Dahlia - Cornel Red

The second of the Dahlias to flower.
Cornel Red from the "Ball" variety.

Melbourne Garden - a New Challenge

It looks a bit different now to when we left 5 years ago!
My Melbourne garden was my first garden.
I grew beautiful purple wisteria and golden yellow roses.
Pinky apricot climbing roses (Crepsucule) and scarlet Virginia Creepers and burgandy-coloured grape vines.
Lipstick orange-red maples and pretty pink camellias.
Sadly since turning the property over to tenants who aren't keen gardeners, only half the plants remain.

But a new challenge has arisen.
Trying to create a self-maintaining garden that looks reasonably attractive.
I guess colour is the first casualty of a neglected garden.
I wonder why that is?

The existing climbing roses required too much maintenance for our non-gardener tenants and our infrequent visits, so I have opted to replace them with bush roses.
Last Spring I planted four along the front fence - only two remain:-
This beauty - Belle du Seigneur (beauty of the lord??)


and this one Bordure Camaieu - here's what camaieu means - a fairly apt description.
It's covered in buds - fingers crossed they last the summer.
If they don't - I think I am going to introduce an irrigation system to the garden.
Both roses are Delbard Roses - distributed in Australia by Rankins Roses.
I have a couple of these roses in my Ararat garden
and they really stand up to the conditions and always have such lovely colours.




Pressed for time, I had to choose from what little was available at the local Bunnings.
The Ballarat Bunnings and Toowoomba Bunnings garden sections are always fantastic.
The Melbourne ones - bleh.
Anyway... I picked these two.
I have a Parkinson's Passion at Pendlebury Hill and I find it to be a very jolly, hardy, long-flowering creature,
so hopefully it will thrive in Melbourne.
The other is an unknown quantity but I do love a bright yellow rose.
Let's see how long these ones last!

Rose of the Day - Edgar Degas

This one lives at No.28 in Ararat.
It's such a happy cheery rose.
And the petals really do look like the tutus in Degas' paintings.
See?

Rose of the Day - Ebb Tide

A new one!
It doesn't have a home yet.
Aunty Maria always gives us $50 when she sees us.
This is what I bought.
(I have enough left for another rose!)

Ebb Tide 

Photo: iphone - 23 November, 2013

Rose of the Day - Auguste Luise

After 7 months of utter and total neglect, I felt sure my fledgling rose garden at Pendlebury Hill, Ararat
would be dead as a door nail (or door nails, as the case may be) - but plants always surprise me with their tenacity.
The rose garden is absolutely glorious and this year I am particularly taken with this one.
Augusta Luise.
Innit purdy?
Hybrid tea bush rose.
Absolutely covered in blooms.
'Tis here if you would like one - Treloars.



Photo: iphone - 22 November, 2013, Pendlebury Hill, Ararat, Victoria, Australia


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Carnival of Flowers

Work continues slowly on my garden at home, but
I'm pretty lucky to live around the block from this lovely park
and we are currently celebrating the annual Carnival of Flowers.
Toowoomba looks as pretty as a picture.
All the public gardens around town are green and leafy and colourful.
Toowoomba is such an utterly civilized city to live in - tree-lined streets,
beautiful parks and gardens, stately homes and beautiful public buildings.
It kinda makes me feel a bit like I'm a bit too uncouth to live here!!!






Photos: iphone - 18th Sept, 2013
Queen's Park, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

A Little Pink to Start the Day

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

Let's Get This Party Started!

I was recently reminded of this photo (2011 - my garden in Ararat).
I can't seem to get my creative gardening juices flowing.
I have a bit of a blockage.
Maybe coz it's winter.
Thought this photo might shake loose a few little feelers in my brain.
Poke, poke, prod.

See that plant stand.
I bought it for $5 from the rubbish tip shop in Toowoomba, Queensland a couple of years ago.
It's cast iron and weighed a tonne.
I put it in our wagon and carried it nearly 2000km down to our home in Victoria.
With our luggage and 3 dogs also in the wagon, we were uncomfortably squished.
Now I live in Toowoomba again (after 25 years away) and I'm gunna have to bring it 2000km back home!
Fun times.

New Town-New Garden: How Exciting!!

I'm here!
In my new garden!
Ready for new gardening adventures!
What fun!
Where to begin, where to begin??
Start small.
A pot at the front door.

Good-Bye My Little Garden

The Loooooonnnnnggggest Good-Bye.
6 months to extricate ourselves from our little house in the country.
I shall miss it dreadfully - I LOVED living here.
But....new adventures await.
Heading north.