A stormy summer ahead

Two views "Spring Bluff" Railway station & garden (looking North).
One before on left and one after the dramatic recent flood events of 12/1/2011

Last week there were two full days of fine weather and everything here in our little world seemed rosy. In many communities in suburban Brisbane, the Lockyer Valley, the Mary Valley, the Darling Downs and as far away as St.George, Condamine, Emerald and Rockhampton the cost of recent floods is only just being counted. Now two more cyclones are going to affect Queensland in the next week. All manner of infrastructure from road, bridges, rail & schools will need to be rebuilt. Mines are flooded. Agriculture, livestock and manufacturing has been wiped out in some areas.
With more to come it all seems pretty bleak.
But people need to carry on and a day of sunlight and the display of some bright coloured flowers hanging over a garden fence may help lift the mood. The indestructible, resilient nature of many sub-tropical plant species as they recover from floods and storms is like a signal to people they that can recover too.
We hope that this year has no more extreme weather challenges in store.
Here at Montville extreme wet weather is only a bit more than we have grown to expect. There is a lot of growth but flowers are easily knocked around and spoiled. Having said that the weather has allowed us to establish many new plants in a set and forget manner.
New varieties of Buddleja davidii (pink and purple), Thai basil, Hibiscus acetosella, Cordia bossieri (Texas Olive) have been planted. Seeds of Viola tricolor, Dianthus etc have been planted along with Rocket and Zucchini. From our propagation area many Coleus, Begonia coccinea, Dracaena recurvata, Cordylline terminalis and Plectranthus saccatus along with heaven knows what else has ben planted.
Michael Simpson