love with it I am sure. This wonderful endeavour of growing old roses just simply would not be possible without my friends growing these beautiful roses in their gardens and allowing me to take cuttings, that’s the good thing about gardening is the people you meet along the ways.

Everyone knows I adore this rose Mrs Dudley Cross when she’s is in bloom but look at that flush of new foliage. Very pleased with my decision to plant 3 across our front fence line in wyreema!

Fire Ant Update What we are doing to be proactive against this invasive pest

As lots of Roses start powering down just look at the tea and China roses coming into their own today around the garden. Despite rain and humidity their foliage is healthy and a feature in its own right with that beautiful new flush having tones of red, copper and bronze. There are lots of beautiful heritage roses on the website now so I do suggest having a look now as it’s likely they won’t last long!

Rise ‘n’ Shine is probably one of the newer roses I have in the collection, released in the 1970’s it’s a very floriferous miniature rose that has a nice subtle tea scent. It blooms all summer long and I have never pruned it and it just keeps on pushing blooms 💛💛💛 #nursery #toowoombaregion #garden #pittsworth #bloomwhereyouareplanted #flowers #smallbusiness #flowersofinstagram #winner #focushrbea22 #roses #heritage #heirloomroses #heritagerose #rosesofinstagram #heirloom #rose

Lady Hillingdon is looking lovely today 💛 I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend I have a bunch of work to be done and a fun project on the horizon to share with you!

Another batch of Roses into the propagation house this week, mostly Alistair Clark roses but many lovely Polyanthas and old Teas as well! Its truly a beautiful time of year to be in the garden 💚💚💚 Happy Friday everyone

A pleasing combination of colours here, Di’s Delight is a beautiful bushy microphylla salvia underneath my Bloomfield Abundance rose. I hope everyone enjoys a nice Thursday the weather here in southern Queensland has been an absolute treat! It’s also my brother’s Birthday so happy birthday to Shaun! PS both these beautiful plants are available online

Highly sought after for its high oil content, Lavandula Grosso is available online for shipping or collection form the nursery

Mrs Albert Nash, beautiful perfume and coming upto its 100th anniversary of its introduction, this rose was thought to be lost to cultivation until it was rediscovered in the 80’s enabling us to grow it once again and Australia’s Alistair Clark’s legacy lives on.

Bloomfield Abundance filling the air with a delicious perfume 🩷 Newly listed to the website 💚 https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Polyantha-Bloomfield-Abundance-p457759443

NOW AVAILABLE Everyone has been waiting and asking and she’s finally ready to be online! Mrs Dudley Cross is my favourite old fashioned tea rose, a lovely fragrance and she’s thornless! What more do you want! https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Tea-Mrs-Dudley-Cross-p475461555 #roses #heritage #heirloomroses #heritagerose #rosesofinstagram #heirloom #rose #nursery #toowoombaregion #garden #pittsworth #bloomwhereyouareplanted #flowers #smallbusiness #flowersofinstagram #winner #focushrbea22

Pictures speak a thousand words, I love Marjorie Palmer a beautiful Aussie rose, dark glossy green foliage beautiful blooms all year round in my garden! Now available online!

Iggy Young looking lovely this beautiful autumn day. Hope everyone has had a beautiful weekend 🍂💚🌹

Sweet Pea planting day! Always a fun day getting them soaked and planted! Many different colours and types planted today will make for a beautiful show this spring! Soaking in warm water is a great way to get them germinate faster and growing stronger. Can’t wait for their perfume to grace the garden again from mid winter through spring!

Today I have something a little different to bring to your attention. “The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is one of the largest underground freshwater resources in the world. It generates approximately $13 billion in value to the national economy every year and is a vital resource for 180,000 people, 7,600 businesses and 120 towns.” It’s currently under threat from an experimental CCS with unproven science, we cannot put the largest fresh water aquifer in our country at risk like this. Yes we need to utilise all available technologies we have to help mitigate climate change and reduce emissions quickly and effectively to save our planet from more damage. But we need to do it safely! And I can’t see at this time how we can safely inject liquid carbon into our aquifers, there are some parts of this country that it can safely be done without harm but not here in this unproven situation. So I ask for you to please sign the petition to parliament to stop this experiment. https://www.qff.org.au/no-ccs-in-the-gab/?fbclid=IwAR0_lS6X1w0EB47mYG9uBBIGchZ48T5wPbwfheyiAmK0WeV3-mHjHZLLLig_aem_AZ52jtx59CqCdx5B7YLcoC4rr8YeqNJ8QnHkyY8j9e19vMC2gevyahZ4PzV0FUodx4HbpWzj7vRnIgN2C4bT6VZ4&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=120206733820280336&utm_content=120207602415860336&utm_term=120207602415870336&utm_campaign=120206733820280336

