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Spring is the Time for Flowers

3/11/2016

Echiums @ My Garden Treasures

Blue Echiums make a stunning show in the garden

The blue-grey leaves of the hardy echium plant are no longer the main attraction once the magnificent spires of its flowers start to develop. Within weeks they have grown to the stately length of 50 or 60cms and opened to a burst of brilliant blue.

Birds
They attract the honey eaters . We have a constant supply of birdlife visiting our garden. The Red Wattle Honey Eaters and New Holland Honey Eaters spend their day feasting on the nectar of the flowers, dipping their long beaks for the bounty. The tall blue flowers sway to and fro as the birds come and go.

Insects
Bees also love this plant, and are seen buzzing around gathering pollen and nectar. Bees love blue flowers. Moths are attracted to the flowers at night. My granddaughter came with me outside one evening. We had torches and she watched, fascinated, as the moths flitted around the flowers.

Echium Plants For Sale
Last year, one of my plants was so happy that it spread its seeds far and wide and hundreds of small echium plants sprouted.

Many plants have gone to new homes and I have plenty more for sale.

To see regular flowers in my garden, follow me on Instagram @tossyv

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Yellow Cotton Lavender

23/3/2015

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Hardy cotton lavender

I am always looking for yellow flowers to incorporate into the garden. They are usually very hardy. At first I would say I did not have any in the garden, then I think of the large, tall canna lilies that grow about 2.5metres tall. They are clumping up so much that I will really need to divide them this year.

Then there is that beautiful little daisy flower with it's bright, golden cheery flowers, Osteospermum, the African daisy. It is often laden with blooms.

I also have an elusive little plant that should be a big plant by now and has somehow forgotten to grow. I think it must be a bantam plant like my bantam chickens. It is a yellow bush daisy (Euryops pectinatus). It is a hardy perennial with grayish-green leaves and bright yellow daisies. I say it is a hardy perennial, it has rarely had any water in one of the driest parts of the garden and yet it is still alive. When it flowers, the flowers will be yellow.

However my cotton lavender bush grows beautifully. It is also very drought tolerant and lives in another very dry part of the garden. it has survived for years and flowers each year. Why it is called a lavender I really don't know as it has yellow flowers, round little button flowers, nothing like a purple lavender. It also has grey/green leaves.

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Perfume in Spring Time

30/8/2014

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Jonquil

Jonquil

Here in Australia it is the end of the winter and my garden has been smelling exquisitely for weeks now.
The first plant to give us its beautiful scent is the Jonquil. It starts to flower early in July.

Deep Blue Hyacinth

Hyacinth

The next to flower this year were some Hyacinth bulbs I planted in a hanging pot. Their deep blue and their beautiful perfume vied with each other as to which was the most attractive.

Jasmine

One evening as I went outside to lock my hens up for the evening, I wondered what the new perfume was that I could smell in my garden. As I got closer to the chicken shed, the perfume got stronger. Behind the shed, my Jasmine climber had started to blossom. The perfume has been beautiful for a couple of weeks now.

Perfumed Climbing Jasmine

Australian native Boronia

Boronia

Another day as I went into our courtyard I wondered what the new perfume was that was so strong in that area. In inspection of my numerous pots, I discovered that the Boronia was starting to bud.

Boronia is an Australian native plant. It has a small brown flower that you could easily overlook until you smell its perfume. It is heavenly.

Self-watering Pots
Boronia is very hard to grow. It is very sensitive to disturbance, lack or water or too much water. This plant was planted lovingly in a self-watering pot. I really like these as the plant cannot get wet feet. It takes as much water as it needs. The excess water can drain away. I am a bit prone to over-watering my pots.

Daphne with its sweet perfume

Daphne
Lastly, is my little Daphne plant, another plant that is difficult to grow. It is sensitive to all sorts of things. It is a terracotta pot but I think that after flowering I might transfer it to a self-watering pot as well. It has a lovely delicate perfume but at the moment it is being overpowered by the perfume of the Boronia.

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Garden Near the Sea

6/7/2014

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Flowers that grow well by the sea.

