Oh May...it's Mayday, it's Mother's day...

it's Father's day, i'ts Children's day, its Everyday,

always flowers from the garden.

Ended the last month with roses  and start this month with roses, as this, the time of roses, at least in my garden.

Crépuscule is a reliable rose bred by Francis Dubreuil in France in 1904. It is a Noisette, one of the Old Garden Rose categories.

In my garden practically flowering through out the year. With its decorative small clusters, Crépuscule creates a beautiful rose display with intense, sweet, Old Rose fragrance.

Crépuscule can grow into a very large tall shrub rose up to 4m high and 2 to 4m wide. It is also capable of a semi-climbing habit and can be trained against a trellis or along a fence. Crépuscule is orange, fading to apricot-yellow; the name is French for “twilight”, very apt given its colour reminiscent of sunset.

Quickly to repeat to flower, richly fragrant and very disease resistant; these attributes ensure that Crépuscule is for sure a favourite rose in my garden.

Harvested Jaboticaba. These cherry like fruit are absolutely delicious. These had the perfect ripeness and sweetness. Even the fairly tough skin could be eaten. They are like little health bombs; one fruit contains:
Jaboticaba fruit is low in carbohydrates. It is a rich source of vitamin C and also contains other vitamins like vitamin E, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin and folic acid. Minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, copper, manganese and zinc are also present in this fruit. In addition to vitamins and minerals, Jaboticaba is also a good source of several amino acids, fatty acids and many powerful antioxidants that have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

Studies reveal that Jabotica peel is a high source of dietary fiber and phenolic compounds (anthocyanins) that have potent antioxidant properties. Jabuticaba along with its Myrtaceae family fruits have high content of ellagitannins. Jaboticaba peel has one of the highest content of ellagic acid. Anthocyanins content increases with ripening of the fruit.

Also made shortbread biscuits today. Recipe from the "Great Dixter Cookbook"

As I have a habit to change recipes to suit me,  I used a bit less butter and added  some white wine to moisten the dough.

350 g plain flour, 175 g Rice flour,  175 g of caster sugar and I used 300g butter instead of 350 g but added  1/3 cup of white wine. Mix  it all together  and roll out on baking paper. Bake 180 C for around 30 min. Cut the shortbread  while still hot but leave it on the tray until cool. The bikkies are delicious.

  

OK I think that's it for today. 

I worked for about 4 hours in the herb garden, cleaning up. Not yet finished, as there is so much to do. It already looks much better again. 

Many herbs find any nooks and crannies to lodge their seed. Here Mexican Tarragon has seeded into the gaps of the concrete tiles.

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair 
Playing in the wanton air.  

W.Shakespeare

See you soon again.

When I wrote see you soon again I did not know that there was a terrible change on its way which my family and I did not expect to be so quick and final. Today is already the 25. of May and I was not able to continue the garden in May. Today I make myself to continue...



If nature is not broken in its core it has the great tendency to bounce back. This Dahlia was battered and crushed by rain and wind, when Cyclone Debbie was let loose. I thought it might take a year to recover if it does recover at all.. Yet in a short time it has flowered again on crooked, broken limbs. So if nature wants it we can come out of the darkest and saddest corners and flower again.Ts

The roses were just blooming and the next day I picked them for his timeless journey.



This morning one open bloom of this Geranium winked at me and smiled; red Geraniums were Peter's favourites.

RIP
 Peter.
09/05/2017

Because I could not stop for Death.  Emily Dickinson, 1830 - 1886

 Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labour and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –

Today is the last day of autumn. May went and left its mark, I will never forget. I take now every day as it comes, slowly, after my motto "tomorrow is another day". Cooler nights and mornings, brilliant sunny days...winter in the subtropics.

All the pictures were taken this morning around 11AM 31/05/2017 in my garden.



Late autumn and winter provide fresh lemons and Oranges like Washington Navel.






Hibiscus Fiji




One of the newer Poinsettias. This one has a subtle powder pink  middle, very pretty. Received this plant from my daughter Lilli.




The lovely, tough Pentas flower through all the seasons.



A look over the fence.
Miss V's Oak leaf Poinsettia is again in full flower,
 and her giant Eucalyptus tree, soaring into the sky, home of Koalas.







Pretty Poinsettia  "Snowflakes";




There is still a blue banded bee enjoying the new flowers of Salvia "Majestic Towers".



Can not think of a winter in the subtropics without remembering a brilliant blue sky and pink Bougainvillea.

Tomorrow is winter;



Succulent Donkeys Ears, flowering on tall stems. Kalanchoe gastonis bonnierii.




