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.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day January 2012

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the first for 2012. 

On the 15th of each month, Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts this meme, which provides a chance for garden bloggers around the world to share what is happening in their gardens.

Here in sub-tropical Brisbane, it is midsummer. The garden has taken a bit of a hammering since last GBBD as December was as uncharacteristically dry as November had been (and, in the chaos of the holiday season, I was a little remiss with my watering). 

Since then, I have had a big tidy-up and have pulled out most of the 'Wendy's Wish' salvias and the cosmos. There is a bit of a gap in the garden, but it won't be for long. I am replacing the salvias with cuttings, and the cosmos have self-seeded. I have supplemented them with some interesting and different cosmos seeds that I ordered online and have sewn directly into the garden bed. I have 'Psyche' doubles, 'Seashells', 'Versailles' White and Flush, 'Sensation' Gloria and C. Bipinnatus 'Daydream'. I can't wait to see them in flower.

I am really enjoying one of my more recent additions to the garden, Nymphaea helvola, a miniature waterlily, and have bought some new goldfish to add to the existing white cloud fish family.  

Just opening...

The Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet has been a mass of flowers. It is difficult to decide what is more beautiful, the flowers or its perfume.

The brugmansia is underplanted with Costus, or spiral ginger. There is a faded beauty in their spent flowers.

The Leopard Lily Belamcanda chinensis can always be relied on for a splash of colour.

So too, the variegated Alstomeria. I made lovely little Christmas posies using the flowers and foliage, combined with red pentas and parsley flowers.

There's lots of new growth on the Zamias.

And the Hammerhead Frangipani Plumeria pudica is just stunning.

Another pristine beauty is Hibiscus 'Wilders White'

The daylilies are reflowering.

'Fetish'

'Passion for Life'

'Velvet Rose'

Finally, I can always bank on a bromeliad blooming. This Neoregelia is another purloined on a visit to my brother's garden. It is almost a miniature so helps to provide variety of size as well as the contrast of its speckled foliage. Also, for brom growers, I spotted this handy tip on ABC Gardening Australia Magazine's facebook page. Editor Jennifer Stackhouse talked about mosquitos breeding in bromeliad cups - to stop them breeding, regularly add just a few drops of coconut oil, which you can find  at Asian grocers and health food stores

Almost overlooked

While the bold and the beautiful, like the Strelitzia above, tend to dominate in a sub-tropical or tropical garden, one of the joys of gardening is the chance to get right down to 'eye level' with some of the shyer flowers in the garden and to appreciate their quieter beauty. 

Liriope or lilyturf is a classic example. I tend to think of mine as a grass and have been pleased with its progress on a narrow terrace with cardboard plants. I had almost forgotten about the dainty blooms until their recent arrival, but they are so pretty in soft shades of mauve with the contrasting yellow anthers.

It is a similar story with my Italian parsley. It is truly one of the great success stories of my garden. One tiny seedling has grown into a lush mound that has kept me completely supplied in the kitchen for over 12 months. It was planted for practical reasons, and I was initially disappointed to see the flowers forming, fearing this might hasten the plant's demise, and yet the flowers have a delicate beauty, like tiny starbursts.

The neoregelia bromeliads are grown for the variety of their foliage, and the tiny flowers deep in the natural vase at the centre of the plants can be easily overlooked, unlike those of their dramatic guzmania cousins.

Few people would categorise zinnias among the easily overlooked, but this little guy is quite a subdued shade, albeit of orange or apricot. I bought him in a mixed punnet of zinnia, so I am not too sure what variety they are. So far they are happily flowering but are only about 4 inches high, and, since I planted some behind the daylilies expecting taller plants, they have been almost overshadowed.

Variegated foliage like this alstomeria tends to stand out in the garden, but if it were not for the cream edging around the edge of the long-stemmed  flowers, they could merge in with the dark red tones of the cordylines behind them.  I keep re-tweaking the planting in this part of the front garden: the cosmos have finished for the moment, and I have cut back the 'Wendy's Wish' salvia (back left), but I will try to think about a background planting to accentuate the striking two-tone flowers.

I love the windmill-shaped flowers of this Cuphea 'Vienco'. Normally, the burgundy flowers contrast with the foliage, but after the dry stretch in November, the leaves became quite red themselves, as you can see in the very top of the photo, and the flowers less conspicuous. Now, with the recent rain, new green foliage is once again a foil to the blooms.

Finally, when you do get down on eye-level, there are other things in the garden that could otherwise be easily overlooked, and that suits some critters just fine.

Dining out on the gardenia

A day later, and so much fatter! 

December Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

On the 15th of each month, Carol at May Dreams Gardens provides the chance for garden bloggers around the world to share what is happening in their gardens via Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

My summer garden here in Brisbane is full of colour and life and has benefited enormously from recent rain after our driest November on record.

Blue-banded bees are frequent visitors to the pentas and salvias.

I finally found an obliging Blue Cycad Butterfly to open his wings and strike a pose for me.

Red is predominant among the blooms, not really surprising since it is my favourite colour, and the poinciana is at its peak.

The Costus or Spiral Ginger is in flower.

The variegated alstomeria is just starting to bloom. I would love a bunch of these to decorate my Christmas table.

Some of later daylilies making their first appearance for the season have been in deeper tones.

This is 'Frank Teele'

'Double Cranberry Ruffles'

and 'Wedding Band' has been flowering continuously.

I have a couple of new additions to my daylily collection as I have decided to extend the border of them in the front to all of the u-shaped garden. The two I chose were:

'Colin Campbell'

and 'Russian Ragtime'

Another new addition to the garden was the result of a bromeliad swap with my mosaic mentor Sandy. She had this one growing along her front fence and gave me a couple of pups. I think this is so gorgeous and Christmasy. With its berry-shaped flowers it could be a tropical stand-in for holly berries.

Elsewhere in the garden, the dry weather in November has made an impact. My cosmos have pretty much been and gone, though I am hopeful they have self seeded. I have cut back the salvias, but there's new foliage on the cordyline.

Cordyline 'Kiwi'

There are still spot flowers but also seed heads forming on the Eremophila polyclada.

But for others, like the leopard lily and the spider lily, the spot flowers are a portent of the big display still to come.

Most wonderful of all are those flowers that combine exquisite beauty with a heavenly scent, like the gardenias and the frangipani.

Gardenia 'Professor Pucci'

My frangipani,  Plumeria rubra 'Tricolour'

and finally, a solitary flower on the evergreen frangipani at twilight. The end of another satisfying day in the garden and my post for this December Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Plumeria obtusa

Very best wishes for the festive season and for more Garden Blogger's Bloom Day posts, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.