I live in a quiet seaside town that becomes a resort from mid November to April and some weekends in the off season as well. It is a beautiful part of the world with the sea from the Southern ocean just a seven minute walk away.

Our daytime temperature varies from about 6 degrees C to 14 degrees C in the winter, usually near the lower end, to 18 degrees to 42 degrees C in the summer, averaging about 30 degrees. We get very cold winds off the sea in the wintertime and it is a time to rug up. We have been having unseasonably warm weather of about 15 - 18 degrees C at the moment, as it is winter time in the southern hemisphere from June till August. Then spring comes along quickly.

Because our weather is not too cold in winter I always have a garden full of greenery with a few flowers showing themselves. At the moment we have the lovely Turk's cap with its bright red flowers. This has become a massive bush and flowers most of the time. Pretty white daisies are flowering as is a lovely hebe. This plant used to be called Veronica. Every now and then, scientists decide that a plant must now reside in another family. It's a bit like adoption. The plant is still the same old plant. Oh well.

There is also an odd geranium flowering, no pelargoniums at the moment. One lavender is showing its colour and there is a lovely strong succulent that is in full bloom. It is covered in bright white flowers.

The nasturtiums take over a large part of the garden this time of the year - winter. There are no flowers yet but their bright green round leaves are so lovely. The stem of the leaf comes out of the middle of the leaf. Our three year old granddaughter found that they looked like a top or an umbrella when she spun the leaf. The leaves are big and round, up to about fifteen cm (6inches) across. They look lovely in the morning as they hold the dew, or after a rain shower.

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Autumn in the Garden

15/5/2014

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Here in southern Australia, autumn is a beautiful time. The weather is more stable. We experience lovely days and cool crisp nights. I like deciduous trees. I have an October Maple, another maple, two silver birches, a paper birch and some fruit trees. They are all in the process of colouring and dropping their leaves. Autumn leaves carpet the back yard - love them!

I just took these photos of my garden. Hope you like them.

Usually there are a lot more flowers in the garden but it is a bit empty this year.

A Hollyhock plant is growing well at the moment. Its leaves are about 15cm (6in) across. I am looking forward to some beautiful flowers there in spring.

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Climbing Roses and Good Neighbors

21/2/2014

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Beautiful golden climbing rose

We are lucky to enjoy this lovely golden climbing rose. It belongs to our neighbor and overlooks our courtyard. It gives us hundreds of roses most of the year round.

Our lovely neighbor keeps the rose in trim and when he prunes on his side he comes and prunes on our side of the fence as well. What more could we ask for.

Even after this golden climbing rose has been trimmed it has a show of beautiful, deep red leaves as the new growth comes along. These are also spectacular.

He also has a lovely red rose that does not come through the lattice. Funny, that.

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Garden Blossoms

30/1/2014

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There is always something flowering in the garden. Throughout the hot summer weather with days reaching into the mid 40 degrees in temperature, only the hardiest flowers bloom.

Roses, yellow Evening Primrose and purple Lavender still bloom. Some orange Watsonia has been flowering but its leaves were hit in the 46 degree heat. Pelargoniums will always flower. There are lots of colours of these.

My Peace Lily has been moved out to a new covered courtyard and is settling in well. It has more elegant, white flowers than it has ever had. I think it likes the increased light.

My Begonia has had a severe trim and been moved outside in the courtyard also. It has responded with lots of pale orange waxy flowers.

Enjoy these flowers from my garden.

Pictured are Peach tree blossom, Wallflower, Kiss-me-quick - an old fashioned, self seeding flower and Senecio, White rose, Lobelia, Alogoyne - an Australian hibiscus, and yellow rose.

Next there comes a daisy, wattle, climbing rose and hot pink cyclamen.

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Slugs and Snails in the Garden

4/12/2013

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What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Slugs and snails

And puppy-dogs' tails,

That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spiceAnd everything nice,

That's what little girls are made of.

