Lavender and Vanilla; Friends of the Gardens: January 2014

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

The garden in January;

Hot, dry and hopefully rain;

14/01/2014 Sunrise 05:06 AM

Over night rain, early morning woolly, grey clouds were still hanging around soon infused by the morning sun. It looked beautiful.

Intriguing flower of cicorino rosso;

Salvia Coral Nymph is long blooming and reliable. Plant multiples of this sage where you can appreciate the cool pastel flowers up close.

In my garden it reseeds regularly, but I do not regard it as invasive, as it is easily eradicated.

It is wonderful in a mixed cottage flower border.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

William Shakespeare

Moonlight; 07/01/2014 20:18 PM

A new Year lets your old worries slip into limbo of no return. Titania

Lemongrass; Cymbopogon is a genus of about 45 species of grasses, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and Oceania. It is a tall perennial grass.
Citronella grass (Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus) has magenta colored base stems. These species are used for the production of citronella oil, which is used in soaps, as an insect repellent especially mosquitoesin insect sprays and candles, and in aromatherapy, which is famous in Bintan Island, Indonesia and the Philippines. Therefore, its origin is assumed to be Indonesia. The principal chemical constituents of citronella, geraniol and citronellol, are antiseptics, hence their use in household disinfectants and soaps. Besides oil production, citronella grass is also used for culinary purposes, in tea and as a flavoring.

A new planting project to hide the chicken fence. I plant a mixed border with three grevillias in between to add some height.

I planted dwarf cannas in red and various pinks, blue Agapanthus, many different tall Salvias,

Catharanthus roseus, commonly also called Vinca

Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as the Madagascar rosy periwinkle, is a species of Catharanthus native and endemic to Madagascar. Other English names occasionally used include Cape periwinkle, rose periwinkle, rosy periwinkle, and "old-maid".

It is an evergreen herbaceous plant growing to 1 m tall. The flowers are

white to dark pink with a darker red centre, or with variations with a basal tube 2.5–3 cm long and a corolla 2–5 cm diameter with five petal-like lobes.

In the wild, it is an endangered plant; the main cause of decline is habitat destruction by slash and burn agriculture. It is also however widely cultivated and is naturalised in subtropical and tropical areas of the world The species has long been cultivated for herbal medicine and as an ornamental plant.

A conflict between historical indigenous use, and recent patents on C.roseus-derived drugs by western pharmaceutical companies, without compensation, has led to accusations of biopiracy.

As an ornamental plant, it is appreciated for its hardiness in dry and nutritionally deficient conditions, popular in subtropical gardens where temperatures never fall below 5 °C to 7 °C, and as a warm-season bedding plant in temperate gardens. It is noted for its long flowering period, throughout the year in tropical conditions, and from spring to late autumn, in warm temperate climates. Full sun and well-drained soil are preferred. Numerous cultivars have been selected, for variation in flower colour (white, mauve, peach, scarlet and reddish-orange.