If you haven't got Berberis already - you might want to think twice. Their thorns rate with Prunus, Chaenomeles, and Cereus for sheer misery on contact. Roses are fluffy ducks by comparison.

Love the sound of that robot!

If you're coming up north at all, and you pop in to Moss Green up the Akatarawa Valley - they have these amazing copper cone garden misters - looking like chaps spouting fine spray. I think the constructor has a penchant for puns...

The nearest I've been to a trail was a trip over the Wairarapa this week. Greytown's main road gardens were awash with roses and other delights. They really play to their heritage status and the rest of us have plenty to enjoy.

I have one Delphinium - 'Percival' - which is known by me as 'Sooty' because those pristine white flowers with the black centres turn into a streaky charcoal and grey spire regardless of the weather.

I'd love to hear about other people's experiences with this cultivar and any possible ways to combine its sootiness for good effect.

Nice to know I need to park the Erythrina away from the paths. I've got a three year old seedling that's just starting to develop its armoury. Another of those 'repot while wearing leather gloves' plants.

Are you a 'try anything' gardener, bonza - or one of those who have developed style, taste and discipline?

I was reading something the other day where the author remarked, in very haughty tone, that a garden he had visited 'had no theme' (so was beneath his attention). About the only 'theme' in this garden is that the plants will grow in my soil and climate and I have affection for them (or pity). A grim combination of loving a challenge and tender-hearted.

Planting schemes are fine when I start, but I haven't the heart to haul out thriving plants so winter's pansies and pot marigolds wander on into summer to natter with the Impatiens and summer marigolds. All a bit crazed, really.

Colour schemes are fine, so long as you look down only - otherwise the clash of colour from another planting a bit further on hits the eye. I'm getting better. Promise! It's slow-going, though, as I often have no idea what flower colour one of my 'rescues' will produce. The charm of novelty!

Am I a tasteful, stylish and disciplined gardener? I would like to be but my garden could be described as being very ecletic - all sorts of things all growing together. Always happy to recieve cuttings from friends and family and make for the garden stall at any fete. The only thing I don't take home are cacti. Once had a big round one growing in a pot, it had wonderful flowers but weeding it was very painful. Chucked it away and have not had another one since.

However there is a new border being prepared along the section frontage and I have planned it out carefully, should be stylish, tasteful and disciplined as long as I leave it as planned. Only time will tell whether I can stop myself putting in a little bargain I picked up at hte half price stand at the garden centre.

Decided not to buy a berberis ( only wanted it for the colour) and went and bought a Leucospermum called 'Wiri Kerry', same coloured foliage as the berberis.

I have got a mystery plant growing in my garden. I was given a cutting and was told it was called 'lion's tail'. I t was about six inches high when I planted it in May. It is now about two and a half feet high and the same around. It has sent up a flower spike ( with more to come )about a metre high. This stem has flowers that are pale yellow which grow ina tight ring around the stem. There are six of these roundels soparated by a lenght of bare stem. The leaves are up to a foot long, heart shaped. The texture is crinkled and rough. It is not lions paw as I checked it out on the net and their description did not match my plant.. It looks pretty good actually but I would like to know what it is - any ideas vetivert? I suppose I could take a leaf down to the garden centre and they may be able to identify it for me. But would love to hear from anyone who can name it for me.

Sounds that you have a lovely sunny garden - or patches of sun. I love my shady spots provided by the fruit trees (and the fruit harvests, too) but if I could have my cake and eat it, I'd like a large sunny patch for Mediterranean-type 'treats'. I don't think I'd be greatly successful with the South Africans - protea and leucospermum and such. The mulching would bring them to a sorry end in no time.

Hair spray?! The Buzz family would be beside themselves! (Ms Buzz set up home in the garden shed, in a jute sack, in a box, and now has a hopeful family of several. I tried to move the box along a touch during some rare spring cleaning and she Knew. Many indignant fly-pasts until the box went back to its Right Place. Who says creatures don't think?!)

And if you have a reliable recipe for a Bumblebee Motel I'd be glad to have it. I don't mind the Buzzes. I just think I'd like to choose where they hang out instead of letting them become squatters.

Current minor skite: two of my Pacific Coast Iris seedlings have flowered. Nothing spectacular at all. More on the subdued and dainty but I'm pleased because I kept them growing on for three years. Uusually I pass things on to others. This time I persevered. I wonder: if I back-crossed them would I start to get the usual gorgeous PC defferences? Time to hit the google.

Bonza, you sound like my kind of gardener! I have tried to have a garden plan and planting in colour schemes, but they've all gone out the window. I keep taking cuttings and seeds that are no way related to what I initially had planned...ah well, I have lots of birds and insects so I'm happy!