We have added a few more Alstroemeria to the website! Don’t miss out on these spectacular flowers this spring! Get them planted now! https://www.thegrovecg.com/store-search/search?keyword=Alstroemeria

Salvia Red Harry ready for shipping now 💜 Beautiful fresh batch looking great and ready for planting! Bulk buy discount now available when you order 5 or more, discount applied automatically at checkout! https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Salvia-leucantha-Red-Harry-p427915877

Tiny native bees loving the newly added Angelonia 💜🤍💜

It can’t always be good news unfortunately. I think the standard rosemary has lived out its life, at 8 years old it’s done really well! It fell over in storms in January and I was busy and not paying any attention to the garden/nursery at the time. Will see what happens to it but I have pulled it upright and given it a prune and something may reshoot.. or it may not but I do have a second one that’s of good size now thankfully that can take its place

Centaurea ‘Silver Fountain’ is such a big bullish shrub it spreads over 3-4m easily here in the Pittsworth garden, a lot bigger than the 1m on the tag! Must be happy but my goodness it’s always smothering something! Good thing I love its foliage and purple spring flowers!

Despite constant humidity and rains of late, the China roses are powering through with no disease or pest issues, Archduke Charles showing his characteristic two toned blooms at the moment. A beautiful fragrance wafting through the garden in the afternoon sun from the roses, gosh I love autumn 🍂 🌹💚

Beautiful healthy Jean Ducher roses ready to be shipped now. Cutting grown gives you peace of mind of no suckers! This is a great tea to start with if you have never grown them before as it’s beyond forgiving! I only have 30 or so in this batch so get in quickly it’s popular! https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Tea-Jean-Ducher-p430550462

Just completely filled the post office with all your parcels! Thanks for all our support and patience over all these public holidays. Bulb orders are going to be dispatched soon as stock arrives of them. We ship again next Monday the 15/4 before the Anzac Day public holiday the following week. But was great to get all these beautiful Alstroemerias out to you all 💚

Always enjoy visiting friends country gardens 💚 today was no exception the Salvias were putting on a fantastic show for us and the bees were out in force. I love seeing how different people use plants in ways I wouldn’t think of, it’s why it’s important to keep an open mind about gardens, there are no hard rules!

Salvia Meigans Magic is another robust Salvia for our gardens. It has inherited some fantastic qualities from its parent Salvia leucantha. The purple and white blooms are stunning and the bees and honeyeaters adore it it’s a joy watching them flittering around the nursery and garden. A beautiful 30mm of rain overnight in Wyreema is setting the garden upto flourish 💚

Had a little nursery crawl with a friend today.. these little violas spoke to me and I had to have them! Their little blue and white faces made my day 💙🤍💙 Autumn is the best time of the year, I like it more than spring to be honest!

One of the best Salvias around Salvia leucantha Red Harry, nice upright stems of purple blooms for months and months.. what more could one want? Lots available online now!

Plenty of fresh stock online, everything is looking great! Beautiful Watsonias, still plenty of Alstromerias available and some heritage roses as well ready to be shipped. I have just started potting the next batch of roses with some of the rarest roses in my collection looking good and will be ready over the coming weeks. Gotta love autumn in the garden!

Nursery update! We are down to the final bay of clean up! Woohoo! I have taken out an entire row of benches to make for easier access especially as this is where most of the roses will be in the future. Only a few more dead weedy pots to throw out and we will be completely reset and tidy! Mammoth job but this is what happens when you take a 4 month break from the nursery I guess!

