Australian Flora: 3 Beautiful Blooms for Your Garden

Australian Flora: 3 Beautiful Blooms for Your Garden

Apr 13, 2016 | Gardening Tips

Any homeowner will be proud to have a well-kept and colourful garden. What better way to have it than to plant beautiful blooms? As one of the driest places in the world, Australia may not seem like the place to cultivate them. But, the country is home to some of the loveliest flora. Here are three flower species you may want to have in your garden.

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Guide to Growing Petunias

Guide to Growing Petunias

Apr 6, 2016 | Gardening Tips

Petunias may be the most delicately named plants in existence. But, do not mistake these colourful flowers for a demanding garden choice. Let us here at Perth Gardening walk you through the eight steps of cultivating petunias the right way:

When to plant petunias in Australia?

  1. Consider where you want to display them. Grandiflora petunias are larger; grow them in hanging baskets away from rain. Multiflora petunias are smaller, but are more resistant to weather.
  2. Choose between seeds or cuttings. For seeds, you have to cultivate them indoors for three months or until they grow three leaves.
  3. Plant the grandiflora petunias in soilless mix. Multiflora petunias thrive in beds with light, well-drained soil. Plant them at least 30 centimetres apart.
  4. Shelter the petunias from wind. They will still bloom in partial shade, but avoid this if you can.
  5. Fertilise the flowers once a month, twice as much for double flowered-cultivars.
  6. Regularly deadhead faded or wilted petunias to prolong blooming.
  7. If the petunias have bite marks, but you see no visible pests, check for night visitors such as slugs and earwigs.
  8. Immediately remove mottled or discoloured petunias. This is a sign of a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection, caused by contact with tobacco products.

In addition to the eight steps of growing them, here are eight facts you should know:

  • Petunias need as much sun as the sky can provide.
  • This is contrary to their being in the taxonomical family Solanaceae, or nightshade.
  • Petunias will bloom all year long with regular fertilisation and carefully maintained water levels.
  • There are 35 known petunia species, with more than 400 different cultivars.
  • Petunias are native to Argentina, one of the world’s leading producers of tobacco.
  • The Solanaceae family is closely related to Nicotiana, where tobacco is classified.
  • TMV was the first virus ever discovered. The first evidence of its existence emerged in 1892.
  • Petunia violacea, an uncommon species, is a famous hallucinogen smoked by people in Ecuador.

Petunias are one of the simplest and most beautiful flowers you can add to your garden. If you need assistance getting started, creating an ensemble of colours, learning more petunia facts, or just want to chat about plants in general, Perth Gardening is here to serve, plant, trim, fertilise, clean, prune…

Contact us today.

Bird Gardens – Prepare Your Garden for Birds

Bird Gardens – Prepare Your Garden for Birds

Mar 30, 2016 | Gardening Tips

Plants make a garden, as a garden makes a home — especially for birds.

People tend to their gardens in different ways. Some observe the rules, while others do not. There are a limited amount of people who take the rules to heart and beyond, growing clinical, pristine patches of flora even nature could not replicate. These artistically maintained gardens are a horticultural, even scientific, marvel. We are not going to talk about those today.

Instead, we at Perth Gardening will discuss how we can make our gardens more representative of nature. That is, flora and fauna. More of the flying variety.

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The Perth Garden New Year’s Checklist

The Perth Garden New Year’s Checklist

Feb 2, 2016 | Gardening Tips

Nearly all living things observe that time of the year.

For birds, it is migration. For bears, it is hibernation. For most people it’s the holidays! For gardeners, however, it is ordering new seeds and praying that they get the packaging right this time.

You read that right, gardeners of Australia. It is time to look back at the previous year’s harvest and look forward to enriching our spent garden dirt for plant habitation. Let Perth Gardening lead the way.

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