My yard is now semi-dry with some of the lowest areas still holding a few inches of water. The tropical desert island is no longer an island its just a plain old dirt mound again. One of the positives of all the rain is my Valemcia Pride tree is starting to put out buds and blooms. My little 2 foot high whipstick Rosigold tree has about 4-5 branches coming right out of the top that now look like they may be buds and not branches. Its the little tree that thought it could...but its so small it will have to wait until next year though. My new Graham tree just put out several nice buds, its big enough that I'll see if it holds a few fruit. The small Carrie tree is budding the best but once the fruit form I'm going to take them off it and let the tree mature another year before it fruits. My Angie looks like its putting out a few buds and its big enough that I'm going to wait and see what happens with it. My Pickering tree seems to be doing a lot of nothing so far. The Neelum tree is still surrounded by its own water moat so I'm not exactly sure what its doing and the Tebow tree is still a whipstick although it has a few new bumps forming up top.

check the open gardens web site to see if any local gardens are open to the public....the botanic gardens are always worth a look see - the link below is to the australian botanical gardens web site - they list all of the BGs in Australia the australian open gardens web page is http://www.opengarden.org.au/ If you are interested in bananas the Nambour research facility may be running tours?? unsure of that - they can be emailed via the DPI site - the contact button at the top of the page http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/ enjoy Tony Here is a link that might be useful: australian botanical gardens

Is there anyone in the Mt.Gravatt area,? We will be staying at a motel there for the wedding and checking out on the Sunday morning and heading in to New Farm Park and then catching a bus to Tweed Heads after the Rosies get together. So long since I have been a Brisbanite I get lost easily. It used to be such a large country town in those days and Mt.Gravatt was the last suburb before the Gold Coast. !!!! Marion, who bought a lovely little yellow miniature rose today, pretty little thing it is.

Well I usually find gardenway at Darra absolutely fantastic, plus you can have delicious eats whilst you are there. The staff are very friendly.....not to mention damn good looking (the men ). And they only sell stuff that will grow really well here too. Haven't had a plant not thrive that I have bought from there. Otherwise I find the time and again perrenials at kmart always grow. nothing ever too exciting but worth a look. Here is a link that might be useful: gardenway