Festive snooze

Gosh, absolutely no postings so far in December ... I must be in holiday mode! If only, but things have been a bit quiet here in the garden. With all the rain storms there has been little need to water anything, and all the flowering beauties don't need any help from me. They know what to do.

And so in the middle of this festive season snooze all I really want to say is I hope everyone has a safe and delicious festive season. This garden blog will continue to update occasionally, whenever something worth talking about occurs, and so until then, here is the latest from Amateur Land.

Our baby frangipani 'Serendipity' is looking good all over. Lots of amazingly multi-coloured flowers and plenty of new healthy growth. I think it likes it here.

I always feel duty-bound to report my failures as well as the successes, and this pretty pink hydrangea might seem a big success when Pam pops some into a vase in the living room, but the sad fact is that I was hoping they'd be blue. Last season I tried to acidify the soil in an effort to encourage blueness. Nothing doing. So then this year I've bought a "blueing" fertiliser, followed the packet directions ... and this is the result so far. 

But let's finish my festive well-wishing on a positive note. The bonsai curry leaf trees are not only still alive, they are thriving. And some radical pruning a few months back (which for a week or two looked more like the kiss of death than the kiss of life) has promoted much bushier growth from both. So far so good, but with growing bonsais from seed, it's a years-long project and this is merely a good year.

So let's end 2018 on that note. If 2018 has been a good year for you, may 2019 be even better. 

And if 2018 wasn't up there as a great one — a bit like my hydrangeas — then I hope 2019 is blessed with some lush curry leaf growth, even if that means life might need a bit of pruning here and there before things improve.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and have a great 2019!