25 April 2011

So Easter has been and almost gone. For the first time in a long time Easter Monday is on the same day as ANZAC Day which means that tomorrow is also a public holiday. The kids are wising up to this Easter Bunny caper. Sunday morning they were up at the crack of dawn checking the windows out the front and back. But the "Easter Bunny" is just as smart. She made sure that when she put the eggs out that they couldn't be seen by the kids from any of the windows. That tricked them!!!

After the hunt we went for a drive firstly to Bird World and afterward we just drove around finally coming out at the end of the Tonkin Hwy so Paul suggested visiting a rose nursery he had once seen. As it turns out there are a few nurseries along Alexander Drive but one in particular is called Roworth Roses and that is where we ultimately ended up. Its not massive but it would be about 99% all roses. At the bottom end of the nursery they have planted out a large number of the varieties they stock and it was amazing to wander through all those beautiful bushes (although I was just itching for a pair of secateurs to dead head them). They had the most gorgeous bushes of Chameleon which was a striking pink and yellow with a delicious scent. Paul was quite taken with Gold Bunny and Alex was most disappointed that we wouldn't buy Alec's Red... a stunning red rose with a lovely strong scent, the flowers look like the Old World roses but its not a David Austin rose. Many of the roses there I had heard of but there were so many more that I hadn't. The standard I rescued from Greenwood I have decided is definitely "The Fairy" and I would give my right arm for "Chaucer" - maybe he and Pierre could live together - the poet and the writer, the Englishman and the Frenchman. I still haven't decided where Pierre is going. He looks quite nice where he is but that area will eventually be replaced with paving. I've also considered a garden arch buy the coffee nook out the front but I'm not sure how that would go down. I've even considered systematic poisoning of the diosma and conifers... I could get quite a few roses into that section and be rid of those horrible massive hedges once and for all. So for now Pierre will have to remain potted. I think today I will plant the "Magics" in the front between the Bonicas and Pierre can go into one of those bigger pots.

For the record, Clayton appears to be a type of Ash and the tree out the front is a London Plane Tree. Apparently the London Plane trees are particularly resistant to vehicle emissions which I guess you'd have to be if you lived in London.

We actually had a bit of rain yesterday... the first since I wrote about it on the 11th. It was a bit on and off during the day but today it is intensely blue skies.

I forgot to write about the sweet groundcover I got at Drovers the other week... Winter Candy or something similar its called, a grevilla groundcover with sweet pink and white flowers which flowers in the winter. They are now in the native patch.

I've cleared out the base under the second plum. I've (A) never seen so many ants in my life and (B) never seen so many jonquil bulbs in my life!!! There were quite literally hundreds. They've obviously been dividing and multiplying at a furious rate there. Each time I turned over the soil there would be more. So I've taken them out, sorted out the bed and them replanted them. Still have the ranunculis to put in Clayton's garden and the King Alfred's to put somewhere. Speaking of ranunculis, one has popped up its head rather early in the Bonica bed... silly thing!!!