Flowers of Flap Jack; Kalanchoe thyrsifolia.;

As Dad is not here  anymore to  sow and plant  vegetables, which he enjoyed in his own regimental and scientific way, the girls will help  with planting and harvesting.  I am sure Peter would be happy to know that his vegetable garden is still in full production  and very much appreciated.



In the Kitchen garden department sugar peas are growing  plus many brassicas, onions, aubergines  and tomatoes.



Fennel and Kohlrabi are also ready to be planted out.

Even in the subtropics, winter is a time for comfort food. Thick soups and apple pies. The days are short. It is the time for invitations to share food and stories, Ts

Red Plumbago in full regalia climbing up and mingling with long fingers into the next tree.







Pretty Vriesia catching the sun.





Finishing May with the pink roses of Monsieur Tillier. An old rose bush brilliant for the subtropical rose garden.

Next entry will be in June. Stay tuned and enjoy your life. Take care.

Poetry used by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Ralph W. Franklin ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Photos/Text #myGARDEN Ts

2017 February, summer's endings.

The first day February 2017

It is a hot day with just a slight breeze to caress the leaves, to let us believe it is a bit cooler.

In the cooler morning hours I have started to plant Salvia cuttings. I water them every day to keep them going and growing. I am sure some will need to be replaced as the sun is still so strong.  I have many places in the garden which need new plants, I will also plant more native plants to provide food  for native birds and mammals.

Ornaments are part of my garden and this little rabbit has always been around.

A morning walk 01/02/2017



Cordyline rubra, known as the Palm Lily is an evergreen Australian plant. It grows as a shrub to around 4 metres tall. Found in warm rainforests and moist eucalyptus forests. The range of natural distribution is from Lismore to near Bundaberg, Queensland.

I received a few seedlings of this plant many years ago from a girl called Robyn. She worked at the fledgling Eco Village as a garden helper. I think she came originally from South Africa. Well, the Palm Lillies she gave me are called Robyn.





Verbena bonariensis, are as beautiful as they are  tough, finding their ways silently underground  to emerge between Iceberg roses, salvias and other plants, always their head up, here we are and you can do nothing about it and I won't.




White Pentas have a shimmer of stillness about them drawing the eye away from the painted garden to rest on their pure white stars.





Rose Monsieur Tillier has flowered throughout the year and it is still going. The flowers might be smaller in the heat of summer but nevertheless beautiful and very much appreciated. It is completely free of diseases, receives the odd watering but is undemanding  and generally  lives on rainwater.





The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of  public theatres to be built.

The Rose was built in 1587. It was the first purpose-built playhouse to ever stage a production of any of Shakespeare's plays. The theatre was built on a messuage called the "Little Rose," The Rose contained substantial rose gardens.
Excerpts courtesy Wikipedia

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet 

♫ 

4/02/2017





Early morning,  two shrubs,  pink Lagerstroemia and  blue flowered Solanum rantonnettii are alive with honey bees and many different solitary bees. The bushes resonate with humming, buzzing and droning with their activity, checking out the flowers for pollen and nectar. 












Yes, now "walkies"!


Yesterday has been  and can not be brought back, so enjoy what today has in store for you, because tomorrow it will be yesterday. Ts

☼

06/02/2017

The pleasure of arranging flowers



In this case a single stem of bougainvillea, simple in a light blue glass carafe.




...or a bunch of Kurume azaleas in an  old copper vessel. Azaleas are are incredibly long lasting as cut flowers. Photo 05/08 2016





..smiling Pansy faces in a small recycled Dior perfume bottle. Photo 21/07/2016




Old time roses ask to be bunched together as small posies. Photo 23/06/2016


Your own garden lets you cut flowers, stems, leaves every day of the year to decorate your home. 




Some do it on their own whim, petals gracefully decorating  what ever takes their fancy.





08/02/2017




The blue pot used to be a water feature but the small pump always clogged up. A little blue rabbit has found a home for now. I might try again later install a pump with sun power.






Salvia madrensis last year,  exactly the same time. This year it has not yet flowered as it was so dry. I hope that this tall, beautiful salvia will still flower later. We had no significant rain or storm in our area this summer.




This time of year we can feast on mangoes. The trees roots go deep into the clay soil and are also irrigated when it is getting to dry. There are always enough to give to family, Neighbours and the garden helper  can take a bucket full home.This year some trees did not bear any fruit.




