Gardeners of Australia

A Spanner in the works.

I hate to throw a spanner in the works regarding how much water tropical plants need, but we live on a rural property and have no spare water for our 15 acre garden, so the only water our plants get is when we first plant them out, then they are on their own.We have had no rain for the last 2 months and its been very cold out here, with a few frosts. Yet they still live, although some plants do look very sad. Now with spring here there is plenty of new growths.

Our torch gingers would not flower, so we moved them to a more sunny spot and now they flower nearly all year long with no water from us. Our dombeya trees flower profusly with no water.

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Comment by Paul Plant on October 5, 2012 at 7:50: Hi Frank and Judy.

Eumundi is a beautiful district and like most parts in that area receive substantially more rainfall than the Brisbane/Ipswich people. It is not surprising your garden thrives with no additional watering.

Your climate and rainfall is detailed on the BOM site at weather station 040908 <closest weather station is at Tewantin> (http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_040908.shtml) and it indicates 1628mm of rainfall per year on average with a decent fall throughout the year.

In comparison, Ipswich is only around 877mm, and Brisbane around 985mm, and Redlands around 1268mm.

This is probably why us gardeners in Bris-Ips-Red-Gold Coast region love to see gardens on the Sunshine Coast that have ideal rain patterns and seem to grow everything so well. I'm heading up there this weekend to check out more gardens :)

Another incentive for me to move to that region is seems :)

PS. the image above... is that what you are referring to as Dombeya? If so, it is actually at pink trumpet tree (Tabebuia palmeri – now called Handroanthus impetiginosus)

Comment by Paul Plant on October 5, 2012 at 10:53: I forgot one of the most important elements about climate.. localised microclimate.

Even in one region there can be dramatic variation as a result of hills and existing vegetation.

Added to that the soil plays an important part but is often overlooked. A good alluvial soil can hold that moisture for a long time and keep it available for the plants whereas a sandy soil drains the water fast and results in plants being water stressed far soon.

This is the wonderful thing about gardening... we adapt to our local conditions and do what we can to get the most of the plants we like. :)

A Spanner in the works.

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