Wordless Wednesday ~ Ixora White Malay
Category: subtropical weather
In A Vase on Monday ~ 2024!
Happy New Year!
It may sound odd to people living in the northern climes of the world when I say that as we enter the middle month of summer here in Australia, there are slim pickings in my garden. The heat causes flowers to wilt faster than usual. And on Christmas night we had a mini cyclone through the area. We lost power for five hours, but we were lucky: some poor people lost power for several days.
My roses, hardly species that they are, seem to cope well with Mother Nature’s tantrums. So again, I have chosen roses for my Monday vase, this time deep pink Gertrude Jekyll, which I have paired with pale lemon-coloured Anthemis ‘Susanna Mitchell’ daisies.
The Susanna Mitchell daisies are a spring flowering plant. I thought I had seen the last of the blooms for this season when they began to wilt and die, only to discover that after a spot of rain, they had a second flush of flowers. I am very impressed by these plants, they have been in flower since September and if the plant invades its neighbour and needs cutting back, it doesn’t look as if it has been trimmed. I even stuck a couple of wayward runners into a bare patch of soil and they are growing very nicely, without any special treatment.
Gertrude Jekyll is a David Austin rose. Its namesake, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was an influential garden designer and author in England, who, according to the David Austin website, advocated for “incorporating roses in mixed borders” ~~ a woman after my own heart! Most of my rose bushes are planted in a long garden running the length of my side front fence, sharing the garden bed with various other plants such as camellias, buddleia, petunias, impatiens, gerberas, and even a couple of Australian native plants.
There are insects galore making homes in my garden during summer, and inevitably I find a hitchhiker or two when I bring the flowers indoors. This week’s interloper can be seen on the lower Susanna Mitchell daisy.
My slightly scorched vase this week is my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase on Monday challenge at Rambling in the Garden. Thank you, Cathy, for encouraging me to go outdoors and find the beauty in my garden during the hottest part of the year. 🙂
Silent Sunday
A Week of Flowers ~~ Day 7
Seven days simply is not enough time to share all the flowers that are in my Southern Hemisphere garden now the summer is here. A Week of Flowers, hosted by Cathy at Words and Herbs is an annual event where bloggers are encouraged to share photos of their gardens in all their glory. Not only does it brighten the days of people in the Northern Hemisphere, where brightly coloured flowers dancing in the sunlight are a distant memory until spring returns, but it has also encouraged me to return to my own garden with a camera in hand. All through the cooler months of the year I have dug, removed, relocated, planted and mulched in my garden. Now hotter days have returned, it is time for me to stand at my windows, cool drink in hand and enjoy the landscape I have created during the cooler months.
Frangipani trees love the subtropical weather. I have four in my garden, the largest and most mature trees strategically placed near our pool and bar-be-que area. Being deciduous, during winter, when we want to allow the sun’s warm rays into the garden, the branches of the trees are bare. As the warmer weather arrives, so do the leaves, giving us beautiful dappled shade in the area of the garden where we spend most of our time during summer. And the added bonus is that frangipanis have the most beautiful flowers. Close up, the five-petaled flowers are a work of art. From a distance, the view of the two trees together is breathtaking. 🙂
Cathy, where has the week gone? I still have more photos to share! Thank you so much for the inspiration to share flowers with other bloggers every day for a week. I have met more like-minded bloggers through your challenge this week and I am learning more about plants, and how they grow in the Northern Hemisphere. ❤
I believe I will have to blog more regularly now summer is here. 🙂
A Week of Flowers ~~ Day 5
For Day 5 of A Week of Flowers, hosted by Cathy at Words and Herbs, I am sharing photos of some native Australian plants growing in my garden, along with two other plants which, although not natives, blend perfectly with their dainty features.
Most Australian natives are drought-tolerant plants, they have to be to survive our often harsh climate conditions. We are fortunate in our subtropical zone to have a high annual rainfall compared to other areas of the country; however, all plants suffer during drought. Low water requirements do not mean no water is required!
The Brachyscome Mauve Bliss, pictured above, is a pretty little native groundcover. I recently renovated a very large sloping garden at the front of my house, situated in full sun for most of the day. The five flowering plants featured today are all growing happily in that particular garden, even thriving in the plus-thirty degree temperature we had recently, for four days in a row. I will plant more Brachyscomes now I have discovered how easily they grow. Next time, I will buy some of the pink and white varieties.
I often order plants online from a nursery located a couple of hours north of here, which is also in a subtropical zone. The company specialises in tube stock plants, so usually, when first planted, I have tiny plants that can easily disappear into the background of mulch. When I first planted my tiny native Leptospermum Ballerina I could hardly see it until right up close. Yesterday afternoon, I took a few photos of the garden when the sun had almost set and the day had cooled. As I was heading to the seaside daisy, which is the next photo, I noticed my Leptospermum has a flower now! So this dainty little pink ballerina definitely had to be included today.
The description of Erigeron seaside daisy is that it spreads easily, has a weeping habit, and is a great groundcover for hot positions – perfect! The mass planting I did in October is already beginning to spread across the garden, which is now covered in tiny white native daisies.
This morning, I had my first sighting of one of this year’s baby magpies. When I took my camera out to grab a quick photo, I startled baby Maggs, who retreated into the seaside daisies. Two Australian natives together – it doesn’t get any better than that. 🙂
Although native to South America, the Cuphea is similar to the Australian Correa in both appearance and climate requirements. I found this beauty at a local plant nursery, and it hasn’t stopped flowering since it arrived in October. Apparently, frost can end the flowering season, but we rarely, if ever, have frosts. That will keep bees happy all year round. 🙂
The slope of the renovated garden, in some areas, has been formed into a rockery, where this ‘Flirtation Pink’ Diascia, a South African native plant, with its cute little pink flowers, seems to be happily growing. It hasn’t missed a beat with flowering since being planted in October. I have read that Diascias only need extra water during hot, dry spells, so the amount of rain we have had recently seems to agree with this new addition to my garden.
Thank you for hosting A Week of Flowers, Cathy. I took over a hundred photos around the garden yesterday afternoon, which is far less strenuous than gardening in hot, humid, summer conditions. 🙂
In My World 