"Melanie Sands" wrote
Well, as far as my missing sweet cat is concerned, a lady gardener
from one of
the community gardens (called Schrebergarten or Familiengarten in
Switzerland)
popped in today to tell me that they have probably found my cat - dead
under
one of the garden allotment huts - I presume poisoned like all the
other 12
cats that have gone missing here over the past 5-6 years.
Her own cat was slit with a knife from from throat to tail a while
back.

That is dreadful, like having one of the family murdered. My sympathy to
you.

Well, I don't have a garden, all we have is a pavilion/gazebo on our
parking
lot; here are pix:

http://roundtablespage.tvheaven.com/photo3_5.html

All my plants are in pots round the pavilion.
I grew wisteria from seed, took 8 years to bloom, also clematis,
climbing roses,
and hydrangeas which stay outside over the winter - when it's a
maximum of
minus 10°C. Often I pick up "seeds" from trees and pop them into pots,
and
forget about them, and they grow and then I don't know where to plant
them...

I take the pots of olive, avocado, oleander and gardenia plants inside
over
the winter. I used to take the grapevine thingy inside but it would
grow
like mad in the warmish workshop, so last winter I left it outside and
told it to brace itself, and thought it was dead but no - spring came
and little leaves shot out and now it's growing all over the place.

The same thing with two bonsai trees - I
put them outside and they were covered with snow and ice and all the
leaves dropped off - and now they are growing and happy to be able to
behave like real trees - albeit tiny ones.

The only plant that really did die was a banana tree - I kept putting
it into ever larger pots, and it became to heavy to lug in, so I
covered it up in blankets and stuff that was supposed to protect
it, but by springtime it was just one soggy brown mess. Recently I
saw a four-part TV series on Brit TV by a woman who has an amazing
garden, and she showed her garden through all the four seasons -
and the exact same thing happened to her banana plant - so I felt
a bit better.

As for my roses, I don't really cut them back much. People are always
nagging at me to do so, so I asked a pen-pal of mine who cultivates
roses and also writes books about them, especially "old" roses -
his name is Brent C. Dickerson - and he said one can either cut
roses down very short, cut them once every two or three years or
just let them grow and not cut them at all - anything goes. So
I just snip when I feel in a snipping mood, and the roses bloom
when they're in a blooming mood, and when not, they don't.

A Wisteria flowering only 8 years from seed, well done. Nice colour too.
Bonsai are normal trees so should be outside all year unless they are
tropical trees specifically for indoor culture. My banana M. lasiocarpa
,which is supposed to one of the hardiest, also died over the last two bad
winters, luckily I took an offshoot as insurance and that is growing well.
For decades I didn't like roses but then I found the English Roses and
bought a couple and some patio roses which are a delight, in flower all
summer, and never get big, ideal for a small garden.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK