Bromeliad pups

I've been busy the last few days potting up Bromeliad offshoots commonly known as pups One of the great things about these plants is their ability to multiply, particularly if they are in their preferred position of semi-shade or dappled sunlight. The experts say to cut them off with a sharp stanley knife at the base, they are ready for this once they get to about one third the size of the parent plant. This one pictured above has three, one to the left and right and one behind. The amazing thing is once the pups have been removed the plant quite often keeps producing them. I pot them up in a mixture of orchid mix and mulch and leave them in the shade house until they take root. Bromeliads certainly give a good return on the initial outlay and make an excellent gift. And of course give a frog a home.

Brisbane late afternoon

Well we are still having showers which is wonderful. There's not a lot doing on the garden front, so I thought I'd post a couple of shots taken from Mt Cootha. Looking southeast towards Brisbane and Morton bay (top) Looking south towards Toowong and a bend in the Brisbane river (centre) and looking southwest over the suburbs (bottom) I hope you are having a lovely summer in the northern hemisphere, happy gardening everyone! P.S. sorry the photo's are bit bleak, click on for larger shot.

Our bushfire season

Strange as it may seem to some, danger time for bushfires in Queensland is from winter through to early spring. We have to be particularly aware in august when at the end of our usual dry winter we get strong gusty westerly winds. I'd noticed clouds of smoke to the West of Brisbane in recent weeks and on a visit last week to Brisbane forest park I came across a large burnt out area. You'll notice the bush is burnt out on both sides of the track, It reminds us how perilous our bushfires are and how easily we can be cut off.
Thankfully we are having welcome showers in Brisbane this week. We havn't had enough in our catchments unfortunately and we started on level 3 water restrictions this week which is buckets only. I heard on the radio today that it's already saving 50 million litres a day.

A special Brisbane sunset, June 7th.

I woke on the morning of the 7th of June to hear our local ABC radio host Spencer Howson say that there was something special about the day's sunset. He went on to explain that the sun setting at 5pm was the earliest time it would set in Brisbane. So armed with what some might regard as trivial information I headed off to the city's highest spot Mt cootha. Here it is, not spectacular........but special

A "mazing" place

We had Gardening Australia's exhibition recently and we happened to pick up some info on a great place which is virtually at our back door.
The Redlands Indigiscapes Centre is an initiative of the Redland Shire Council and it really is a great place to visit. Nature trails and laid out native garden settings where you can sit and have a picnic, and this great little maze of course. They concentrate on native plants from the local area and their nursery sells plants for $2.10 each which is very reasonable.
One of the trails features a 400 year old Tallowood tree, most plants are marked even the native grasses. There is live music on the 1st and3rd sunday of the month between 2 and 5pm. There is an information centre and cafe and the trails are open from dawn until dusk. For anyone visiting Brisbane we would highly recommend a visit the address is 17 Runnymede Rd Capalaba. ph (07) 38248611

Autumn project No 2

This is an area we've always found difficult to landscape, partly because there's an old concrete slab where the previous owner had a shed. So its pipes to the rescue again. While ringing around chasing the pipes for previous project, the salesperson at the local plumbing supplies kindly gave me the address of a wholesaler who happened to have some seconds laying around. Which I gladly snapped up for a small fee. We are hoping the two Golden cane palms will grow fairly quickly and provide shade for the Bromeliads and Cordylines.