Hooray, Summer, Christmas is nigh...

Bromeliad

Summer, sun, storms and heat, bursts of growth settle for quiet, hot, sleepy days.  Mornings bursting with colour and heat, evenings  coolness lingers with sun faded colours around a stormy sky. Ts

Christmas decorations are appearing in house and garden.

Vibrant 'Reds' for Christmas; 

photos 02/12/2017

Daylily 'Roses in Summer'

Daylily 'Double Bourbon'

  

Daylily 'Lois Hall'

Daylily 'Pure Indulgence'

Rose 'General Gallieni  Tea rose bred in France 1899. 

Did I mention that I adore old roses? Ts

4/12/ 2017

and it is raining, raining, raining...

Days hugged in rain and clouds are wonderful. A gift from the heavens to make me not feel guilty,  when I  am just lazy, looking and dreaming into a wet, grey landscape.

I feel sorry for the birds flying towards the feeding bowls which have become pools with the seeds washed to the bottom. 

My little bare shouldered dove arrived, trying to fish out some of the seed, she left disappointed, sorry little dove. Hopefully she might find some scattered seed in the grass.

Cicadas do not sing on a rainy wet day; it’s only the monotonous sound of grey, washing  and gurgling in little streams down the hill.





Roses look so festive when festooned with diamonds.




...hundreds or thousands ore more drops ...I have never counted them... adorn the petals for now...




The famous 'Christmas' plant Poinsettia grows here to a big shrub and flowers in Winter. It it is very showy with its red leaves which are not the actual flowers. The small flowers are just visible in the middle of the colourful leaves.

Mine need to be pruned now. They could be left to grow as a small tree, but may look sometimes a bit straggly. 



Like this one.

Here you can see the small flowers in the middle.

🌲
An Aussi Christmas by John Smith Williams

A little bit of Okker Humour. 

Christmas in Australia is different to what you know , 
We don't see any reindeer and for sure there is no snow, 
No steaming Christmas pudding, or eggnog by the fire. , 
Too much of that there hot stuff, makes us all perspire. 

The sun is brightly shining. The sky is blue and bright , 
The waves are breaking on the beach, the tide is just in right , 
I've got my great new surfboard, the barbie's on the beach, 
The chops are cooking nicely, the snags are lined up neat, 

The temp is in the 40s, the sand is fine and white, 
There's coldies in the esky, all has turned out right 
Who needs the snow and iced up roads, Santa and his sleigh, 
We'll have a red hot Christmas that's the Aussie way. 






Sunset 08/12/2017 around 7.00 PM

18/12/2017

The Tropical's



Alamanda Caramel. I love this delicious colour.




I am a Ginger fan...is there anything more exotic, tropical than the Kahili Ginger all the way from India. 
With fragrant towers of flowers and bold foliage, Kahili ginger, Hedychium gardnerianum, is a dramatic tropical plant. Native to moist tropical forests of the eastern Himalayas in northern India, Nepal and Bhutan. and is a popular landscape ornamental throughout the world in tropical and subtropical area.  It is a declared a weed in Queensland so I must watch it that it does not let itself out of the garden😔



Big and wonderful, flowers of the edible cacti fruit Pitaya, growing along the fence in the kitchen garden.










Butternut Pumpkin flowers and  fruit soon ready for harvest.

I must say I love the flowers as much as the fruit. (Pumpkin is classified as a fruit not a vegetable.)





23/12/2017

...the leafy and shady garden.



Strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the giant white bird of paradise or wild banana,  reaching a height of 6 m and the clumps formed can spread as far as 3.5 m 

I love the patterns of sun and shade. Behind the fence is the leafy garden where  lizards  and other wildlife have a save heaven. 




Hopefully see you tomorrow...maybe..

24/12/2017



 To all,  enjoy a wonderful Christmas.

🌲
Last December days in the garden 30/12/2017



Rose Marie van Houtte

1871

A valuable rose parent, Marie van Houtte is described as having large, globular flowers of lemon yellow, deeper in the centre, with pinkish lilac suffusing the tips of the petals. Its dark, shiny and occasionally evergreen foliage is a good foil to the light flowers. 

This one needs to be in check as it is a substantial seeder. 




Caesalpinia pulcherima, dwarf Poinciana, a fine summer plant for the hot climate. It needs frequent removal of the spend  flowers to keep it flowering and compact.



Front borders along the drive way are blooming now with Rainlillies. I remove the seed heads as they are seeders as well.



The lovely Rose Perle d'or. 



Pentas in different colours always favourites in the hot summer garden.










Tropical Heliconia a summer garden's fave. Also used as good cut flowers.




Iceberg Rose contrasts against the behind the fence darker foliage and wildlife garden.



Bobby's Help is always around to dismantle large palm leaf fronds.



This now is the last entry for this year.

Surprise...surprise 

a rainbow this morning; 31/12/2017



I just collected the pot of gold!

I hope you enjoyed the garden over the 12 month of 2017.

My next entries will be in the New Year.

My best wishes for a Happy 2018.

©Photos my garden; Text Ts Lavender & Vanilla

November has arrived; almost a summer garden.

Today I picked the first Gladioli I planted for picking.

The kitchen garden provides now many Zucchini, green, yellow and mottled.

I try to cook this vegetable in many different ways.

 Preferring the Mediterranean way, my favourite taste.

Mixed with other Vegetables like sweet potatoes, 

Aubergines and tomatoes, rosemary, parsley and thyme.

Baked with parsley, thyme, olive oil and Parmesan. It was very tasty.

