Autumn Chores

My bougainvillea leaves look distorted. I found a green caterpillar as well this white cottony patches on the branches. I ended up pulling out all the distorted leaves out hoping for new growth would appear.



*******************************************************************
A disappointing year for my Japanese maple, Sango Kaku as you can see from the leave scorch.

*******************************************************************

This is my first time to see the autumn color change on Seiryu leaves. This red isn't striking. It's more of a dull/bronze/burnt red which creates this antique feeling. It looks nice from a distance - but in close up, I don't enjoy the yellow and red combination on the leaves.




*******************************************************************

On June 1st, I received 3 bare-rooted roses from mail-order nursery: 2 climbling Cinderella (Korfobalt) and 1 Sharifa Asma ( a david austin rose). Hopefully I've made the right choice here.



*******************************************************************

My David Austin rose, Heritage leaves are slowly turning yellow and falling off.

Update on Seiryu

So many things have happened in my backyard... Seiryu is slowly changing colour, and my phalanopsis orchid is sending out a spike. Hopefully it's a flowering spike. The roses - my Smooth Ballerina is developing a virus. Heritage on the other hand is still looking pretty and flowering.

http://www.japanesemaples.com/catalog/item.php?id=18 mentioned that Seiryu turns "rosey red with splashes of yellow in the fall". My maple looks quite similar to the picture shown.

Points to remind myself about growing Seiryu:
1) Summer gets really hot here in Australia. I have to shade cover my maples to prevent leave scorch.
2) I'm going to repot this tree into a bigger pot because it's been 3 years now - I want my maple to grow faster, and more bushy.

Update on Smooth Ballerina

I have to admit that Smooth Ballerina is my least favorite. She lacks fragrance. Sometimes when she opens up, the flower looks messy. Today, her flowers look okay.

Update on my Seiryu

My seiryu had survived. When I first bought this Japanese maple, she looked stunningly graceful. I've never seen a tree so beautiful in my life. At that time, I didn't have a digital camera otherwise I would have captured her beautiness.

Then, the following year, ants sabbotaged her, and the growth has became stunted. From that point I've never get to see the autumn colors of the leaves.

Two years later, she's doing well. We have an unbearably hot summer this year, and the leaves ended up being scorched. Hopefully she'll display a nice autumn show. Can't wait.

A new member to my family..."Smooth Ballerina"

This is Smooth Ballerina. I bought this plant on Saturday at the Melbourne International Flower show. I don't know why I bought it. All I want is more David Austin roses, but they don't have any at the show, and seeing other people buying plants, made me want to have one. She's pretty, but I can't smell a thing! It says in the description that she's moderately scented. Hopefully that statement is true.

The good thing about her is she's thornless. My "Heritage" rose has been giving me all those nasty scratches in my arms as I try to move her to a sunny position.

Roses at the Melbourne International Flower Show

The following are photos that I've taken at the Melbourne International Flower Show:

Click on to the photos for a larger view.

1) This has to be the most BEAUTIFUL rose I've ever seen. It's called, "St. Patrick". I hope I can get my hands on this rose.



2) The roses featured below are from the Delbard collection. Again, this is one of my favorite, and I'm definetely going to order this rose: It's called, Carmagnole. One of the new releases from Delbards 2007.

3) Another Delbard variety called Souvenir De Louis Amade. The flowers are really BIG.

4) Another Delbard variety...resembles a bit like Henri Matisse - but Maurice Utrillo flowers stands out more.


My disappointment was I didn't have enough memory stick with me, and some of the photos I've taken were blury.

Should I repot my bougainvillea?

Does my bougainvillea require repotting or watering? From what I've read, bougainvilleas bloom well when they are dry and rootbound, and placed in a full sun position. They don't like repotting because they have a delicate root system. Watering too much can also make them sick. I'm planning on watering my bougainvillea every 8 days. But the weather has been awfully hot here, and the leaves look soft and dropey. On Wednesday when I look at this plant, there were some ants crawling around the pot. So I watered my plant deeply that day in the hope that it will flush those ants out.

Welcome to my family....

This is a bougainvillea plant that I bought yesterday at Essendon garden center. It's a pink variety called Mary Palmer. She looks really flamboyant in full sun and would create this mediterranean effect (which I'm intending to do) if trained as a climber along a white wall.

www.flickr.com has a wonderful set of photos on bougainvilleas if anyone is interested.