Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year;

Christmas Bells

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

    And wild and sweet

    The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1864)

The garden through the year; 2011

JANUARY

"Anyone can have dirt. Gardener's have soil."

FEBRUARY

"And then my heart with pleasure fills

And dances with daffodils."...William Wordsworth

MARCH

APRIL

"You may go down to the garden."...(Peter Rabbit's mother) Beatrix Potter

 MAY

JUNE

"Everything is good in its season."...Italian

JULY

"The only two herbicides we recommend are cultivation and mulching."...Organic Gardening Magazine

AUGUST

"Who loves a garden still
his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvest reaps."...Amos Bronson Alcott 1868

SEPTEMBER

"If man cheats the earth, the earth will cheat man."...Chinese

OCTOBER

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue;

But they don't get around

Like the dandelions do."...Slim Acres

NOVEMBER

"We all share the same backyard."

DECEMBER

Thursday 1.December 2011  6:57 AM

Believe it or not;
"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."...Mahatma Gandhi

It's DayLilli time....again;

Miniature  Hoot

Daphne Tremmel;

Spider;  Christmas Tidings;

Old Tangiers;

Bold Encounter;

Charlie Pierce Memorial;

Egyptian Ibis; one of my favourites.

Apricot Jade;

Short Circuit; I love the fine cream line around its petals;

Champagne Elegance; pretty nearly white with yellow frills;

Jordan Verhaert; small blooms;

Hemerocallis;

The daylily is a widely grown perennial flower that blooms continuously through the spring and summer months. Its botanical name is Hemerocallis, which means "beautiful for a day." The name reflects the reality that daylilies' blooms last for only one day.


Daylilies  do best in full sun and well-drained soil enriched with organic matter. They need a handful of  slow release fertilizer  once a year---in early spring. Feeding too much causes excess foliage and no flowers. Daylilies need weekly watering when there is no rainfall. Mulching with wood chips, grass clippings or shredded leaves is also recommended.





Courtesy; Australiandaylily Society;

There are three types of foliage habit: dormant, evergreen and semi-evergreen. Of these, dormant types are generally not suited to the hot coastal climate.

Flower size may be miniature (blooms under 7.5cm in diameter), small flower (blooms 7.5cm to 11cm in diameter) and large flowers (blooms are 11cm in diameter).

Flower scapes are either low (15cm to 60cm tall), medium (60 to 90 cm tall) or tall (scapes over 90cm high).


The foliage runs from green to blue-green.


The height of the foliage varies from 15cm to 1metre.


Almost all colours of the spectrum are available: yellow (from gold to lemon), orange (brown to flesh), red (maroon to rose-red), pink (rose-red to shrimp), purple (violet to lilac) and near white. There is not a true blue blower.


Location: Full sun or partial shade and well drained, light to heavy soil.


Believe it or not:

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.

-   Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

HIPPIES...their time; Hippeastrums;

All the Hippeastrums are grown from seed from a couple of bulbs I received 20 years ago. I have bought a pink, white and appleblossom, last year, which have flowered once. Hopefully I will get some more variations.
The above are  a small selection of all subtle and also more flamboyant variations.

Hippeastrum  is a genus of about 90 species and 600+ hybrids and cultivars of bulbous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. Native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas from Argentina north to Mexico and the Caribbean. Some species are grown for their large showy flowers. These plants are popularly but erroneously known as Amaryllis, a monotypic African genus in the same family.

"Hippeastrum" is Greek for "horseman's star". It was chosen in 1837 by the Honorable Reverend William Herbert, Dean of Manchester.  No one is entirely sure why he picked this name, it's likely he chose it because of the plant's striking resemblance to the "morning star", a medieval weapon used by horsemen, as William Herbert was both a clergyman and something of an expert on early medieval history. A version of the weapon was also called a "holy water sprinkler," an ecclesiastical object with which the Dean would have been familiar.
The first commercial breeders of Hippeastrum were Dutch growers who imported several species  from Mexico and South America and began developing cultivars and hybrids from them in the 18th century; the first of these reached North America early in the 19th century. In 1946 two Dutch growers moved to the Union of South Africa and began cultivation there. Although most cultivars of Hippeastrum come from the Dutch and South African sources, bulbs are now being developed in the United States, Japan, Israel, India, Brazil and Australia.
Some excerpts from Wikipedia.




Believe it or not
"How the world turns. One day, cock of the walk. Next, a feather duster."
 Aunty Entity - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

The Sages for warm climates;

Salvia guarantica, this one sports dark purple flowers. Can grow up to 2 m high and is an all year bloomer if you let it. I prune it lightly from time to time to keep it flowering.

Salvia uliginos, Bog Salvia; a very reliable bloomer all summer long. The flowers are a stunning sky blue. It tends to grow with underground rhizomes and has to be culled from time to time.

This is one of the most beautiful Salvias.The photo does not do it justice. The flowers are a dark blue with black calyxes. It also grows tall and is also easily propagated from green cuttings like many of the others.

Salvia perberula; the Rosebud Salvia is very showy. It grows 2 m long arms headed by up to 30 cm long flower stalks.The calyxes look like small bells from where the quite big dark pink flowers emerge. It is a stunning plant. Propagate in summer from cuttings.

Salvia greggii is very beautiful and flowers freely on a bush of about 1m high.

Salvia madrensis; wonderful yellow flowers. Splendid bush up to 2m. Flowers all summer long and has also attractive leaves. Propagates easily from cuttings or from root divisions.

A view of the garden;

I have many more Salvias which I will show in my next post

Salvia is the largest genus in the mint family with some 900 species of annuals, perennials and soft-wooded shrubs, including culinary and medicinal herbs as well as garden ornamentals. Many outstanding South and Central American species have been brought into cultivation just since the 1980's.


Believe it or not:
The seed is hope; the flower is joy.