Gardening / Christmas trees… better dead or alive?

 

THE festive season is upon us and cut Christmas trees are in abundance at the markets, but be warned: taking them into the home too early will mean dropped pine needles and a tree half dead by Christmas.

Better still is a living Christmas tree, with the traditional tree being Picea abies, the Norwegian spruce that can be kept in a pot and enjoyed for many years.

Alternatively, if you want the spirit of Australiana for your tree consider the dinosaur pine, the Wollemi.

Another traditional Christmas decoration is Euphorbia pulcherrima or Poinsettia, with its brilliant red flower bracts.

A native of Mexico, it is a tropical plant that is difficult to keep going through our winter. I suggest you treat it as a potted plant just for Christmas decoration.

Interestingly, although not a native of Australia, when the Brisbane City Council was formed in 1925 it adopted the Poinsettia as its floral emblem.

THE holiday period can be a time of stress for gardens and needs all the help it can get from family and friends. But if all else fails, consider getting hired help, perhaps a regular garden maintenance person who knows your garden. It may be a cheaper option than coming home to dead plants.

NORMALLY I do not recommend using saucers under pots in the garden because they inhibit drainage leading to root rot and the demise of the plant.

The exception is during the holiday season when a saucer of water combined with a well-mulched pot top will help while you’re away. Don’t forget to change the batteries of the automatic watering system’s back-up, then give the whole garden a good deep soaking just before you leave on holiday.

Depending on their size, indoor plants are much easier to manage while you’re away. If you have a bath, place an old towel in the bottom (so plant pots don’t scratch it), then fill with about 50mm of water and place the plants in the bath. This will keep them going for several weeks.

GIFT vouchers from your local garden centre are better than the risk of buying friends or relatives plants. Vouchers can be to buy plants or new secateurs or even fertilisers.

A garden consultation is a good gift for someone new to town or someone moving into a new home, as is a copy of “The Canberra Gardener”, written by the Horticultural Society of Canberra especially for our local climate.

Like many other garden designers, I offer garden consultation gift vouchers.

FOOTPATH coffee shops using planter boxes to separate their areas and provide some greenery in the barren wasteland of city pavements try hard against all odds with some customers using them as ashtrays and dropping in empty takeaway cups. How many of these plants survive at all is a miracle.

Innovatively, Tosolini’s, in Bailey’s Arcade, uses the spaces between the box-hedging plants to grow herbs for use in its kitchen.

All of Cedric Bryant’s gardening columns are searchable at citynews.com. au

cedricbryant@grapevine.com.au

 

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