This was tasty too. 

1 slice of home made bread cut into cubes, 2 cups Zucchini cut into cubes, add enough melted butter to the bread cubes, mix into the zucchini cubes, add your favourite herbs add a little olive oil and  grated cheese on top, preferably an Italian cheese. Bake in the oven 180 C (360 F) until soft and browned on top. Around 30 minutes.

💚

06/11/2017

 While I am waiting for the milk to cool down to make yogurt, using the time to show of a few more beauties after some rain last night.

Jut to pretty not to show...




Roset Delizy, first I thought it was a different one but the open flowers show the yellow heart.




Amelia Anderson also a new old rose I planted this August. I have already a few more on my bucket list  to order next winter!



Mr. Lincoln I love in my garden for its looks and its fragrance.







The lovely Marie van Houtte.

14/11/2017

The Butterfly Garden;

Salvia Meigan's Magic.

The butterfly garden evolved over a few years from an ugly strip of rough grass along the driveway.

Now, it is flourishing with bugs, bees and butterflies.

Salvia African Sky.









Turns and twists of  a spider Daylily.

Caterpillars are a must have in the garden  if you love butterflies.Ts




Butterflies are the ballerinas in the air, glissade, grand jeté ...Ts



A lucky butterfly may live around a fortnight! Ts




Coreopsis

As a child I read once a story that flowers accepted only  the same coloured butterflies, Yellow flowers  for yellow butterflies. I felt sad because I loved to see a yellow butterfly on a pink rose.




Tea Rose Perfumed Delight; lost the original but fortunately made two cuttings. Both flowering now.
Last year I have seen swarms of dancing butterflies, hundreds, it was an awesome sight. Ts



More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
~William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"







Blue sky,  sweet fragrance of flowers, dancing butterflies, magic.Ts

15/11/2017

An early morning walk along the Butterfly garden.



One of the spider Daylilies growing in the "spider" border along the drive way.




The perfume of Gardenia tells you where the plant is hiding.  I received a Gardenia from dear friends very early when I established this garden, probably 25 years ago. The original plant is still growing and flowering in the upper terrace garden. This is a cutting I made for the butterfly garden a few years ago.





Spider Daylily, very floriferous,  the flowers are around 25 cm across,
they are huge attention seekers.





Salvia microphylla Peru Blue, has underground rhizomes. It is a great plant to grow.
 This Salvia  does not have any star allures.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour and to wait. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from his poetry Psalm of Life.

19/11/2017
A rainy day, on and off;

It gave me enough time in between to do a bit of weeding, as weed lift out easily when the soil is wet.   l also spotted a few of my own Daylily seedlings flowering this year the first time.



Trixie a vibrant red with a pretty green, well formed  heart. Slightly pleated petals.

Aria, a triangual form, nice pink with a deep green heart and darker feathering around the heart. Nicely recurved and slightly frilled.




Allegra, I think this one has turned out pretty well. Nicely recurved, round, double and a really nice colour well proportioned.

A garden, doodle book is fun to make.






26/11/2017
Rapidly arriving in Dec🎄ember. Summer,  Christmas


The garden inhabits a big variety of plants,  this brings myriads of Insects.




 A symphony of warm scents and the contented buzz of insects.






Buddleja





Euphorbia millii, many different ones are available, they add a lot of interest to the garden.





Buddleja lindleyana is a deciduous shrub native to some provinces of  China, where it grows in rocky scrub alongside streams and tracks at elevations of 200 – 2700 m.
It is quite hardy in my garden. It suffers a little when the dry times are around. It grows with underground rhizomes. It is an absolutely beautiful plant.







Hibiscus from Torbli. Every plant as usually a little story attached. This one I brought home as a cutting from her place called Torbli,when I visited my  middle daughter.




I am  fascinated by these weirdly relaxed flowers of the spider Daylilies.





I call these "Golidilocks"!




 “We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness.



If I were a flower I would choose to be one as quirky and eccentric  as these.😊

Last day of November; 30/11/2017




Birds  have a mayor role in my garden. I love to see and hear them in the morning. Galahs are very cute, entertaining full of caprioles. They always come in pairs.

Checking out the food bowl. Hopefully there is  a little food left.

(Big Bird protects birds from flying into the window.)





The vegetable garden is now planted with Pumpkins, and Melons.  Still have beans and Zucchini.  I have not been successful with my tomato seedlings. Summer is mostly to hot and humid for non  tropical vegetables. Strawberries are under protection and grow well.  Poisonous sprays are all banned from the garden.






I let some of the Fennel bulbs go to seed.  Seed is used for next winter plantings and for cooking.

A native basket fern,  Drynaria rigidula.

  
Plants always grow  and hang into the pathways. this path leads to the upper garden and the veg-garden.



Salvia Belize.




Lagerstroemia.





African daisies, Ostespermum, are tough, like it dry and many pretty hues of colours.



Daylily seedling  "Sunbeam".


  And the roses....today pink

Irene Watts got a bit wet from an earlier shower.




The delicious Roset Delizy




Wonderfully perfumed Sophie's Perpetual.











There is a lot of blue around the garden in November, as widely planted Agapanthus are flowering at this time of year.

 It was quite a happy garden in November as we had enough sun and rain to keep all the plants flourishing.


“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables


See you around in the Summer garden. Tomorrow is the first summer's day. I wish you all happy days of gardening. For the cold climate visitors many great garden books to read when the wind blows and the snow piles up.

💚

©Photos my garden,Text Ts Lavender & Vanilla