Angela Offer, new member, or will be soon, (thanks Dell, I will find the website soon!!)

Angela and Dean Offer angelasgarden@bigpond.com
Sat, 15 Oct 2005 04:48:54 PDT
I live in Albany in Western Australia.  The climate is slightly colder than Meditteranean. I think about climate zone 9 or 10.  We rarely get to  0 degrees Celcius, but might get frosts in a couple of parts of the garden once or twice a year.  Sometimes Summer can hit temperatures above the 40 degrees C but usually only for one or two single days.  (About 8 years ago we had a 47 degrees!!!    The tomato plants didn't survive!!).  I grow Japanese maple cultivars in pots like giant bonsai.  Clivias grow extremely well under the gum trees (eucalyptus).  Dean loves conifers, especially blue spruce - which was a challenge to get , but with a lot of good mulch seem to slowly  be   getting bigger. I love large flowered clematis (difficult with the strong Albany winds).  I grow vireya rhododendrons, yellow and variegated clivia ( and orange and nobilis- nobilis grows very easily), cymbidium orchids, dendrobium native orchids, and zygopatalums.  South African plants have sometimes become weeds here (ie White arum lilies, Watsonia).Oxalis are also weeds, but I love the little pink ones, so I can live with them.I am trying to grow peonies, if it's not cold enough I will grow them in foam boxes and (artificially) give them a cold chill in a cold store.  We envey those in a colder climate who can have the most beautiful coloured deciduous trees .(Why are us gardeners never happy with what grows easily??)
I will donate seeds or bulbs of clivia, hippys (amaryllis)  eucalyptus trees (lemon gums are spectacular)
bulbs of orchids, etc, etc.  Anyone want the weedy pink oxalis, Watsonia, or white arum???
Anyway I love gardening so much now I am turning it into a business, I grow the plants that I love for the local nurseries, grow red roses, dutch hybrid alstroemerias for the flower markets, do wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, bunches, etc.  My husband and two boys live on an acre of land with lots of windbreaks, and my husband tolerates my gardening habit!!


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