A warm winters day in the garden, plus new dahlias and amaryllises

After experiencing three frosty mornings in a row, it was a surprise yesterday when the temperature rose to a warm 15 degrees C. Today the temperature was the same, so I took advantage of it and spent half an hour walking around the garden taking photos. I didn't even need to wear a coat.

Some of the camelia bushes are in full flower now. They seem to think it is spring already. The red flowered camelia in the photo above has flowers that are larger than my hand. I picked one and put it in a vase to bring more colour into the house.

The white arum lilies are putting on a good show in the shade under the trees. 

There are so many trees and shrubs that I love, but I am finding it hard to find other plants that will survive underneath them. I found some real estate agent photos showing what our garden used to look like many years ago, before we moved here. The flower beds, which are 2 metres-wide, used to be full of perennial flowers, roses and small shrubs. The alder tree, which is now massive, was just a small sapling and the weeping pear (not-an-olive-tree) was about shoulder height.

The shrubs and trees now take up the whole flower bed space and cast shadows across the garden. However, they give us a lot of privacy from the neighbours as six properties overlook our garden. Without the trees it would make me feel rather exposed, especially since we used to live in the middle of 10 acres of land. Another advantage of the trees is that the shade cast by them gives us some respite from the heat of the sun in summer.

 

The viburnum is coming into flower now. Dad trimmed it back a bit earlier on in the year and he removed all the dead branches from the bottom. The growth is now a bit scraggy after its "haircut", so I think I will trim the bush harder to neaten it up once the flowers have faded. I am not sure when the best time would be to trim the viburnum, but I won't do it until all threat of frost has gone.

Two out of the four purple tibouchina cuttings, that we brought from our last house, are well established now and are flowering their hearts out. They are in sheltered positions and luckily didn't get hit by the wind and frosts.

The Chinese primulas, that we bought in spring last year, self-seeded and have started to flower which I am really pleased about. The slugs are pleased about it too by the look of the holes in their leaves! I may transplant the smallest of the seedlings into pots and grow them on until they are big enough to survive the slugs.

The orange abutilon (Chinese lantern tree) has grown massive since I planted it out. I need to stake it as it is on a sideways lean due to the strong winds we have had, and the soil being wet and soft in that corner hasn't helped either. 

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The neighbour's flowering quince is flowering, even better than last year, over the top of our fence, and the golden arctotis plants are starting to flower.

I have also been busy ordering more amaryllis bulbs and dahlia tubers online from the NZ Bulbs website. I bought 2 amaryllises and 6 dahlias which will be arriving late next month or early September. It is so exciting. 

The photos below of the amaryllises and dahlias are from the NZ Bulbs website.  

The amaryllises that I chose are:

- Dancing Queen  

- and Nymph 

The dahlias that I chose are:

- Cafe au Lait

- French Can Can

- Kenora Macop B

- Labyrinth

- Peaches and Cream

- and Tsuki-Yuri-No-Shisha

While I am waiting for these to arrive, I will be buying planters, stakes, potting mix and compost, ready for planting them. I will be putting all of these around the edge of the deck where they will get the most sunlight. I can't wait 😊.

                               

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Hugs, Rose xxx

Flowers in my garden mid-Spring

This Spring the amaryllis flowers are amazing. There are 19 stems of flowers in-all and they have grown really tall. Their red trumpets are huge and look like rich velvet. I have never seen them do this well before. Maybe the mild Winter had something to do with their success. 

This is the gravel pathway between the house and garage where we grow plants in pots and tubs and also raise new cuttings.

The clematis is also doing well, it is absolutely full of pretty blue flowers. We love it so much that we have bought 3 more in different colours. One has buds on and the other 2 are madly climbing up their stakes. I will take some photos of them when they flower.

We also bought a red mandevilla plant, it has lots of new growth on it and quite a few buds.

We're not sure where we're going to plant the mandevilla. It may look good growing up the fence at the front of the house. Or we may put it in a large plant pot and keep it where it is.

This yellow snapdragon plant has been growing and successfully flowering for over 3 years.

We didn't know that snapdragons could be grown as perennials. We trim each stem, when it has finished flowering, to just below the seedheads, and leave the plant alone through Winter.

Dad has created a new flowerbed at the side of the water tanks. We are planting hydrangeas, foxgloves and aquilegia here as it is quite shady under the fruit trees.

This flower bed now joins the existing bed where the arctotis and cineraria grow.

And the flowerbed continues around one of the lime trees to where we have planted white irises and phlomis. 

Dad is going to widen the iris bed and I have ordered more irises in different colours to go here. They will be arriving in late January, so there is plenty of time to prepare.

The abutilons that we planted at the far corner of the garden are growing well, and the self-seeded white foxgloves are much taller than me now!

The orange clivia put on a good show this year. I am thinking of maybe getting a yellow-flowered one to put in another shady spot, next to the garden shed, under the plum tree.

I hope that this post finds you well. Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Hugs, Rose xxx

Spring is here!

Today is the first day of Spring and it has turned out to be gloriously sunny. It was a big surprise to see such a quick change in the weather after the terrific thunderstorm and lashings of rain we had last night.

I woke to hear the dawn chorus from the many blackbirds, thrushes and tuis that visit our garden. 

