Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day June 2013

It's hard to believe that it is more than a month since my last post and that I missed May Garden Bloggers Bloom Day completely. However, I am slowly making inroads trying to get the house in order and catch up with study for a short course I have enrolled in.

The garden has been neglected, but being wintertime here in Brisbane, I can almost get away with it. Unusually for this time of year, we have had a little rain. Although the shortest day of the year is only just around the corner and the temperature is dipping to around 20C by day and under 10C in the evening, there is still plenty of colour to be seen in my winter garden.

'Wilders White' Hibiscus

In the front garden, most of the colour comes courtesy of the aloes, several members of the sage and salvia family, and the deep red foliage of the Cordyline Rubra.

Looking across the front garden to the aloe and Hawaiian Fan Palm, the striped foliage in the foreground is a rhoeo.

Aloe 'Diana'

Afternoon light throught the cordylines.

   

Yucca 'Purple Royale' to the right of this Diana spike

Aloe 'Southern Cross' and grapetopetalum

On the driveway, the Strelitzia or Bird of Paradise are in bloom (and  Bella and Onslow are keeping up patrol duties)

Nandina

Interestingly, in the side garden my Brazilian Red Cloak is still putting on a great display, although it was back in March that I was admiring them in the City Botanic Garden. I like it with the dark foliage of the cordylines in the background, and I am leaving a similarly coloured euphorbia volunteer to the left of the red cloak for the same reason.

Brazilian Red Cloak Megaskepasma erythrochlamys

Three of the salvias are adding a pop of colour to the garden bed.

'Heatwave Sizzle'

Pineapple sage

'Hot Lips'

Two of the bromeliads are in flower. The top one is Aechmea 'Burning Bush'. I don't know the name of the other, but the bright purple and red combination make it one of my favourites.

All in all, the garden has held up quite well in spite of having been somewhat neglected while I've been busy.  Like Onslow I have been on the inside looking out, rather than out there getting my hands dirty. Hopefully, I will be able to turn that around by the time of my next garden report.

To see what is happening in other gardens around the world this Bloom Day, visit Garden Bloggers Bloom Day host Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Visitors at Chez Bella

I'll start this post with an apology.  What follows are some terrible photos of gorgeous subjects.

We are drawing closer to the start of winter here in Brisbane, though the days are gloriously sunny and the day- time temperatures still warm. There is a little less flowering in the garden at the moment, but this is more than compensated by some of the visitors to the garden.

One of my favourites, who drops by quite regularly, is the Blue-faced Honeyeater. They are such a handsome bird, with an olive green back, white underside, black bib and head, and a striking blue marking around the eye.

They love the canopy of the poinciana and occasionally sweep down into the pool for a dip.

I bought this plate years ago from the Eumundi markets, because it had a Blue-faced Honeyeater on it.

Another visitor to the poinciana that I snapped about a week ago was this Rainbow Lorikeet.

Yesterday, there were still more feasting on the nectar in the sasanqua camellias.

This stunning pair of Pale-headed Rosellas are rarer visitors to the garden, though I do see them overhead from time to time.

I'm not 100% sure whether this lizard is a water dragon or a forest dragon. At Chez Bella, we most frequently think of him as Onslow's nemesis. He seems to pick a safe spot just inside the pool fence where he is in Onslow's clear view but completely safe - no matter how much barking ensures. It drives poor Onslow to distraction.

And finally, two of the less popular visitors to Chez Bella. This photo goes back to around November (Halloween!) The poor little guy started making unexpected appearances fluttering around inside the lounge room. I don't particularly mind bats, but since they are associated with a nasty rabies-like illness (lyssavirus), I was very concerned that the dogs might get bitten if they ever got to him.

One evening he crash landed, and I was able to scoop him up in a bucket and release him on the front hedge, never to be seen again but hopefully happy in his new home.

 

While I would love to think that this was a lovely little native frog or toad, I suspect he is the hated and despised cane toad (but he was so little I had to let him go). Cane toads were introduced from Hawaii to eat a beetle in sugar cane crops, but they have been an environmental disaster. They are very toxic and have had a devastating effect on native wildlife, from frogs through to birds, small mammals and reptiles.

Occasionally, the dogs have got hold of one and start frothing at the mouth, so the race is then on to retrieve the toad and thoroughly rinse out their mouths before they are seriously poisoned.

As for the permanent 'wildlife' at Chez Bella  - I can hear Onslow snoring in the background. He's having a snooze on the couch.

Miss B is back in the collar of shame. She's got a nasty allergy between her toes, she just can't stop licking.

And freshly snapped this morning:  this has got to be my last daylily for the season (surely!)

'Passions Promise'

Here at Onslow and Miss B, we are going to hibernate over winter. I started blogging because I loved reading everyone else's blogs so much, but I have been struggling a bit to keep up with everything lately. I think while it is a quiet time here in the garden in Brisbane, I will focus on catching up and enjoying the Northern Hemisphere gardens over their spring and summer. I might even get the time to shop for a new big camera and work my way through Donna's great tips for photographing birds at Garden Walk Garden Talk  (click to visit). And of course, if I see anything really interesting, we'll be back to share.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day April 2013

As we enter into mid-Autumn here in Brisbane this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, there is not a great variety of blooms in the garden, but there is still plenty of colour. We are once again very much 'in the pink', courtesy of a new dahlia and those fabulous troopers, the cosmos.

Dahlia 'Araluen Katrina'

Love the pink of the cosmos with the slightly blue-toned foliage of aloe and Yucca 'Purple Royale'

Here is a better shot of the Yucca 'Purple Royale' (back right) with Tradescantia pallida or Purple Heart in the front.

I can't believe I still have a daylily blooming.

Daylily 'Passion for Life'

Here's the slightly chewed cosmos with variegated alstomeria and white ixora

Coleus, salvia 'Heatwave Sizzle ' and variegated alstomeria

One of the bromeliads on the driveway is out.

This little dahlia was bought last year as one in a punnet of seedlings.

Finally, one of the orchids is in bloom. This is an Oncidium.

There will be lots more to see over at May Dreams Gardens where Carol hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th of each month.