Try www.gardens.co.nz
Heather

Thank you,Heather. Unfortunately, the interactive forum was offline for some technical reason.

Do you think we could use this forum a bit more?

Yes I have been unable to get on the other forum so glad it is not my computer ( my son said he didn't think it was )
wendy must be changing the site, doesn't usually take so long.
Heather

I am sure Santa will not hold you to that promise. I am really hoping to get a day in the garden before Christmas, at the moment it doesn't seem likely. Do you think we could pospone Christmas for another week? Aren't the roses looking great this year?

Yes, about the roses - and not many aphids, either. The Stanwell Perpetual has outdone itself this year. And the two Gallicas. Must be all that rain.

And it's not set to improve greatly..."A complex system lies..." Perhaps Huey will relent for a couple of days over Christmas.

the nz site is back on line at last

Did I say the roses are looking good? After all the wind Wellington has had this weekend we are lucky if there are any flowers left. Unfortunately with all this rain and the soil temp getting warmer the weeds are growing thick and fast.

At the rate the blackbirds have been working the beds there's scarcely a weed to be seen!

One thing I am noticing about the roses is the number of new shoots coming from down the stems and off the bud head. I can only put it down to the persistant rain - and perhaps to the dollops of manure I added a time ago.

I'm really pleased to see this outburst of new growth because I inherited the roses from a drought-stricken garden and it's taken years for them to settle in. All reds and scented, so someone had a romantic streak. One did have a label - 'Erotica' - large, somewhat blowsy, and very slow to make any decent new growth.

In my small 'collection' of miniatures -'Simplex' is flowering, and the indefatigable 'Green Ice'. The others are taking a deep breath to celebrate the end of the opium poppies, then they'll consider putting out buds.

Anyone growing a red rose 'Fisherman's Friend'?

Came upon this site by accident and have read your messages.

Is anybody else in Nz fed up with having no decent web-site and not even a gardening programme to watch on TV
( thanks ralston!!!).??

Am keen to start building up a network of us all to get some chat/nteraction/ plant swapsies/club info/ events
etc going

anyone keen?

in hope --- Sharon

hi vetivert and all. since your talking about roses growing and weeds coming up, i've guessed it is spring down under. winter officailly began here last week. or is it summer there?

It is supposed to be Summer, but warm sunny days are few and far between over most of the country. We had a wet winter with flooding, now a wet Summer. Roses have benefited, citrus seem to have suffered. As a professional, part time, gardener I couldn't believe how thick and fast the soft weeds grew before Christmas. I couldn't believe the weeds in my own garden by the time I finally got around to giving it some attention.