I managed to photograph a tui in our neighbour's pink blossom tree which leans over our fence. The blossom looks like bunches of dangling bells and is full of nectar which the tuis drink. Tuis are lovely birds with a little plume of white feathers at their throat. Their song is amazing to hear, it is very long and cheerful with a very wide range of notes. 

I wandered around the garden with my camera and Otto followed as usual. I found many flowers just starting to open including a dainty forget-me-not, which I enlarged in the photo above, and discovered a tiny ant drinking nectar from one of the flowers.

I noticed a few flowers on the yet-to-be-named blackberry/boysenberry bush. We didn't have any luck with the fruit on it last year. The fruit all dried up for some reason, despite the amount of rain we had. This season I need to get advice on how to look after them and identify what sort of berry they are.

The pretty, mauve-flowered bush above fell over and split its trunk during the Winter storms. It managed to layer one branch, which survived, and this is flowering now. We had to remove all the rest of the dead branches. It used to be quite a large bush.  

The white arum lilies are flowering now and stand out brightly in the shade under the trees.

The Meyer lemons are ripening nicely. I picked one yesterday to use in a chicken and leek in white wine sauce recipe. The lemon was juicy and full of flavour and added just the right amount of zinginess to the dish.

The hellebores are still flowering since the beginning of Winter, and there are more buds forming. I don't deadhead the hellebores, they are left to self-seed under the trees.

This Spring we are lucky with the little blood orange tree. It has produced quite a lot of fruit for its size. Now it is just a matter of judging when they have ripened fully and picking them before the birds and slugs get to them.

A few of the anemone bulbs which were planted last Autumn are flowering. I was lucky to find this one which hadn't been munched on by snails.  

This fucshia managed to survive the Winter outdoors and today I discovered flower buds on it. When we bought it last Autumn it was in full flower. I took a cutting of it just in case it didn't survive, and the cutting has been successfully growing in the garage on a shelf by the window. I need to find somewhere to plant it out now.

The bad storms this past Winter blew the tree in our lawn over sideways even more, and it is now on a great lean towards our neighbour's property. We might need to contact an arborist for advice about it. If it needs to be removed we will need to get permission from the council who will come and inspect it. 

Our Alder tree was also blown sideways and lost many branches due to the hurricane. It is such a shame as it is a large old tree. It will be awful if we lose it.

On a brighter note, the Chinese primulas have grown well. They like the partial shade that they were planted in. And the flowers are in varying shades of pink and white. These should self-seed under the trees and bushes and make an even better display next year :o)

In the next week dad and I are planning to go to the garden centre to buy compost and vegetable seedlings. We will also be looking for flowering perennials and shrubs and maybe a couple of dessert grape vines. I'm not sure what time of year they sell different plants, but I enjoy looking anyway.

I hope this post finds you well and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Hugs, 

Rose xxx

The last week of Autumn in my garden

 

It is the end of Autumn here in New Zealand. The weather has been glorious for the past few days, so I have been out in the garden with my camera. 

I took some photos to show you what is flowering and fruiting now, and also the beginnings of a new flower bed prepared by my dad.  

The tree in the photo above is Cassia corymbosa "John Ball" which is commonly known as the buttercup tree. Its flowers are a lovely buttercup yellow. The tree is unusual in that it folds its leaves up at night and when the weather is very dry. 

Our buttercup tree has been flowering all Autumn and should carry on flowering throughout Winter. Last year there weren't many flowers on the tree, so dad gave it a good pruning and feeding which resulted in the production of more lovely flowers.

The white camellia bushes in front of the house are in full bloom. 

Each flower lasts a few days then drops its petals like confetti all over the place. It looks like it has been snowing!

Some of the roses are still flowering, but I expect not for much longer as the weather is getting cooler.

The lavender has put on a lot of new growth since it was pruned back. There are lots of perfumed flowers for the bees to enjoy.

Some magnolia flowers are opening. This is an unusual tree to me because it flowers all year round, just a few flowers at a time.

I need to discover how to revive the red hibiscus. It hasn't got many leaves and has only got one flower so far. I suppose it is better than last year when it was only twigs!

The new flower bed in progress. 

This corner of the garden looks like it was a dumping ground for concrete rubble, large stones and sand. Dad took out all the rubble and stones and removed the quince tree which the arborist told us had died. Then we bought bags of compost to dig in.

The yellow abutillon bush is in place with supporting stakes. Its branches are very thin and brittle. Here's hoping that it can stand up to the windy Winter weather ahead.

I love the lantern-shaped flowers so much that we decided to buy more abutillon plants. One red and one orange.

The grevillia ground cover has been flowering for a few weeks now. It is a strange plant with very small flowers. It keeps getting covered over with falling Autumn leaves.

Foxglove and aqueligia plants have seeded themselves in the garden. I can't wait to see what colours the flowers will be.

We managed to harvest some delicious feijoas from our tree this year. 

After watering the tree well, pruning it and giving it a feed, we managed to get a couple of bowls full of fruit. 

The yellow cherry guava tree still has lots of fruit on it. The fruit has stopped ripening now that the weather is cooler. The blackbirds are happily eating what is left, which I don't mind. I harvested plenty this year.

And lastly here is a photo of our silverbeet (chard) that is growing in the veggie patch. We also have perpetual spinach and flat leaf parsley growing in the patch, but they aren't very photogenic at the moment 😁

I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the season in your part of the world. I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to catch up on what has been happening.

Hugs, Rose x