Dear Mark, your Birds of Paradise sound beautiful! I love them but some people don't, that's ok. I'm yet to decide where to plant some in my back yard BUT I WILL! I want to create an "Indonesian Style" feeling, being born in Asia, this is the most 'relaxing' feeling for me. I have fruit & nut trees. Veggie patches that I might pull down & re-use the sleepers for .... IDK terracing maybe. I intend on planting veg in all spare spaces amongst other plants ;-)
Tbh I can't stand buying plants lol. I will, but 99% of what I grow is from free sources. I give plants away ALL the time, plant them at work etc ;-)
A friend has AWESOME Birds of P and they are splitting her huge pots open. Many plants I get from the roadside, demolition sites, via social connections.
I LOVE propagating from older trees. I've had success with Figs. Ours grows lovely juicy fruit.
I love what you do Mark, dividing your plants, using a laundry tub! You have gorgeous memories associated with your plants. I have lots of family memories alongside gardening. I should share a study on plants I once read about.... later.
I've seen laundry tubs look SO super trendy as planters, spray painted glossy colours. I prefer patina looks, old, like unearthed treasure. If I ever see laundry tubs free lol... I'm DEFINITELY picking them up. I want to use them to create height behind other plantings in my Indy garden, later....
OMG YES! I had a friend who called our gardens "Spider motels" there were like 15 stories of webs above our heads lol! Love spiders. I name them inside our house! Frank or Francesca. The kids say "Mum Frank is getting too close to the kitchen table" and their friends say Who's Frank? hahaha
For my eldest daughter to leave our home at night, she asks Who's doing spider patrol? Someone has to go out with a long umbrella and circle in front of them down the path like a Knight with a sword lol.
Then the birds moved in and balanced things out. We still need Spider patrol for some people to enter & exit.
The lorikeets came onto my balcony out of the rain today. It's like these personalities know me, cheeky things. "Let's go to Mama's, she'll feed us". I had a big seed bell and put it on the back path so they would leave my balcony and eat noisily together. And they did.
I'm pretty stubborn, I don't 'feed' them until Autumn when the bush, and my garden, is running out of food.
I love your pic of your rose is it? On your name space. I aspire to be more like you :-)
EM