Category: subtropical weather

Australia · daughter · from my garden · garden flowers · Ixora · native Australian plants · rain · seasons · subtropical weather

In A Vase On Monday ~ Bird of Paradise

Joanne21 Comments

This week for my contribution to Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday meme at Rambling in the Garden, I have limited my arrangement to three flowers, based on the potted Bird of Paradise that has decided to flower! It only flowers during summer, but not every year. I am sure the plant would flourish if planted in the ground, but I have heard that once in the ground, Bird of Paradise grow huge and are difficult to remove. So in the pot it will stay.

In previous weeks I have said that I don’t like mixing purple and orange flowers, yet somehow I manage to do so often. If the colours are light shades, it doesn’t “clash” as much. Yet having said that, I have seen arrangements of orange and purple flowers looking beautiful together. This week, however, I decided to stick with just orange flowers with green foliage.

Strangely enough, if you look closely at the Bird of Paradise, the have a thin strip of purplish colour with the orange. Regardless, orange is such a bold colour, so today, orange can be the star attraction.

It is fortuitous that during the same week my Bird of Paradise flowered, my Ixora ‘Prince of Orange’ is also in full bloom. I found plenty of long stemmed Ixora to cut for the vase today.

I have discovered that orange flowers en masse do not photograph as well as the more subtle colours I usually choose for my Monday vase! Or it could be the dull light in the house that is the issue. Today is the first day in around a week that it isn’t raining, but there are so many clouds that the sun is struggling to peek through.

Ahhhhhh, that’s more like it – a delicate spray of light coloured Lilly Pilly flowers. 🙂

This week I have been out and about more than usual. My area is overtaken by tourists for the summer holidays. I live just south of Queensland’s Gold Coast and just north of Byron Bay, which has become world renowned in recent years. Byron to me will always be a sleepy little beach village, yet since several of the “rich and famous” moved in, suddenly, everyone wants to go there! So during the six week summer school break, I tend to stay close to home.

One day during the week, I went shopping with my daughter. The shops have begun their Easter displays, and although I had no intention of buying anything, this vase jumped out at me and said “take me home!”. And when my daughter said she had found a dish that looked very “Mum-ish” – her word – I had to agree. And considering my choice of orange flowers for today’s vase, the colours blend beautifully with the bunny designs.

I know for certain that I will not limit the use of this vase to Easter alone. 🙂

In this last photo, once again the orange of the flowers doesn’t look as clear as it could – I think I will blame the dull day – but I wanted to add this photo for the background. I often mention the purple flowering Tibouchina tree just outside my front door: in this photo, the tree can be seen through the window. Hanging from a branch is Tillandsia usneoides – Spanish Moss, or as we call it, Grandfather’s Whiskers. To the right is a mozzie zapper, although those blood-thirsty pests haven’t been as active this past week, thank goodness. And just beyond the tree is the garden which featured in my Hill Project post recently.

Thank you for your dedicated weekly hosting of In a Vase on Monday, Cathy. 🙂

Australia · family · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · remembering · roses · sisters · subtropical weather

In A Vase On Monday ~ Yellow and Mauve

Joanne32 Comments

This morning, I had a plan. Having woken at 6:30am feeling much better than I did yesterday, I went straight outside, sprayed insect repellant on my arms and legs (does insect repellant exist in other countries, or is that an Australian thing?), and went out to pick some flowers for a vase for Cathy at Rambling in the Garden‘s weekly meme, In A Vase On Monday.

I beat those dratted mozzies – and the summer heat! Woo-hoo!

As usual, I dead-headed old flowers, pulled out any weeds I found, and collected an assortment of any pretty flowers I found. After breakfast, when I sorted through my collection, which awaited me in a plastic cup, I found I had enough flowers for two small vases. So I separated them by colour – yellows and mauves.

From the front windows of my house last week I had noticed plenty of colour on my miniature rose bushes. All three of these roses are from the same rose bush, aptly named ‘Chameleon”.

There are several different colours of Dianthus in bloom, but I only chose the white for this vase. Also, white alyssum adds a delicate touch and some greenery to the vase.

These tiny bell flowers, I believe, are called ‘Correa’, which is native to Australia. I know I have the name added to a photo from last year, somewhere, so I will edit the name if I am wrong. For now, I am going with Correa.

