It is time to go through the annual ritual of choosing two plants which will give up their lives to grace our terrace for summer.
This is a daunting prospect as no one likes to send plants to their death – although – one of last year’s plants has sort of made it.
Sort of made it in the sense that if you wired it up it would not be flat lining – there would be a faint pulse – and we will try to bring it around during the warmer weather.
I am putting it on a diet of Extra Strong Bushells Tea and Vegemite.
So it is not a suicide mission – there are some chances for survival – and I will outline these when I talk to the plants chosen for this dangerous mission.
There are two problems faced by our plants.
Our terrace is exposed to the elements and these are the blazing sun and the snow and icy cold in winter. It also gets bloody windy in Vienna.
The other is what was once a small black cat but is now a cat the size of a panther. She likes plants – a lot. She has probably been black-listed by the Royal Horticultural Society.
So I need hardy plants. When I go to Dehner (the plant nursery) I don’t want plants that shout how pretty they are. I want plants that shout how tough they are.
I want plants that shout ‘Hey – I could get through the Navy SEALS course’.
The photos shows Sissi when she was very, very small. She is about ten times this size now and eats her own weight in raw chicken every day. In summer I shall put a saddle on her and give rides to children in Stadtpark.
But if you do want to see nice photos of Australian flora you should visit freefalling because she gets about a bit and is a truly excellent photographer. She has a number of blogs so you have to ferret about a bit to find the nature and Australiana photos.
Cate is in Algiers. She is mightily unimpressed and sadly disappointed. I am guessing that it lost all of it’s cosmopolitan-ness when the French left and is now – by our standards - a dull and lifeless Arab country.