Would you look at those roots! Beautiful healthy Roses ready to ship next week! They maybe small but Tubestock roses pack a punch growing fast and establishing quicker than grafted bare roots. Such an exciting time of the year as the roses come on for the year!

Hands down an unbeatable rose for colour and hardiness and we have a lovely fresh batch of this rose available now online! Can’t recommend it enough it should be in every garden!

A bunch of Sunny South for a friend, a beautiful hardy tall growing landscape rose, an instant hedge!

A fun way to end the Easter Holidays with a wonderful trip down to Cambooya to visit Warraba Sunflowers and pick a beautiful bunch of Sunflowers! Was an incredible morning and I highly recommend a visit next time they open 🌻🌻🌻

🌻🌻🌻 A beautiful morning tip toeing through the sunflowers on a beautiful sunny Monday morning 🌻🌻🌻 Thank you to @warrabasunflowers for sharing your beautiful sunflowers 💛💛💛 #sunflower #cutflowers #flowerfarmer #darlingdowns #toowoombaregion

Happy Easter everyone 🐣🐇🌹

It’s autumn and the Windflowers are putting on a show, was a tough summer getting them established but they have come into their own now. Worth the wait all season long!

Today we have the beautiful China Rose Archduke Charles, the robust hardy disease resistant rose is a perfect example of the beauty of the China roses. Not super thorny and flowering almost constantly, growing to 1-1.5m tall it’s an easy shrub to fit in the garden or at the back of salvias. China roses rarely need pruning apart from a light shaping in summer, you don’t prune these in winter as most roses, they hold their foliage all year as well. Lots available online now, the roses have been selling fast so highly recommended jumping online now! Have a great Thursday everyone ❤️

You guys probably know, I’m not the biggest red person.. but I will admit this Clearview Claret is rather nice don’t you think? We have been blessed with beautiful soaking rain that over the last 4 days has totaled upto 53mm ❤️ what a blessing as it was starting to get a little bit dry there, the garden has already burst with new growth. Have a lovely Wednesday I’m off to get pick up orders ready and get things sorted for the Easter long weekend, lots of projects happening gearing up for a big project at the Wyreema garden!

Another day another tray of roses to pot up. Plenty of roses available online now, we do have a lot more varieties coming on and I’m still potting them up. So varieties that are marked as Sold Out on the website are still coming!

I do say this often, that my favourite Dahlia is the one that is currently open, but in all seriousness Formby Art is very much a favourite. It’s loving this damp autumn weather we are having that is for sure, as is this gardener it’s been a bit between drinks now!

Rosa Wirriana White Fairy I adore this little rose, a found rose from a SA cemetery. If you are tight on space then I can’t recommend this rose enough. Has a beautiful soft perfume and flowers all year around. Such a beautiful little rose, Wirriana White Fairy is a must for all rose gardens! https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-polyantha-Wirriana-White-Fairy-p448596521 #roses #heritage #heirloomroses #heritagerose #rosesofinstagram #heirloom #rose

Welcome to the weekend! A lovely cooler change has descended and finally that overnight heat is lessened and good nights sleep are able to return! Have to love some clearance shopping centre flowers and some greens from the garden for this weeks arrangement. As much as I love showcasing the Dahlias I am growing I’m reminded by arrangements like this that simple colours are also needed at times, especially when life is a bit chaotic! Hope you enjoy what I created and have a lovely weekend 🤍🤍🤍

Comtesse de Labarthe available online now 🩷 One of the hardiest and most beautiful old pink tea roses available in Australia. I love tea roses as they need almost no pruning, they have very good disease resistance and bloom almost all year round.

White Cecil Brunner is available online now, ready for shipping after Easter 🐣 This is a delightful small growing rose suited to any garden. Order online here https://www.thegrovecg.com/product/Rosa-Polyantha-Cecile-Brunner-White-p430550471

Let’s not do as many rose cuttings this year.. yer well that’s working out well 😅 So many of my own roses and friends roses we have planted over the last 4 years are now starting to mature so now is not the time to be doing less but more! So many new varieties of rare Heritage Roses we have never sold before as well. Hope everyone is excited for another great Rose year!