Tradescantia I have got a few species of these interesting, and beautiful plants


John Tradescant the elder ca. 1570s – 15–16 April 1638), father of John Tradescant the younger,  English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller. 
His career began as head gardener to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury at Hatfield House. Robert Cecil initiated Tradescant to travel. He send him to the Low Countries to collect fruit trees in 1610/11. 
He was kept on by Robert's son William, to produce gardens at the family's London house, Salisbury House. He then designed gardens on the site of St Augustine's Abbey for Edward Lord Wotton in 1615-23.
Later, Tradescant was gardener to the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, remodelling his gardens at New Hall, Essex and at Burley-on-the-Hill. 
John Tradescant travelled to the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery in Arctic Russia in 1618. His own account of the expedition survives in his collection. He travelled  to the Levant and to Algiers during an expedition against the Barbary pirates in 1620, returned to the Low Countries on Buckingham's behalf in 1624, and finally went to Paris and (as an engineer for the ill-fated siege of La Rochelle) the Ile de Rhé with Buckingham. After Buckingham's assassination in 1628, he was then engaged in 1630 by the king to be Keeper of his Majesty's Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms at his queen's minor palace, Oatlands Palace in Surrey.

On all his trips he collected seeds and bulbs everywhere and assembled a collection of curiosities of natural history and ethnography which he housed in a large house, "The Ark," in Lambeth, London. A collection of rare and strange objects, that became the first museum open to the public in England, the Musaeum Tradescantianum. He also gathered specimens through American colonists, including his personal friend John Smith, who bequeathed Tradescant a quarter of his library. From their botanical garden in Lambeth, on the south bank of the Thames, he and his son, John, introduced many plants into English gardens that have become part of the modern gardener's repertory. A genus of flowering plants (Tradescantia) is named to honour him. 
He was buried in the churchyard of St-Mary-at-Lambeth, as was his son; the churchyard is now established as the Museum of Garden History.

courtesy some excerpts Wikipedia

He is the subject of the novel Earthly Joys, by Philippa Gregory. Great novel to read. Ts

💛

Yesterday afternoon 09/02/2017

Koala visits my bush garden.






He is quite at home in my garden as he visits often. I have planted many Eucalyptus trees he likes to eat the leaves. 




He is not tame but he is also not afraid, as he sometimes walks past in a leisurely way to climb up the next tree. 



eek...I am itchy.





I think he has chosen the bush garden as his territory, perhaps one day he will bring his bride and his babies as well.
I left him a bowl of water. It is a fallacy to say Koalas do not drink. When it is very hot they like to have drink.




Along the driveway/ butterfly garden, these beautiful, yellow Abutilon are flowering again.

It was Thursday, very hot and humid, though we had a little rain in between and over night, around 20 ml

💜


Today, 13/02/2017




Despite heat and dryness, a drop of rain triggered this lovely spider daylily to flower again.






☼

This morning 19/02/2017





Oh, sweet Abelia, scent of all summers, warm fragrance touching the core of one's inner self. Ts






Figs fresh from the tree for breakfast.


Slowly but surely summer goes into autumn. It is still hot and dry, but their is a sleight change, nearly not noticeable. Someone who does not know this area would not notice, the changes are so minimal but the sun is retreating its fire, daylight is already shorter.

💚

John Keats was such a romantic.

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” 


24/02/2017




Along the garden path;





It was to hot and dry for my Gladioli to flower successfully this year. But now I find a few trying to catch up and make up, as the spikes are tall and the flowers magnificent.. 










The tough and  reliable Catharanthus, Madagascar Periwinkle
Catharanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. Like genus Vinca, they are known commonly as periwinkles. There are eight known species. 









There are many new colours, unfortunately the new hybrids are not as tough  and drought resistant as the old ones.


28/02/2017

Good bye February, last month of summer. I am not sad, summer was hot and dry and not much rain. The garden was mostly exhausted but battled on in its stoic way of beating the odds. When the rain gods decided to send some of their precious gift, the plants smiled  and tilted their faces towards the rain; cool and nourishing for a moment. We are promised a whole week of rain so far a few drops equaling  nothing. Well, lets hope it is only Tuesday. 

Last year, the same day I photographed this beautiful Daylily














Today:  the first rose for autumn or the last in summer, just the occasional watering makes all the difference. It is odd that it is flowering now as it is such a temperamental rose in the subtropics.It has stubbornly not shown one flower since probably more than a year. I guess better late than never.














Today; Plants that thrive in the subtropics, Bromeliads and succulents can not be beaten unless you burn them!


...and the tough ones, never watered, just live on what nature provides.





Penta, one of the best. Many colours, easily propagated and bees and butterflies love them as well. Winners in any sense.



Cordylines, splendid green, indestructible unless you tear it out with roots and all.




Orchid Epidendrum, many colours, are available,  looks after itself and thrives on neglect.



Well, lovelies, this is the last of summer. See you tomorrow for the first day in March/autumn for us.


Be kind to each other!


Believe it or not:


Green summer days and month in collusion with the piercingly hot  light of the sun prepare to melt away to make room for a mellow  cycle of autumn as promised by nature. Ts

©Photos/Text Ts mygarden