Re: Summer in Tasmania

 Dear medit gardeners,
 Thanks Nick for seasons greetings.  I hope
 that your holiday in Greece is very fruitful.
 One bit of advice, don't take any cuttings!!!
  I too,wish everyone the compliments of the season.
 I hope that you have at least one horticulture
 surprise next year - that plant that blooms
 for the first time, the bulb that you thought long gone to the Eden in the
 sky, found pushing its
 way through the cold earth [many ft. away from the place you have been
 searching these last few years], the plant you have given up ever finding
 in the nursery, suddenly there it is, the only one there, for you to hug to
 your chest and rush to the nursery person before someone changes their mind.
       All these delights I wish you, as we in
 Australia watch hot burning winds ruin our last
 roses.
       Many in Aussie, sensibly throw a shrimp
 on the barbie for Christmas dinner, but in Tassie,
 we have suffered enough cold or, and wet
 Christmas days, to still cook the original
 English dinner.   We use artificial snow on
 our trees [I use a semi Bonsaid cedar grown in
 a terracotta pot for many years] and in our
 family, so passionate about traditions at this
 time, I cook the ham, Christmas pudding and cake.
 The birds having long taken the red berries off
 the Holly trees, I have substituted green ones,
 painted with nail polish [only put on at the
 last minute for fear of odour mixing too
 strongly with the brandy] and using holly on
 the table, the berries are represented by Jaffa
 sweets.   These lollies are chocolate balls,
 coated with a very hard scarlet candy coat.
       We are able to put day lilies in our vases, also late or still
 flowering roses, lilies
 [ canadense, martagon, candidum etc] I
 will also use, philadelphus  ["Belle Etoile
 and "Virginal" as well as the specie, I like
 Philadelphus, it is so easy] to give perfume
 and perhaps some Penstemons, which are just
 beginning. Our Primulas are still putting up
 a great show and may also help with counter-
 acting the smell of the candles which we burn
 on the tables.
       After lunch, our family, depending on
 state of health, play cricket and, or, go to
 the beach.   At night, we play board games
 with much hilarity and cheating [always make
 up our own rules] and then drop exhausted into
 bed.
       May you all enjoy a great day and the
 very best wishes for a peaceful, healthy
 1997 for all of us gardeners and our gardens.
 Regards to all,
 Gay Klok, 2 Red Chapel Ave, Hobart, Tasmania - "Kibbenjelok", Middleton,
 Tasmania
 http://members.tripod.com/~klok/WRINKLY_.HTM or ask Yahoo for Gay Klok
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