Update: Eliza noted in the comments that this plant is a Cuphea. I remembered where I had put the original label that came with the plant, and Eliza is spot on! This flower is in fact a Cuphea ‘Honeybells’. So thank you for the plant ID, Eliza. 🙂

And here’s a closer shot of the alyssum, just because I love seeing the detail of their tiny flowers!

This flower was a surprise find this morning. It is an Abelia ‘Francis Mason’, a new plant to me, which is planted in the new rockery garden opposite the house. I didn’t notice it was flowering until I went up into the rockery to pull out a weed I had noticed, and there it was, looking very pretty. I love the variegated foliage on this plant, which is what attracted me to the plant when I bought it last year.

And here is where the yellow flower vase will sit this week. 🙂

The mauve vase of flowers are arranged in a small vase that I had all but forgotten about until I saw it in my vase cupboard this morning, and it holds many treasured childhood memories. One of my sisters, who is thirteen years older than I am, loves gardening also. She may even be responsible for my early interest in gardening and flowers. When I was a child she would take me out into the garden to find flowers to bring indoors. We grew pansies, violets, fuchsias, snowdrops, poppies, all planted by Chris, who also cared for the garden when she lived at home. This vase is one we used to put some of our flowers into. There was an even smaller matching vase as well, but I think it must have been broken during one of my house moves in years gone by. As you can see, this vase has many imperfections, but it all adds to the character of the vase. For me, it’s the memories that count. ❤

In this vase I have two blooms of a miniature rose called ‘Love Potion’. The colour is more pink-ish than mauve, but I am happy with the combination of the flowers.

Beside a sprig of mauve coloured Alyssum is Society Garlic, which just keeps on flowering. Every week, I find more new blooms when I go to visit my roses. I have Society Garlic growing around most of my roses, as apparently the garlic odour is a deterrent to aphids.

This mauve flower is called ‘Mona Lavender’. You will notice actual Lavender in the vase next to it, which is a completely different type of plant. The word Lavender simply relates to the colour of the flowers. This plants is from the Plectranthus genus and will only grow in shade, or dappled, morning sunlight. It grows very well under my purple Tibouchina tree, which is right outside my front door.

Looking at the vase from another angle shows the detailed pattern on the Mona Lavender flowers behind two shades of Alyssum, along with my two Love Potion roses.

The flower adorned teddy ornament was a gift from my daughter when she was a child, and the pretty doily was made by my Mum, many years ago.

Now I am going to send my sister some photos of my mauve vase! She lives in Tasmania, many miles from where I live, so I don’t see her often. We often send each other gardening photos, so I am sure she will love to see my vase – and I hope she remembers it! ❤

Australia · from my garden · Mount Warning · photography · seasons · subtropical weather · sunset

Silent Sunday

Joanne23 Comments

This week, I have been a tad out of sorts, with a cold and laryngitis. So today, I appreciate the Silence of Sunday …

In other news, my computer went to heaven. Yesterday, however, my son-in-law installed a new computer for me, so I’m back online. My iPad just didn’t cut it when trying to read blogs and add comments. I will catch up with everyone this week.

And on the weather front, we had a couple of fine, mosquito-free days, which resulted in an amazing sunset in the valley. This photo is straight out of the camera.

Have a wonderful weekend. ❤

Australia · garden flowers · in my garden · roses · subtropical weather · summer

In A Vase On Monday ~ Pastels

Joanne33 Comments

When I went outside to collect flowers for a vase yesterday afternoon for Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday meme at Rambling in the Garden, I was swarmed by a thousand mosquitoes! Okay, maybe not a thousand, but when you have your hands full of roses and can’t easily swat flying insects that are after your blood, it feels like thousands. 😉

So it was a matter of cut and run. I had waited for the showers of rain to ease before going outside, which is undoubtedly why there were so many active mozzies in the garden. Once in the vase, I decided to wait until today to take photos as the house seemed so dark with the overcast weather. I shouldn’t have waited: we have drizzling rain again today and the house is once again dark.

Last week, the pink Gerberas had only spent flowers, but this week I was able to cut several to bring indoors. There are also plenty of buds opening, so I may even bring in more to add to the vase later in the week. You may also notice some lilac-coloured Society Garlic blooms behind the Gerberas.

There are plenty of pale pink blooms on my Souvenir de la Malmaison rose bush. I wish I’d had longer to choose some to bring indoors, but by the time I reached that part of the garden, I’m sure the mozzies had told their family and friends I was there!

