Those lovely New Zealand Christmas trees waving their dense heads of red flowers are certainly looking good this year with the extra rain, but if you have a variegated variety remove the reverting green branches or they will take over in a few years.

· It’s an ideal time to divide bamboo if you have a clump and want to spread it around. When you dig up a section remove the tallest canes, but retain their rhizomes and make sure at least three eyes or fat thumbs of the root remain in each clump. Feed with superphosphate and they can be potted up if you are short of space or moving. The black-stemmed variety is quite slow to establish in this area.

· A word of caution if you are considering a heavy prune of your Oleander and they certainly need that every three years or they start to flower rather sporadically and will cover your block: their sap in both trunk and leaves is very toxic. Best to put it into your green organic wheelie bin (if you live in Unley or Burnside Councils). It will then be composted at a high enough heat (i.e. 60 degrees C.) so that the toxins break down quickly. Very few home garden-composters get that level of efficiency in their compost heaps.

· If you have one of those tall gangly Umbrella trees of a languishing NZ Cordyline, pollarding can quickly rejuvenate them. That’s where the main trunks are cut to the ground or with a short 30cm stump and the resulting coppice growth at the base soon makes a handsome specimen again.

· Jacaranda trees are currently making their post-flowering growth and they want to sprout lots of suckers from their base or further up the main trunk. These are best removed to preserve the specimen tree-like shape or they will become rounded thickets.

· I notice lots of yellow leaves on roses around this area at present caused by deep mulching with pea or Lucerne straw. This causes a short-term nitrogen draw down, depleting available soil nitrogen and unless water soluble nitrogen is sprayed onto the straw or blood and bone spread liberally and watered to settle at soil level, the leaves turn a uniform yellow. The remedy is rapid though, especially if you use the water soluble fertilizers.

· I saw a lovely hedge of Lantana montevidiensis last week, that has me wondering why this old favourite is not more widely grown in the north. It is a most undemanding plant and thrives on neglect; flowers all summer with masses of tiny lilac flowers and only needs a trim once or twice a year. Plant at one metre centres on a low wire fence and it will reward you.

· If your indoor plants have those cotton wool looking mealy bugs on them at present, you can control them pretty easily, by taking them outside late one afternoon and jetting water on to their leaves to wash the sap-suckers away. Leave them outside in a sheltered position all night and return them inside next day, bug free…. for a few weeks anyhow!

· I notice lots of yellow leaves on roses around this area at present caused by deep mulching with pea or Lucerne straw. This causes a short-term nitrogen draw down, depleting available soil nitrogen and unless water-soluble nitrogen is sprayed onto the straw or blood and bone spread liberally and watered to settle at soil level, the leaves turn a uniform yellow. The remedy is rapid though, especially if you use the water-soluble fertilizers.

· The above yellowing of leaves is not to be confused with lime-induced-chlorosis, which is caused by a shortage of available iron on alkaline soil. That results in green veins on yellow leaves and is easily treated with watering in iron chelates around the roots of your affected plants.