With summer approaching, keep cool and keep gardening!

This year spring has certainly brought some unpredictable weather with it. Thankfully warm weather we've had has been followed by cool days and even some good rain events, which although its confusing for our gardens, they're not going to complain about it. Hopefully the same weather patterns continue through into summer which is fast approaching.
Don't let warmer weather and the thought of summer put you off gardening this time of year. You can still garden, you can still plant and you can do it without plants dying. Water, mulch and do all the things you would normally to more established parts of your garden but add an extra watering during hot weather to newly planted plants and they should get through summer without a fuss.

Christmas is also coming up quickly, as it seems to do every year. If you're thinking plants or pots for gifts we'll have you covered and will have lots for you to choose from in store. We'll also try to get lots of great gift ideas up on our new website so you'll be able to do some browsing at home before you come in. www.morganpark.com.au

 So much new stock arriving!

It's been a great spring for plant growers and it shows with the great quality plants coming in every week. There really is so much great new stock in store right now.
Plenty of long awaited new season plants are starting to arrive including frangipani, hibiscus, hydrangeas as well as lots of new pots, heaps of indoor and foliage plants, plenty of great bird attracting natives, waterplants. I'm not sure we've ever had as much to choose from so if you drop in and have a look around you're sure to see something different.

 Welcome Toby and Kaila

It's more than just plants arriving lately, we have some new faces that have joined the team recently- Toby and Kaila.
Both are local members of the community and may already be familiar faces to many of our customers. They're super friendly and happy to help so say hello and show them how wonderful and friendly our customers are.

There's more than just gardening to do in the garden.

I love plants and sometimes I get so focused on gardening that I often don't get around to doing some of the other garden related jobs that I've been meaning to do. One of those jobs is a new compost bin!
With a bit of help from my little supervisor I took a break from planting and got on the tools to make this 3 bay compost bin. I'll put up a blog post on our website with some more details on construction for anyone that's interested but I thought I was a good reminder that there's always something to do in the garden. Even if it's not gardening!

What's new in stock

• Carnivorous Plants- Fly traps and Pitcher plants- the  most curious plants you could imagine and a great way to get kids interested in plants and gardening.
• Watermelon Peperomia- Back in stock. A highly ornamental indoor plant, its a must have for the indoor  plant collector.
• Clumping Bamboo- a perfect way to add a tropical or oriental feel to a garden, clumping bamboo are a easy to grow and dont get out of control. Choose from green, black, gold, grey and striped stemmed varieties.
• Purple Shamrock Oxalis- a real collectors plant and something that will really stand out in your indoor plant collection.
• Lemon Myrtle- a hardy native shrub or small tree with beautiful lemon scented foliage that is also useful in the kitchen.
• Dragons Tails & Mini monstera's- They sounds like halloween dress up costumes but these popular indoor plants are back in stock and they look great.
• Pots, pots and more pots! - Heaps of great new styles, colours, shapes and patterns have been arriving and are out on display so come check them out and grab something different.
• Rubber tree ficus- Hardy and forever popular indoor plants with stunning coloured and variegated foliage. Four varieties to choose from- Ruby, Burgandy, Tineke, Yellow Gem.

Plant me now

• Hibiscus- lots of colours and varieties to choose from and hard to beat for summer flowers.
• Frangipani's- the flower of summer they come in a great range of colours and are easy to grow, especially in containers.
• Little Ruby Alternanthera- Beautiful ruby red foliage on a compact low growing bushy plant, they're great for border planting or to add a splash of colour.
• Hydrangeas- Blue, Pink and Red flowering varieties available in limited numbers this year so get in quick.
• Chinese Star Jasmine- hardy climbing plants with wonderful perfume and beautiful dark green foliage.
• Princess lillies or Alstromerias- long flowering, easy to grow, great cut flowers and available in almost any colour. They're popular for good reason.
• Waterplants- we have a great range of water plants including water lillies, rushes & grasses, nardoo, water iris.
• Bird of Paradise- popular for use indoors or out in the garden they make a great feature plant with their stunning large leaves.
• Mandevillea- spring and summer flowering climbers with large red, pink or white flowers.

Jobs to do

Late spring is a busy time in the garden, with lot's do to do get your plants and gardens ready for summer.

• Mulch garden beds- a good layer of mulch now before it heats up will save your plants later. It doesn't matter what type you use as long as you do it.
• Preventative control of Citrus leafminer- with citrus trees putting on new growth avoid damage by controlling Citrus leaf miner. Regular preventative sprays of Eco-oil and using Citrus leaf miner traps will solve the problem.
• Control Aphids- often a problem in late spring, Aphids can be easily controlled by using Eco-oil which is also ladybug and bee friendly.
• Dig wells around plants- every drop of water is precious so make sure it gets to your plants roots by digging wells or motes around the base of plants. For a longer term fix, use plastic Greenwell tree surrounds.
• Check irrigation systems- they might not be needed yet but its better to have them ready and working for when they are. Check sprinkler heads and fix any neccessary repairs.
• Prepare for bird netting fruit trees- small fruit are growing bigger and will soon look pretty tasty to every bird in the neighbourhood. Get your frames up and have your net ready, better to net early than too late.
• Thin fruit on young fruit trees- it's a hard job to do but any young fruit trees that are covered in fruit should have it thinned out so they can focus on putting on growth. If you don't, they wont grow much this year and they'll probably drop most of the fruit anyway. If you do thin fruit, you'll get lots of growth and more fruit next year that you wont need to thin as much. Leave no more than 6-8 fruit per tree, that way you can still get a taste at least.