I love the delicate combination of Lavender and pink Gerberas together. When the weather improves, I would like to bring in more of the two for another vase. 🙂

Roald Dahl roses have a weeping habit, as is evident in the way they droop down the vase. By the smile on his face, they seem to be keeping my little duck ornament happy. 🙂 The Roald Dahl rose bush is also covered in blooms but again, I needed to try to outrun those mozzies!

From my kitchen window this morning I spotted a newly opened Hibiscus flower, so I zoomed in on it and caught a photo early. The rain will probably make the flower droop by tomorrow if this weather continues!

I do believe that as much as I enjoy all flowers, pastel colours are my favourites. 🙂

Thanks again, Cathy, for hosting In a Vase on Monday. 🙂

Australia · family · garden flowers · gardening · grandchildren · memories · roses · seasons · subtropical weather

In A Vase On Monday ~ A Scorcher!

Joanne37 Comments

Well, aren’t I glad arranged a brand new vase on Saturday morning as I had guests arriving in the afternoon – today is an absolute scorcher! Indoors is 28 degrees Celsius, outside is 34 degrees, yet our weather station in the kitchen – I love it as it keeps us up to date with actual details of the weather in our garden – says it “feels like” 40.3 degrees. I checked, and the conversion to Fahrenheit is 104.54F!

I am indoors today, adding my ‘In A Vase on Monday’ post, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, with doors and windows closed and ceiling fans going in every room. We don’t have aircon. I always think that for the few days of unbearable heat we have here each year, I will survive without it; on days like today, I question my wisdom!

It was hot enough on Saturday morning as well, as evidenced by the scorched rose petals. I collected my vase of flowers in a hurry, while also deadheading as I went along; I also used the same vase as last week for the sake of speed – I had guests arriving soon – so hope I am forgiven for being boring. The roses I salvaged one or two of were Olivia Rose Austen, Souvenir de la Malmaison and Jude the Obscure. I feel dreadful about leaving my plants so badly unattended, but with this summer heat, I have no choice. 😦

I deadheaded far more Gerberas than I brought inside. A couple of red flowers had damaged stems, so they were placed right down low, beneath the foliage.

As you can see, some of the Gerberas are a tad frazzled, but the Verbena Polaris are loving the heat!

It was good to see that some Society Garlic ‘Tulbaghia’ flowers had survived, although most had fallen over and died in the heat. With flowers this pretty, I must plant some more when the weather cools.

For a greenery backdrop, I decided to try some sprigs off my Lilly Pilly tree. This variety may be Weeping Lilly Pilly ‘Waterhousea floribunda’, but as the flowers are not fully formed yet, I can’t be sure. I planted the tree around fifteen years ago, and can’t remember the details of its name. I do recall, however, that it was in a large pot near my back door, not looking healthy at all, so I decided to plant it in my (then) newly-built garden. It took off! And now it is a fully-fledged tree.

Previously, I have only added closeup shots of my vase and flowers, and from comments, I’ve realised that a full view is needed to add perspective of the size of the vase and flowers. So today, here is a full view of the vase in situ, in the living room at the front of the house. 🙂

When the larger vase was full, I had a few small stemmed leftovers, so I made up a smaller vase for the living room at the back of the house. My Lavender is beginning to bloom – doing a happy dance about that! – and I had a few sprigs of leftover Verbena and Lilly Pilly as well.

If we have too much rain it may upset the Lavender plants, so I am hoping it doesn’t get too wet before the season is over. From memory, this is French Lavender.

I think the Lavender and Verbena make a great team when together in a vase.

In the interests of providing perspective, here is the full view of the smaller vase. You might remember the miniature ornaments that featured in my Tiny Treasures post a couple of Mondays ago, seen here next to the vase.

I have just one more “vase” to add, and this one is from yesterday. My son, his wife and their two boys – featured modelling Christmas aprons I made late last year in this post – came to visit and swim in the pool. Later, when Masters Seven and Two (almost three) came back to the house, they presented me with four Frangipani flowers that they had picked for me.

I floated the flowers in some water immediately. 🙂

What Nana wouldn’t want to save as beautiful a memory as that? ❤

Thank you for getting me out in my hot garden, again, to choose flowers, Cathy! 🙂