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Monday 27 February 2012

Yellow Ribbon;


Solenostemon

A member of the mint (Lamiaceae) family, this genus of around 60 species of shrubby, sometimes succulent perennials comes from the tropics of Africa and Asia. They are a treat in the garden, as they are so easily propagated from cuttings.This yellow one shines and stands out between other green leafed plants. 


Yellow  — Common connotations —

sunshine, warmth, fun, happiness,, summer, hope, optimism, imagination, curiosity,




Salvia madrensis



Salvia madrensis is a native to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range in Mexico.

Salvia madrensis spends the first part of the growing season putting out 1.2m to 2.00 m  stems that are thick  and square, with ridges on each corner. The rough, heart-shaped  leaves are widely spaced on the stem, graduating in size from large at the bottom to smaller at the top, giving a lush covering to the plant. Numerous 30 cm inflorescences are covered with softly colored butter-yellow flowers held in whorls. The calyces are aromatic and covered with sticky glands. 






Lemon tree

Lemons are part of my cooking, I could not imagine not having a lemon tree in my garden.  This one bears continuously ripe lemons, flowers and unripe lemons in different stages. 



Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M (long and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S (short-wavelength) cone cells.



Tecoma capensis, this soft yellow suits well into the garden between other shrubs.





Schefflera, Jacky, yellow variegated; here in my garden it grows in close company with a Clarence river Baeckia; complimenting each other in their difference.



Carotenoids are organic pigments that give color to many biological objects, including egg yolks, autumn leaves, and yellow flowers.
Yellow pan traps are used to capture insects, many of which are attracted to shades of yellow.


A golden yellow  Daylily seedling grown on its own volition , named by me " Goldie".


"Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree"




Yellow Bougainvillea Bambino"Siggi"




Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore it in the springtime
In the merry month of May
And if you ask her why the heck she wore it
She wore it for her soldier who was far far away





Hibiscus Celia;  this on was always one of my favourites.  It is easy to propagate from cuttings.


'Round her neck she wears a yeller ribbon,
She wears it in winter and the summer so they say,
If you ask her "Why the decoration?"
She'll say "It's fur my lover who is fur, fur away.



Kalanchoe yellow; a winter flowering plant; easy to grow and easy to propagate from cuttings. 


The word "yellow" comes from the Old English geolu, or geolwe which derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the oldest known use of this word in English is from The Epinal Glossary in the year 700.
Yellow is associated with the word "caution" and is the second light on stop lights. The color is associated with aging as well, for both people and objects (e.g. "yellowed" paper). 
"Yellow" ("giallo"), in Italy, refers to crime stories, both fictional and real. This association began in about 1930, when the first series of crime novels published in Italy had yellow covers.
The term "yellow movie" can refer to films of pornographic nature in Chinese culture, and is analogous to the English "blue movie". Lastly, it is associated with sensational journalistic practices, or yellow journalism, and resistance to militant trade unions




The beautiful Lycoris is flowering now;

They are bulb-producing perennial plants.
Lycoris are extensively cultivated as ornamental plants in Japan and China, and also in other warm temperate regions of the world. In Japan, they are widely used at the edges of rice paddy fields to provide a strip of bright flowers in the summer, and over 230 cultivars have been selected for garden use. They are locally naturalised in the southeastern United States, where they are often called hurricane flowers. Chinese people often use them as decorations in festivals or celebrations.  ( courtesy Wikipedia)

Believe it or not;

The trees that are slow to grow bear the most fruit.
Moliere


Wednesday 15 February 2012

January/February in the Garden;


The best known-and perhaps most inspired-literary mushroom of all is the one nibbled by Alice in her Adventures in Wonderland. Eating from one side of the mushroom makes her grow larger, eating from the other side makes her shrink. It's possible that author Lewis Carroll knew of the properties of Fly Agaric. One effect of this hallucinogenic fungus is to make objects appear larger or smaller in the user's eye.




Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia is a genus of nine species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, with a disjunctive distribution native to eastern Australia (seven species), New Caledonia (one species M. neurophylla) and Sulawesi in Indonesia (one species, M. hildebrandii).
They are small to large evergreen trees growing to 2–12 m tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, lanceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6–30 cm long and 2–13 cm broad, with an entire or spiny-serrated margin. The flowers are produced in a long, slender, simple raceme 5–30 cm long, the individual flowers 10–15 mm long, white to pink or purple, with four tepals. The fruit is a very hard, woody, globose follicle with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds.
The genus is named after John Macadam, a colleague of botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, who first described the genus. Common names include macadamia, macadamia nut, Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, queen of nuts and bauple nut; Indigenous Australian names include gyndl, jindilli, and boombera.




It can take 50-100 years for fungi to reduce a hardwood trunk to dust.





Pink Turmeric


Globba winitii, Zingiberaceae 






An unsettled summer's sky;



Miniature garden paraphernalia;



Beautiful patterns found on fungi growing on decaying wood.




I am always amazed and glad when I see the stags and elks attaching them selves freely  from seed to the bark of trees



Sweet Chestnuts; Castanea sativa;  the subtropics are not the optimum climate for Chestnuts.




Quisqualis indica also known as the Chinese honeysuckleRangoon Creeper, and Combretum indicum is a vine with red flower clusters and is found in in many other parts of the world either as a cultivated ornamental or run wild. The genus translates into Latin for What is that?.



Passionfruit, this is the yellow Hawaiian; it is absolutely delicious. 



Aechmea gamosepala 'Lucky Stripe' Bromeliad



The flowers of the native Alexandra Palm, Archontophoenix alexandrae; nectar and seed for birds and insects.



Pecan nuts growing.



My new play area, the old chicken yard. The chooks have received a new home on the other side of the garden, a sunnier spot and lots of grass and herbs to nibble on.


I have started to plant, it will take me a while to finish, at the moment it is hot and muggy which saps my energy. It is a mixture of sun and shade so I have quite a variety of plants I can use. A birdbath is also on the list. Perhaps a bench to have a rest and watch and look and see!


Believe it or not;
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~


© TS text and photos