Cuttings

We have a plant in our garden which is doing really well and is quite beautiful.

I went to an open garden in Katoomba on the weekend (Clover Hill) and showed the owner a pic from i-phone. He identified it as the variegated variety of a plant he has, but which I now can't remember the name. However due to Australian breeders Rights (ABR?) - he is not allowed to sell the variegated variety. So the only thing left for me to do is try and propagate the plant! Never having done this before (none the less being full of confidence from my recent seedling success??!) I have now taken two cuttings from the plant, popped a bit of cutting powder on the end and put it in little pots. The small amount of research I have done online has probably not helped. (shade, not sun is about as much as i know). So I have perched them on my gorgeous green ladder, which now finally has a use beyond fetching the kids balls off the studio roof. My mum has said be patient - up to eight weeks. No doubt it will take me several goes, and actually reading the online help carefully before I get this right - but there's nothing like starting.

From various for blog

From various for blog

New plants

We are going to try out some new plants (bromeliads) that my mum has given us. The cold (ie frost and snow) aren't good for them - so I have tied them to moveable objects (ladder) and may move into the back shed during the really cold snaps, to see that helps. We are entering into Summer here soon, so hopefully no more frosts for a few months. The ladder that you can see in the photo is the other half of the long one we found buried in the back yard - the first half is happily hanging our pots in the kitchen :) Also in the background of this photo, behind the fish pond you can see some tortured willow I picked up off a pile from the community gardens in Katoomba. The tortured willow is so beautiful - but in Australia it's been declared a weed of national significance and so aren't great to have around. These are the types of dried branches you see in fancy white urns in gorgeous interior design mags. The branches are wonderfully curly. They look like they belong in a whimsical children's book.

Some garage sale finds

Very exciting trip to a garage sale on Saturday eventuated with two coffee tables ($20 each) and an old green ladder ($10). Sad story of a guy whose wife had left him and the house he had built for them, and he was selling everything. Even the house! One of the coffee tables was made out of the top of an old pier from Manly Wharf in Sydney.