Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day March 2013

March 1 marks the first day of Autumn here in Brisbane. The last of the summer flowers are almost finished, but it is little early for autumn beauties like the dahlias, so I expected slim pickings for this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I haven't been out in the garden so much lately because it has been so wet, but when I sallied forth, camera in hand, I was pleasantly surprised.

The first bloom is in fact the last photo I took. Just as I was finalising my post, I remembered that the brugmansia was in bud yesterday. I peeked outside my back door and sure enough. How I could have missed the wonderful perfume when I came home from work, I don't know. I intended to duck out in the morning to capture a photo, but couldn't resist seeing how they would photograph at night. 

Bees and other insects have visited the  'Little Gem' magnolia, knocking off the anthers in their race for pollen.

A little, self-seeded zinnia

The daylilies are slowly spluttering to a finish, but each time I think I have seen the last of them for the season, they manage to produce one more flush.

Daylily 'Fetish'

Daylily 'All American Tiger'

It seems as if there is always a Leopard Lily in flower for Bloom Day.

Globba capicola 'Golden Dragon', a member of the ginger family 

'Golden Dragon'

Another Globba. This one is 'Redback'

Aechmea 'Burning Bush' 

Cestrum nocturnum, the night-scented jessamine or jasmine.

Once it has finished flowering, I'll give the Cestrum a light prune to tidy up those errant branches.

'Black Beauty', my first dahlia of the season

An unexpected repeat bloom from the Zygopetalum orchid.

Rejoicing in the rain, the rain lily Zephyranthes candida.

My goldfish continue to vanish. The population had been constant for a long time, but now the secret is out that they are a convenient snack. I am still not 100% sure which of the local birds to blame: kookaburras and butcher birds are the Number One suspects. The sole inhabitant has managed to escape suffering the same fate as his companions so far, but I think a net or wire cover might be needed before I expose any more fish to an untimely demise. In comparison, the miniature waterlily Nymphaea helvola is thriving with not one, but two blooms out.

The water feature has developed a tilt in the soggy ground. 

If we get much more rain, I'll be able to plant the waterlilies directly into the back garden!

Finally, not one of my blooms, but the golden penda have been so wonderful this year, probably as a result of all our rain, that I had to share one more photo of them. (Lots more here).

Thanks again to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, who hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the 15th of each month and provides the opportunity for gardeners around the world to share what is blooming in their corner of the globe.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day February 2013

One of the joys that follows decent rain here is Brisbane is the flush of flowers on the Murraya or Mock Orange and the glorious perfume that accompanies it.

I have a murraya hedge near the front door, but because it is regularly clipped the blooms are sparse. Not so the bush near my driveway! I only occasionally trim it back when it obscures too much of my vision as I reverse out of the driveway and it rewards me with a mass of blooms.

As you can see above, the poinciana is still flowering.

There are two kinds of plumeria flowering at the moment. The unscented Hammerhead frangipani Plumeria pudica

and the Evergreen frangipani Plumeria obtusa

It's quite a sensory overload of a evening with the murraya, frangipani and night-scented jessamine, which I haven't photographed, all in competion for the most heavenly scent.

The bromeliad above is Achmea 'Burning Bush' is just coming into flower, as is the ixora 'Pink Malay'

This beautiful flower is a Globba 'Red Back', a member of the ginger family, and I have another small golden globba that should be in bloom in time for next bloom day.

Firespike Odontonemea strictum

The daylilies are slowly coming to an end but have put on a fine show.

'Spacecoast Whiteout'

'Ash Rosie'

'Mr Lucky'

'Just A Tease'

I was thrilled to see my waterlily has made a recovery after a major decline last year. Unfortunately, I often miss the flowers because they haven't come out when I duck down early to feed the goldfish and have closed up again by the time I'm home from work.

I hadn't realised these two bromeliads were related until I noticed the similarity in the flowers.

This lovely canna is a very welcome refugee from my neighbour's yard.

Finally, along the driveway all the spider lilies Hymenocallis littoralis are out and looking spectacular.

That's the last garden blogger's bloom day for our summer here  in Australia. I'm hoping to order a few spring bulbs later today and am eagerly anticipating the arrival of blooms on dahlias.  To see more of what is blooming in gardens around the world, visit Carole at May Dreams Gardens.

Of drought and flooding rain...

It is the ultimate cliche to describe Australia as a land of contrasts, but events over the past few weeks have graphically illustrated just how appropriate the description is.

When I last posted on January 15 for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, many Australian communities were battling terrible bushfires. Here in Brisbane, on a few evenings there was a hint of smoke in the air and a dim pink glow in the evening from fires on Bribie Island.

As recently as a week ago, I was watering the garden regularly trying to keep the plants alive in searing heat. Our wet season was late, and although we'd had a couple of storms that had looked ominous, like the one below from late December, they produced little rain.

But over this long weekend when we traditionally celebrate Australia Day, the heavens opened. The wind and rain was relentless, life and death battles ensued, and as I type, there are still people on rooftops awaiting rescue. It brought to mind Dorothea MacKellar's description of a 'wilful, lavish land' and stanzas from her poem, 'My Country', one of the most loved in Australia:

I love a sunburnt country, 

A land of sweeping plains, 

Of ragged mountain ranges, 

Of droughts and flooding rains. 

I love her far horizons, 

I love her jewel-sea, 

Her beauty and her terror 

The wide brown land for me! 

Core of my heart, my country! 

Her pitiless blue sky, 

When, sick at heart, around us 

We see the cattle die 

But then the grey clouds gather, 

And we can bless again 

The drumming of an army, 

The steady soaking rain. 

Core of my heart, my country! 

Land of the rainbow gold, 

For flood and fire and famine 

She pays us back threefold. 

Over the thirsty paddocks, 

Watch, after many days, 

The filmy veil of greenness 

That thickens as we gaze. * 

Once again, here at Casa Bella, we were blessed. No damage, no flooding, just a tiny leak where I think the wind has forced water under the tiles. We just hunkered down till it started to settle this afternoon. A tree came down opposite my driveway, and I just saw a few of the neighbours head over with a chainsaw to remove it. (I optimistically headed out in the pouring rain late yesterday to try to drag it to the side before it got dark, but to no avail. I apparently need to eat more spinach.)

The water is finally starting to drain away in the backyard, the only really level ground here, but for a while it looked like the Amazon in miniature.

Even though some of the top-heavy trees have toppled when the soil has become too soft to hold them, and there is shredded foliage and twigs everywhere, most of the garden is undamaged, and some of the most delicate and fragile blooms remain.

Poinciana flowers and the strappy foliage of the Ponytail Palm in the pool.

Savoury 

Chive flower

Daylily 'Jordan Verhaert'

Daylily 'Douglas Lycett'

Daylily 'Double Cranberry Ruffles'

Frangipani Plumeria Obtusa

This little spider is hunkered down in the cosmos.

Of course, there are those who take it all in their stride!

For many the worst is yet to come. Many of the rivers have yet to peak, and then the clean-up must begin for inundated homes and businesses. What remains of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald is heading south to wreak havoc on New South Wales. Our thoughts are with all those in its path or already affected. 

* You can read all of the poem 'My Country' here.