Pleasant morning as always visiting a friend’s beautiful country garden. Filled with hardy perennials, beautiful Heritage Roses, hedges and deciduous trees. It’s honestly perfection ☺️ Close ups of the Roses pictured are Stan’s Laidley Rose small pink Le Vesuve bigger pink/apricot Of course we gathered many cuttings as we now have many more cultivars getting big enough to do cuttings of which is exciting so we can share them online with you all.

Potted this week the beautiful tea rose Jean Ducher. Always amazed to see such tiny plants knowing one day they will be beautiful shrubs

Tall old fashioned Alstroemerias are now available! Many new colours and some truly reliable old ones! You won’t be disappointed! Limited numbers of some colours so don’t delay and order now! https://www.thegrovecg.com/category/All-Other-Bulbs #nursery #toowoombaregion #garden #pittsworth #bloomwhereyouareplanted #flowers #smallbusiness #flowersofinstagram #winner #focushrbea22

Podcast in, plants to be potted away we go! If only it was actually this fast!

The lighting is a bit harsh and it’s hard to see but I have finally tied back and down the long canes to the fence of Mrs Fred Danks, she’s determined to grow into quite the climber which is fine, there is plenty of room on the fence for her I just need to keep up on her maintenance, apparently she only grown 1.5-2m tall and wide according to resources 🙄 well at least 3m height and wide now safe to say she’s loving it here in the wyreema garden. Training the big canes horizontal will increase the flower production as well as side branched form which will be another added benefit! Have a great Monday I’m off to the nursery to get stuck into some fun projects and off to look at a landscape installation I did late last year!

Was a productive day preserving some of the summers harvest. All my recipes come from an incredible book called A year in a bottle, I was looking to make a chilli sauce and came across a strawberry and chilli recipe and it caught my attention instantly! Well the house smells amazing filled with sweet chilli notes with a hint of ginger and garlic, just delicious now to let it sit for a few weeks and mellow although it already tastes fantastic! Hope you have all had a lovely weekend!

Last of the corn harvest done and eaten was delicious I can tell you! The vegetable garden is emptying of summer crops and making way for winter veggies! Warm soils and cool nights are perfect for brassicas of all descriptions! I’m doing a big final planting of carrots and going to try and sneak an autumn planting of potatoes in as well! What are you planting this lovely Autumn weekend?

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is almost here 🥰 A bunch of Carlos Watermelon for you all to enjoy today ❤️

With several lawn chemicals going off the market I am trialing a few alternatives. The flame throwers are definitely a lot more fun I can tell you! And who doesn’t love a lawn looking like a friesian cow 🤣 But in seriousness it does kill weed seeds as it goes which chemicals typically do not.. happy Thursday all and enjoy the patch lawn!

Always glad for my poor fingers when rose cuttings are finished for the day! Really happy with how they are looking and the ones done over the last few weeks are already being potted up and into the sun to harden off. This is the third year of growing own rooted roses and every year I get just a little bit more efficient and a bit better strike rate than the last season. Hopefully this time around we will have even better numbers to come in the future

Another beautiful day to do rose cuttings, Then Thousand Lights is one of my favourite China roses, like Mutabilis it has different toned flowers as they age and it’s in a semi double form. Marjorie Palmer is also very much on my favourites list, a relatively unknown Alistair Clark rose it absolutely should be grown a lot more. The timeless classic beauty of Perle d’Or’ in its beautiful buff tones. I recently planted Mme. Joseph Schwartz and I have snuck a few cuttings from her, she is a relatively unknown sport of the every popular Dutchesse de Barbrant, just as tough and hardy and similar sized but in a lovely white 🤍 Ok coffee break is over time to get a few hundred cuttings in!

A beautiful hardy Polyantha rose that you hardly ever see around is White Cecile Brunner. This rose was discovered prior to 1909 in France as a sport of the famous Cecile Brunner. I have a beautiful one in the garden and was able to get a good batch of cuttings from it this season. So look out for these beautiful plants on the website

Morning all, Please note a long time ago we decided to not ‘ship in short weeks’ so over the next three months with the rather large amount of public holidays we will have limited shipping days. So the following Mondays we will be shipping, 18/3 8/4 15/4 29/4 13/5 We then return to regular weekly shipping. Thanks for understanding and is my way of delivering the best quality service and products possible to you.

