Re: Back here, at 40°C
- Subject: Re: Back here, at 40°C
- From: T* &* M* R*
- Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 09:04:24 +1200
"Vinciguerra, Alessandra" wrote:
>
> Hi to everybody,
> my name was somehow "forgotten" by the server... In the meanwhile I've been
> doing lots of gardening, following the various threads that cross my life...
> for instance, yesterday I ordered about 60 scented orchids, for a garden I
> am consultant of, and now I am about to order ca.100 rose bushes for La
> Landriana garden. In the latter we are currently revising the Olive
> garden....
Hi Alessandra
Great to her from you again, your posts are always so interesting. The
scheme for the olive garden fills me with delight, as this colour
combination is a particular favourite of mine.
> Actually, the main issue this time of the year is the incredible heatwave.
> Rome is taken by a grip of hot days, people faint during the Pope's
> audiences, to our unconfessed joy, >:), tourists get fined because they
> dive in the monumental fountains, and we MUST irrigate, at least enough to
> keep things going. Only at night we can hope to get some breeze.
> What is happening in the rest of the world, outside of the Mediterranean?
I have read a good deal about gardening in Italy and particulary the
Roman summers. I gather only skilled gardeners really hope to keep much
going over summer and others resort to simply planting tough evergreens
to keep their gardens furnished during the hot weather. I am staggared
that you should, for instance, be contemplating planting roses in such a
climate. How do you manage to keep them going?
We in NZ are having the coldest winter for many many years, so perhaps
you have stolen our heat!
In my garden the frosts have been pretty catastrophic, damaging even
things which were specially covered, such as my rather new lemon tree,
which is now adorned with the sad blackened remains of its current crop.
For many years lemons have survived nicely in this garden with no
special protection. Friends down the road fear they have lost their
lemon completely - a fine old tree around forty years old. My large
grapefruit tree looks fairly good, but I suspect a lot of its crop is
ruined, Unfortunately this year it has set much of its fruit on the top
of the tree, rather than safely under the lower branches, which has made
it much more vulnerable.
The saddest part of the garden is the terrace under my grapevines. This
is coverd by a clear plastic roof to facilitate the ripening of the
grapes and in a normal year provides adequate winter shelter for many
plants which would not manage in the open garden, including tender
Fuchsias and several Vireya Rhododendrons. There is this year a sad mess
of blackened foliage, but I think most of the Fuchsias will shoot again.
However I am much more doubtful about several of the Rhododendrons. A
couple must actually be much more hardy than the rest and still have
green foliage, but the rest look awfully dead. It is only about a month
now until spring when I guess it will be possible to assess the damage.
If I had realized how heavy a frost we were going to experience, I could
have just about squeezed all the pots into my glasshouse or even the
house itelf, but I never dreamed of the damage that was going to occur
until it was too late.
Now I am wondering if this is exceptional, or whether global warming
will make such frosts a frequent occurrence. It would make a difference
for certain to what I try to grow if we were to get them most years. ( :
< (
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time