(with thanks to Wikipedia)

Leopard slug

Ruby, an Australian terrier

Leopard slug

Slugs and snails have been plentiful in my gardens over the years. The slug pictured above is called a Leopard slug because of the markings on its body and head. I first saw these slugs when they would visit the area where my little dog was fed each night. Ruby was a black and tan Australian Terrier.

These slugs lived under and around Ruby's kennel in the garden.

Dear, difficult little Ruby is no longer with us but we still have her kennel. It was put to use recently as a little coop for some chickens and their mother. They stayed warm and cosy in there.

However, one evening when I was feeding the chicks I saw one of these slugs again. Oh, so you are still around, I thought.

After the chicks moved out to a new and larger home, I turned the kennel over and found some Leopard slugs living under it.

Late last night, about 11.30pm, I was on my way to bed and decided to check on the chicks as it was drizzling rain. As I went outside with my little LED torch, there were three leopard slugs heading for the new chicken shed, charging across the damp grass.

These slugs were about 8-10cm long (3-4in). They can reach up to 20cm (8in) in length.

So today the kennel was removed further down the yard. It was turned on its side and the last I saw, our two fluffy silkie hens were eyeing off all the spiders, snails and slugs on its base.

When I went down the yard to put the hens away this evening, all the creatures were gone from the kennel.

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Centranthus ruber in Southern Australia

3/12/2013

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These are just a few photos of my garden flowers and decorations. Only three of the photos were taken in another garden. I really enjoy seeing what is blooming in my garden each week and try to get photos of the flowers. Some turn out well and others have me hitting the delete button very quickly. But who knows about them? You're not going to tell anyone, are you?

I love the colour that flowers bring to a garden and can see how they transform the atmosphere. When we came to this house eighteen years ago there was no garden. The house had been built two years before on reclaimed farm land so we really had part of a farm paddock for grass - you could not call it a lawn.

Previously I had created two gardens from scratch. Many of the plants for all my gardens cam as cuttings from my Mum's garden. She just loved striking cuttings but did not have a very good strike rate. However she kept at it and of course, many plants grew.

Centranthus ruber

The second photo from the left on the top line is Centranthus ruber. My Mum remembers it from when she was a child on the farm near Geelong - eighty five years ago. Instead of it's fancy Latin name, she called it Kiss-me-quick. So it just goes to show how flowers pass down through generations.

This plant is seen in abundance in the TV series Doc Martin. Here the centranthus ruber perches in the brick walls along the roadsides and lanes in the Cornish town making for a pretty picture. This plant is very hardy.

Common Names
The internet today allows us to find out all sorts of information so I was able to find out the Latin name for this plant and also to find out other common names used for it including valerian, red valerian, Jupiter's beard, Keys to Heaven, Fox's bush and spur valerian.

I have what is called a red colour but is really a dark pink, a mid pink and white flowering plants. There is also a pale pink flower.

These plants flower profusely then go to seed. The seed head does resemble a white fluffy beard. I know because my husband has one. If trimmed back half way down the stem two new flower heads will blossom. When the plant is finished flowering, just cut it back to within 10-15cm (4-6in) from the ground and it will shoot up again.

The plant grows large tubers or long, fat, pointy roots under the ground. It stores its reserves of energy within these tubers and so is not reliant on watering. It makes the plant drought resistant.

I throw the discarded seed heads in the garden where I would like some plants to grow. Next year they are there.

This plant is an herbaceous perennial growing to one metre tall (three ft) and self seeds. It has grey-green leave. It is suitable as a cut flower. It is great for a cottage garden. It also does well in dry rockeries and gravel gardens.

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Author

I love growing flowers in my garden and sometimes make Flower Essences from them. They have great healing properties. Chickens adorn my backyard and give me much pleasure too.

My garden is free range like my chickens, there is no order here. All plants get along happily together.

Blogs

Let's Talk Health

WindowLane

The Bantam Blog

Spring is the Time for Flowers

Echiums @ My Garden Treasures

Yellow Cotton Lavender

Perfume in Spring Time

Garden Near the Sea

Autumn in the Garden

Climbing Roses and Good Neighbors

Garden Blossoms

Slugs and Snails in the Garden

Centranthus ruber in Southern Australia

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