Hearnies Garden: A New Maple, Rose & a Little Bush

Lots of new things for my balcony the last few days. My last post I repotted my sango kaku, which left me with a big beautiful red glazed pot to fill with something new.

Many posts ago I planted a dahlia in an old pot & didn't wash it. I believe I said something like "I like living on the edge" & "I'm sure it will be fine" or something like that.

Well, it wasn't fine. Not too sure if it was the unwashed pot or if it were to happen anyway, but my dahlia was ravaged by fungus or mildew or something a month or so later, so this time, I washed my old pot!

Little helper was in helping again. I used some bleach & water to wash the pot.

Baby girl watching from the side.

Then I gave it a good rinse with water. Little helper finished the job.

The next day the 3 of us paid a visit to Bunnings. Little helper fell asleep in the car on the way back, so in his bed he went & baby girl & I did some potting up together. Girl gardening time.

She was happy about it!

At Bunnings I bought a Nandina bush, some rose & terracotta potting mix, a little terracotta pot, some more pot feet & some stones. I had my Gold Bunny rose to pot up from the the other day & I received my mothers day maple.

I knew it was going to be a baby when I asked for it, as it didn't carry the price tag of my sango kaku or inaba shidare, however, I laughed when I saw how small it actually was! One day, it will be a mighty tree & I have plenty of time to watch it grow.

My new maple's full name is Acer shirasawanum 'aureum'. Here's a picture of its leaves (photo courtesy of squirrelbasket.wordpress.com). Aureum Is an upright Japanese maple.

I love the shape & how bright the leaves are. Gorgeous.

So, below is a photo of all my new purchases ready to go, plus baby helper.

Gotta watch out when they start to get mobile, they snatch your shrubs!

Onto the business of potting my plants & baby tree.

I started off by soaking my dormant rose in a bucket of water for about 20 minutes.

While the rose was soaking, I made use of an old black glazed pot I've had empty for some time & filed it with my newly purchased nandina bush.

I've been buying so many decorative flowers & trees, I decided I needed a little shrub to break it all up. I wanted a nandina fire power, which is a gorgeous shrub that has bright red leaves. They didn't have any so I bought a different variety that does have orange leaves, but not as bright as the fire power. Maybe next time I'll buy the more vibrant one.

My old black pot.

Nandina out of its pot,

and into it's new one.

I like it. It's a sweet litle bush & it's different to what I'm doing at the moment on my balcony.

Little shrub done, now onto my Gold Bunny rose. I filled sango kaku's old red glazed pot with rose specific potting mix & in it went. I've gone completely pebble crazy at the moment. Mainly because every time I go to Bunnings lately there are bags of stones & pebbles for $2 each. I just can't pass it up & I love the way they look. So I added some green stones as mulch to my Gold Bunny rose.

Next I potted up my tiny Japanese maple. I filled a little terracotta pot with terracotta potting mix, perlite & some slow release fertiliser. I purchased a simple, small pot to start with & when my baby tree starts to get big, I'll buy a really nice glazed pot for it to live in.

Here's my stick, I mean, tree.

Gold stones added as mulch. See, stone crazy!

I had some left over green & gold stones so I added some to my standard fuchsia & some to my standard Just Joey rose.

This is my other balcony. My standard fuchsia is first up the front, then I have thyme, parsley, my new maple, a heavily pruned fuchsia & a standard rosemary. I don't like the look of the netting around the balcony, but it makes it safe for my kids, so I leave it for now. It's not forever.

Right up front here is my dwarf peach tree.

Here's the gold stones in my standard Rose's pot on my other balcony. I can't stand the rose's awful plastic pot. I will be repotting it once I have some spare cash for a prettier pot.