Saturday, April 21, 2007

my garden in melbourne




The multicolored poppies are called ranunculus. It took me a good week to plant them... all 3,000... of them. Most of them fail to grow... :(

Cost about $500 for the first season. But the sheer magnificent of them stunned one of my friends, Pastor TT Quah, to total awe. The joyful look on his face was so good to see.

They are grown from corms (spider looking "bulbs" planted "feet" down) Like most bulbs, they prefer good drainage. Planted in late Summer- they bloom during Melbourne's winter or early spring and provide an awesome sight.

I prefer to stock up on the ranunculus at the end of the season- about late Spring- its very cheap then and you can get 30% discounts at the major stores. The big packs of 80 - cost about $8. But the quality stuff - big healthy corms, packs of 20 cost about $5.

Towards the end of the season over here - August and September - they are sold for half the price at Bunnings etc..

5 comments:

Yauming YMC said...

The colorful poppies you see are called Ranunculi. Native flowers from the Med. I love them. They come in all the colors of the rainbow and because they're cheap, you can grow them en-mass. However, it took me a good week to plant the cormbs. And a whole month of watering them.

Cindy Tan said...

How could you leave your garden in Melb Yau Ming?? Its so lovely! It must of been a heart break for you! Hope you're planting more gardens in Singapore :D

Yauming YMC said...

Hi Cindy. Alas there were more important things to do. No gardening here in Singapore- except watering my bonsai tree. Gotto move on. Besides there are water restrictions in Melbourne now.

bianca p said...

wow, so nice and colourful!

Yauming YMC said...

Thanks. It took 3 months of hard work. Pity few of my friends came around to see it.