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

Cycads

This photo shows the only two plants I retained in the front yard after I moved in 6 years ago. Most dominant is the poinciana, which is now flowering, and to the right, a large cycad, Cycas revoluta. I think I have mentioned previously that, at the time, and really until just before the floods of last summer, Brisbane had been in the grip of an extended drought. Because I wanted a tropical feel to the garden, I added various members of the cycad family to the garden to capture a ferny, palmy look that was still compatible with the severe water restrictions in place at the time.

One of my first steps was to plant a row of Zamia furfuracea or Cardboard 'palms' separated by clumps of liriope along the top terrace garden under my pool - a planting pairing I had seen around Southbank. It provides a lush green contrast to the main garden bed below. Despite their common name, the zamias are not palms, but are a kind of cycad.

A coronet of new growth on my cardboard palm Zamia furfuracea

The photos below show cardboard palms incorporated into a tropical landscape at a friend's place.

Cardboard palms with bromeliads and golden cane palms.

Cardboard palm with rhoeo and birds nest fern.

This prickly specimen I think is Dioon Spinulosum. I planted it  to mark the separation point between  the garden along the driveway and the bromeliads planted at the side of the garage.

Zamia integrifolia foreground with the Dioon spinulosum (?) behind it.

Spring foliage on the Zamia integrifolia

Cones on the Zamia

 Zamia paucijuga  (note to self - need to weed this patch!)

Cycas thouarsii - I planted this right at the start of the driveway  for  impact.

Not my garden, but a local street planting, which shows the Cycas revoluta  male and female plants. Despite the superficial resemblance to palms, cycads produce cones, which align them to conifers.

The cone of my female plant.

Public Enemy Number One - the Blue Cycad Butterfly

The photos below show some of the damage wrought by the Blue Cycad Butterfly caterpillars. I am reluctant to spray if I can help it, but I use Confidor occasionally to minimise the damage on new fronds.