The other garden icon in this area must surely be the rows of white ‘Iceberg’ stem roses. A lovely hardy rose it is too, but even they need feeding and although you may have sprung to and fed it dutifully four weeks ago, those buds that are emerging right now are the result, but unless you apply another feed now, they won’t look too proud by Christmas.

The ‘Iceberg’ rose and its other widely planted mate ‘Seduction’ are both floribunda types, which means they have one flower that opens in the centre of a cluster first then it dies off and the others open out together. Annoying habit if you like perfection, but by removing the first flower in the centre of each clump, they open in perfection, uniformly. Cool eh?

If you are struggling with some potted roses and wondering why they only grow on one side, maybe you have not located them where they get full sun. Some goes for a potted conifer such as a Thuja or Biota, they will grow in a pot if it’s deep enough, but they need plenty of air to circulate around them and full sun or they grow on the sunny side only.

The tall white and yellow irises that are coming into flower at present are most likely Spuria Iris and they were popular in local gardens 60-80 years ago, when Adelaide had summer water restrictions. If you seek to grow them remember to locate them somewhere in your garden where they can have a summer rest and not get watered. Undemanding in so many ways except their need to be left dormant in summer.

Planting bedding plants where they will eventually spill on to a path or driveway, can be a pleasant task, but while many plants thrive when planted in spring, as summer progresses they look pretty average. The best bedding plants for a path spill that will get pretty hot later in November are Alyssum, especially the white ‘Tiny Tim’ (totally prostrate to 10cm tall), the purple Verbena (prostrate to 4cm tall but will cover 2 square metres with one plant) and the tiny ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum mixture to 25cm tall. In full sun and radiant heat, these thrive.

The spring flush of luxurious growth on local lawns, soon fades, unless you are feeding yours right now. The double whammy of organic and water soluble fertilizers gives both an instant effect (great fro self gratification) and the organic provides for a longer term benefit after the initial smell has died down. I saw a local commercial business putting out solid organic pellets on their narrow lawn last week and a week later it still smells! If you use the pulverised pellets on your lawn the smell disappears much faster!

Planting bedding plants where they will eventually spill on to a path or driveway, can be a pleasant task, but while many plants thrive when planted in spring, as summer progresses they look pretty average. The best bedding plants for a path spill that will get pretty hot later in November are Alyssum, especially the white ‘Tiny Tim’ (totally prostrate to 10cm tall), the purple Verbena (prostrate to 4cm tall but will cover 2 square metres with one plant) and the tiny ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum mixture to 25cm tall. In full sun and radiant heat, these thrive.

I need to apologise to Pedro the Fruitman at the Gananis Bros. continental market in Bacon Street at Hindmarsh about calling him ‘Con the Fruitier’ on radio last week he is of course Pedro the Fruitman, who propagates the Eggplant trees and they are due in at Gaganis in 3-4 weeks time, so if you want an eggplant tree for rootstock to graft, you’ll need to order one soon. I grafted a couple last week, but only one took, so it’s still a bit early. November seems to be best.

I noticed some of my garlic crop looking all mottled last week and thought surely that cannot be nutrient deficient so I dug one up and noticed the corm or bulb-like root was rotting due to the high soil moisture levels at present. So I replanted it and dug a hole right alongside that has dried the soil out quickly and the vigour is returning. I’d forgotten that’s why they plant garlic on mounds in parts of Europe.

I spotted some ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum seedlings recently planted on a roadside verge in front of some shops that get a lot of foot traffic and they were flowering their heads off. I recall seeing a similar aspect in Croatia once, where they grew amongst limestone rocks on the roadside and not a sign of rust, which commonly afflicts then in well-tendered gardens. Here is a really hardy bedding plant that we need to take to heart and plant in our exposed kerbside gardens.

I’ve spotted the first of the Thrips invasion in my Daylilies. As soon as I get on top of the snails in comes a way of Thrips. Tiny little cream coloured sapsuckers that are almost invisible to the eye and only apparent as the tell tale yellow stripes appear on the spent leaves or a sweet residue starts to appear on the leaves and ants move in. A single spray of Confidor works a treat. I’m told that the garlic sprays work too, but they don’t work on the Thrips in Annie’s cottage garden!

If you grow Gardenias in pots it’s a sure bet they now have yellow leaves and need both nitrogen and iron chelates. If you rely on using a complete mineral mix you get the nitrogen needed but the iron gets tied up in potting medium as you water with reticulated alkaline water. If you have added compost to your pots that may not be a problem. You can of course apply nitrogen as a mulch, use water-soluble fertilizer or controlled release prills, but best to spray your iron chelates separately onto the underside of the foliage. Spraying iron chelates on the top of your Gardenia leaves results in a dirty brown stain.

The tall white and yellow irises that are coming into flower at present are most likely Spuria Iris and they were popular in local gardens 60-80 years ago, when Adelaide had summer water restrictions. If you seek to grow them remember to locate them somewhere in your garden where they can have a summer rest and not get watered. Undemanding in so many ways except their need to be left dormant in summer.

Planting bedding plants where they will eventually spill on to a path or driveway, can be a pleasant task, but while many plants thrive when planted in spring, as summer progresses they look pretty average. The best bedding plants for a path spill that will get pretty hot later in November are Alyssum, especially the white ‘Tiny Tim’ (totally prostrate to 10cm tall), the purple Verbena (prostrate to 4cm tall but will cover 2 square metres with one plant) and the tiny ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum mixture to 25cm tall. In full sun and radiant heat, these thrive.

If you have some areas that need a colour lift, but they have recently been deprived of sunlight due to the deciduous trees putting on their spring foliage, grab a few punnets of Lobelias this weekend. They are the greatest fillers for such spots.

For hanging baskets in shaded areas the Lobelia ‘Sapphire Blue’ is a trailing blue with a white eye as is ‘Lightning Blue’. For a pale blue flower on a squat clump ‘Cambridge Blue’ is ideal. ‘Rosamund’ is a rose pink and my pick is ‘Blue Eyes’ that starts out green with dark blue flowers and as it grows the foliage turns maroon.