Looking young and fresh! It’s amazing just how fast plants grow at this time of year! Can’t wait to release our Alstroemerias next week!

Sure is nice to be back packing orders again 💚 Stock is limited still but plenty more coming including quite a few roses 😊

Working on getting some of my lovely house plants back into better health. Now that the house repairs are all finally completed after the dishwasher flood in September last year! I did a lot about a month ago throwing out what had died from the conditions/neglect and now I can finally set everything and get them growing again 🥰

This week’s bunch picked first thing, Dahlias are hitting their stride after a hot humid summer! Happy Saturday everyone enjoy your gardens 💚

Happy International Women’s Day! Today, we celebrate the incredible achievements and contributions of women everywhere, including in the world of gardening. From nurturing seeds to cultivating vibrant blooms, women have always played a vital role in connecting with nature and fostering growth. Let's continue to empower and support each other as we plant the seeds of change and growth, both in our gardens and in our communities. Here's to all the green-thumbed goddesses out there! Happy Gardening Matthew

More roses heading into propagation as the first batches done 3 weeks ago head out and are to be potted up this week. Autumn is just the best time of year!

The nursery is filling up and so is the website, so excited to be back selling plants again after our summer break! Jump online and see what’s available, more to be added each week ☺️

When we moved into the Wyreema garden we had one lonely tree and one bird of paradise on the whole property. Well 12 months later and the addition of 23 new trees I finally mustered up the courage to remove the tree that no longer fit the redesigned front yard. It’s always a battle to remove something that is perfectly healthy from a garden but the given the extensive plantings and space for wildlife to now play they are hardly going to notice this tree gone. Such a weight has lifted and it proves you should never live with a plant that isn’t bringing you happiness! If in doubt chop it out, I will get the stump out this weekend and maybe pop some turf runners in and the lawn shall be complete

The first batches of plants are ready to start shipping next week! Only limited numbers available, I need orders placed by Saturday Nights so I can process orders and ship on Mondays. Happy Shopping! https://www.thegrovecg.com/category/All-Plants

Nice little haul from the Lifeline Book Fest today! Always fun finding books you have been looking for, the heritage rose journals are a wonderful resource and I have been after Colour a Garden for over 10 years so it’s nice to have, one of the best references for gardening by colour.

Observing how much a garden transforms in just 12 months provides valuable insights into the growth patterns and habits of various plant species, highlighting the diversity and wonder of the plants we grow.

Nursery helper needed.. current one keeps falling asleep on the job 🤣🤣🤣

One of the most underrated plant groups for our area are conifers. They were definitely overdone at times in the past and planted in not the best of locations but there are many lovely ones that we should enjoy more. Cupressus Blue Ice is definitely one of those, it can get a bit to hot and dry for Blue Spruces here and they are o so very slow growing but if you love that look, and who doesn’t I highly recommend these. I don’t remember when I planted this one but it’s roughly 6-7 years old now and I have even managed to find the room for one at the smaller Wyreema garden I love it so much. Very cold hardy and once established no additional water in most years is required.

Luffa update! We are finally getting good fruit set, these unusual vines seem to set just one female flower on each stem of flowers followed by male blooms. There is always something to learn from the plants we grow. Sometimes you don’t know how plants will behave till you start growing them, killing them and sometimes having success with them. Reading and searching the internet is great but sometimes it’s just fun to pop a plant in and learn about them as they grow!

Roses are growing roots already! Plenty more cuttings to get done but excited to see roots forming just 14 days later 🥰

Remember the pumpkin vine I showed you earlier in the week? Well this is what’s hiding underneath! Tromboncino is an old Italian Butternut Squash/Pumpkin cultivar, picked young it’s a lovely Zucchini and left to mature they turn into these massive Pumpkins with a lovely flavour and have stored well in previous years for me. Its to late to sow pumpkins in cold areas but put this one on your list for next spring!

Mrs Oakley Fisher is such a delightful colour. I’m pretty partial to these open faced Roses so much so I have planted an entire hedge of them, this is an old Hybrid Tea but it has great qualities including being quite disease resistant as you can see by the bright healthy foliage.

Blessed with 4mm of rain in a lovely sun shower yesterday afternoon, the cottage garden is loving it