A Little Pink to Start the Day

Photos: iphone - 21 July, 2013 morning
Home, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

The Amazing Pinkie Rose

Spring
Love this time of year.
The Pinkie Rose covering the front of our house is in full bloom.
It's beautiful.
And pink.

photo: iphone - 11 Nov, 2012 
Ararat, Victoria, Australia

Have I Mentioned....

......I love irises?
Oh. I have.
Well, just in case you didn't quite catch it the first several times,
I love irises.
Here's my pink one
(from the Bunninyong markets)

Photos: 19th October, 2011

In the Garden Today

Ranunculus.
In the White Birch garden bed.




Photo: Home - 26 Sept, 2011

Creeping Up on Me

I don't know the name of this camellia - it was already here when we bought the house - not my roses (way too early).

As much as I love gardening, I also love the respite from hard work that comes with winter.
3'ish months of not having to trim and weed and mow and plant and water, is rather nice.
Both the garden and I go into hibernation.
But I know it's time to wake up when my camellias start to show themselves.
Spring is just around the corner!

Camellia - Desire

Camellia - Buttons 'n' Bows

Photos: Home, August - 2011

You Never Know

Fuchsias didn't really register on my radar.
I don't know what I had against them.
They just seemed a bit too fussy and prissy.
I didn't think they would be made of stern enough stuff to survive in my garden.
(ie: alternating being lavished with attention and then neglected for months on end).

I couldn't have been more wrong.
They are really hardy little buggers.
All through summer and now well into autumn they just keep on flowering.
And they are the happiest, jolliest little plants.
Lots of strong colour.

So I lashed out and ordered a few more from Brenlissa online nursery.
They come in lots of different flavours and you can get upright ones
or ground-covers or ones for hanging baskets.
I think I've been converted.



Photos: Home - April, 2011

The Amazing Pinkie Rose

When we bought this house 3ish years ago in a Victorian country town, it was originally intended as an investment property.
It was a pretty daggy house but it was in a great position and was structurally sound.

We didn't have a lot of money for renovations, so anything we did to prettify the appearance from the street, had to be achieved via the garden.

Anyway...the house had these weird brick pillars holding up the little front verandah.
They were very u-u-u-ugly.
Our options were to replace them, paint them (which always looks like a lame attempt to beautify) or hide them.



At our house in the city, I had a lot of success with a Climbing Gold Bunny.
When it was in full flower, it used to stop people in the street and they would take photos. It was extra special coz my Grandma gave me $20 when we first bought our city house to buy a rose for the garden.
I loved my Grandma.
And she loved roses.


So I thought some climbing roses on the pillars might work - to hide and distract.
But there was concrete on the ground along the front of the verandah.
I didn't know if it would work, but I got Dad and Vince to cut 2 square holes in the concrete in which I could plonk a couple of roses.


And guess what!
The Pinkie Roses love it!
Their roots stay nice and cool and just moist and the leaves bake against the bricks.
Absolutely ideal.
It never fails to amaze my Mum - "I can't believe it grows out of that little hole in the cement!"
They are a real show-stopper.
And the great thing about that is, when people walk by and you are in the garden, they will comment on it and that is such a great way to strike up a conversation and get to know your neighbours.
Especially the older ones, who always have good stories.


Oh yeah - and we loved our little investment property and the little country Victorian town so much - we packed up our city lives and moved into it.
Best decision - EVER!


Photos:
1,2,4&5: Nov, 2010
3. Oct, 2007

Abracadabra!

Look!
I grew these from sticks.

My first propagating experience.
Next year they will be tall enough to hide that weird ugly fence.
What IS that kind of fence? - looks like something used in a pig pen.
I was hoping they would be purple but they are kind of pinky mauve.
I think I might have to acidify the soil a bit more to get them purple.
They are past flowering now.
There's a few stragglers.
They'll get a haircut soon.


This is them the same time last year (in the picture below).
Haven't they grown a lot?




photos:
1. iphone - Feb, 2011
2. Feb, 2011
3. Jan, 2010


PS. Comments turned back on, by special request!

Casualty No. 2

Earlier this year my beautiful pink flowering gum, snapped off at the base.
I was very sad.



And last night it happened again!
This gorgeous rose - Double Delight - that my mother-in-law kindly struck for me, snapped.
B#st##d!
It wasn't even that windy.

That's it!
Every plant in the garden will be staked within an inch of its life!

(and I'll take a cutting from the rose to see if I can grow a new one).


Photos:
Jan, 2010
Feb, 2010
Feb, 2011

Summer 2009:: Crepe Myrtle

Ta Da!
It made its very first flowers.
Clever Myrtle.


In the early morning light.
And.........
absolutely covered in buds.




Photo:
In the front yard, between the Callistemon and Camellia - 22 Feb, 2009

Summer 2009:: Flowering Gum

I LOVE flowering gums.
They are so showy and exuberant and **HAPPY**.
We only planted this one as a baby last summer.
Look what it did for us this summer!


Photo: Pink Flowering Gum, western side of Ararat house - 25 Jan, 2009.