Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day August 2012

The fifteenth of the month and Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day has come around very quickly for me this month. I have been in transit the last few days and arrived here in Bangkok last night. Of course, if I had been organised, I would have had my draft post ready, but it was a particularly inelegant and disorganised departure. I was still weeding and mulching furiously on the afternoon before I left Brisbane, and I needed to clean out my water feature, so my fish would be happy for the next few months without me. By the time it came to packing, every muscle was aching and I was just not with it, but fortunately, through all the chaos, I managed to keep snapping in the lead up to my departure, so that I could share what's happening in my late winter garden.

Most eagerly awaited were my first-ever anemones: one red, one blue. I rushed down each morning to check progress of the buds until they finally opened.  Before I left to start work in Jakarta, most of the 25 or so corms I had planted had come up, but when I returned there were only two left, which made them all the more precious.

The osteospermum has been spot flowering for weeks now.

The seedhead from the Bird of Paradise Strelitzia

I'm always happy to see the Brugmansia in flower

This is its corner of the garden. Sort of looks okay, doesn't it?

Appearances can be deceptive. From a different angle, it was not a pretty story.

In my enthusiasm to pull out some old roots, I flicked up lots of the pavers. 

I eventually accepted that I wasn't going to get around to fixing it. Thank heavens for Hire A Hubby!

So, here I am in Bangkok thinking about what I am going to miss in my own garden come Spring (September in Australia), mostly the orchids and the first blooms of the daylilies.

The Dancing lady or Oncidium Orchid already has a flower spike.

So does the Rock Orchid Dendrobium speciosum

I have a day lily border around about three-quarters of my front garden now.

To see more of what is happening in gardens around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens. And do drop back for a visit to see the latest of my adventures in Thailand and Indonesia. My next post will include the fabulous Jim Thompson's house that I visited this morning here in Bangkok.

South of the border

How is that weekends fly past so quickly! I only had time for the briefest of visits to the garden this morning, and yesterday, just enough time to feed the fish before I was out and about. This morning I finally cleaned out the water feature. The fish will be a lot happier now that their home has been freshened up.

After a slowish start, my 'Mexican' garden is finally coming along, although I seem to have relaxed the theme as time has passed.  The Salvia 'Velour White' is flowering happily, as is the Osteospermum 'Double Sensation'. Cineraria 'Silver Dust', between the rosemary and the Aloe 'Diana'  is making slower progress. This part of the garden looks a little bare in places, but I have planted it with a variety of seeds and some gorgeous orange ranunculi bulbs, which should add a bit of a punch to the grey foliaged plants, plus I hope to eventually mosaic the step in the top left corner.

Just beneath the step is a canna, 'Coco' I think, which hasn't exactly thrived, and most of my herbs - oregano, a small leafed basil, thyme and chives - and I have variegated applemint and summer savory nearby. I have also had great success in the same spot with Mexican tarragon and Italian parsley, which I need to replant.

Here is a view from the other end of the garden. The height in the garden near the steps is provided by the hammerhead frangipani Plumeria pudica and the rosemary, and, at the other end, by a yucca and a Hawaiian Fan Palm.

The end of the garden will eventually be a hedge of gardenia 'Professor Pucci' and a lower hedge of box, but in the meantime I have let a pineapple sage have free reign.

Here's how the Mexican garden looks from left to right. The small spiky plant to the right of the aloe is Yucca 'Purple Royale'. In front of that is Agave attenuata, with a little succulent graptopetalum tucked under its left side, and, under the palm I have a couple of bromeliads, Tradescantia 'Purple Heart' and the cycad-like Zamia paucijuga. I have just started to move some of the daylilies from the opposite side, which is getting a bit shady in places, to form a border on this side of the garden too. My ugly garden edging is, hopefully, just a very temporary one.

Elsewhere in the garden, there was a new bromeliad in flower. This is Guzmania wittmackii.

I get a little disheartened when I look over the fence at the back of the garage. I have been just letting the garden settle since I had a big palm removed, but I decided to have a tug at some roots that had got under the pavers. Not surprisingly, I have managed to flip quite a few pavers out of their places. Fixing that will be a task for next weekend.

With a final look at the front, there was no delaying any longer. It was time to head inside to the paperwork. Onslow looked suitably mournful, as he always does.

While Miss Bella seemed absolutely delighted that I was coming back inside her side of the fence.

Up close and personal

I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by chores at the moment and usually find the perfect cure is a 5 or 10 minute meander through the garden to see what has changed from the previous day.

A new bud on the 'Little Gem' magnolia had appeared and warranted closer inspection, but it seems someone else had the same idea and was getting up close and personal themselves...

But despite the interlopers and the fact that they'd had a bit of a nibble on a couple of the petals, nothing detracted from the pristine beauty of the almost-bloom.

Then I headed down to dahlia 'Marie Antoinette' to check if there were any blooms ready for picking.

I love the frosted tips on its petals.

Nearby, there were new zinnias just coming out.

Zinnia elegans 'Polar Bear'

Colourwise this looks like Zinnia elegans 'Isabellina' , although it should be more double.

This is the first flower on a small Cosmos seedling. The colour doesn't quite match the fancy varieties of seed I planted, so I think it may be self-seeded from my original 'mixed' selection that seemed to be all deep pink.

Another first flower of the season, the Osteospermum 'Double Sensation' that I bought in July. 

A couple of the miniature dahlias I bought in a mixed punnet.

Signs of flowers yet to come : these scabiosa, which have germinated so quickly.

Up about as close and personal as I like to be with this fellow standing guard on a bromeliad.

New additions

I've been laid low this week with some kind of flu virus, so have accomplished little in the garden. But...on my way back from the doctor somehow I found myself pulling in to my local nursery. It was the perfect tonic!

I don't really have space in Bella and Onslow-free territory but will have a bit of a reshuffle in the 'Mexican Garden' in the front yard once I get a bit of energy back.

I think it's time to say goodbye to the Mexican Tarragon. It was a sunny patch of colour in autumn, but clashes with everything. I want to play up the blue grey tones, plus I am desperate for some pretty cut flowers, especially after looking at Belinda's exquisite creations at Wild Acre.

Here are the new additions in the back of my car:

Salvia 'Velour White'; Marguerite daisy 'Crazy Daisy'; Cineraria 'Silver Dust' and my favourite, Osteospermum 'Double Sensation'

Here's more of 'Double Sensation":