Twisted Watsonias

The Twisted Watsonias are out in flower - I love seeing what original sculpture these make each year.

Tulip Tree in Flower

And my Tulip tree (Liriodenron, or similar spelling) is in flower.

I love these flowers, about two inches each across, and very primitive. You have to look hard to see them on the tree.

Ooooops

Ummmm - I don't think was quite what she had in mind when Mum asked me to repot this dratted thing

"Black Iris"

This is currently my favourite Iris - it is almost black in some lights. It is only when the sun is shining through it that you can see it is a very deep purple.

I am getting my iris photos more organised, and trying to properly number them and set up a set of Flickr - which is not co-operating. But I will get there.

*Goes back to deadline stuff*

Cup Day in the Garden

Okey Dokey - this is it.

Just for locals (you know who you are, and pass the word along), I will be in my garden on cup day, from 10am to dark. Feel free to call in and put in requests for pieces of the various irises when I divide up.

All pieces $2 each, all funds to the community house.

The lawn will be long (mown today, will need it again tomorrow) and there are weeds everywhere. So if they are likely to offend - don't come!

Can't put a notice up in the shop until Monday - my printer is out of ink!

See you Tuesday. Requests will be listed for some bulbs too, and I will try and strike rose cuttings by request. They are looking rather good too.

And I will post a picture tonight of my almost black iris. Right now I gotta mow the nature strip!

Yes!

Yes! It really is .......

My first tomato of the season!

Yes, I know it is only a cherry tomato. And yes, I know it is green. But it is there. The race is on!

My Hat

Has everyone met my "formal" garden hat???? It is the one I used to wear when gardening with the oldies (temporarily suspended - no garden - extension being built over it).

But not really practical for "real gardening". Should post a picture of one of those hats. Hmmmm - maybe not.

But yes, for those who know me - it is a Suffragette Bird (purple, green and white) on it, and when I nodded my head the bird nodded up and down too.

The oldies loved it.

This is the Peak

I was looking at my garden yesterday, and think this is the peak.

The Ixias are almost finished - they didn't like the rather nice rain we have had. The Lilacs are almost finished, the Sparaxias are finished.

The Irises are half out (still more to come), the early roses are all out, the Crabapples are stunning, the Flanders Poppies (I lost the pictures of them, will try again), are just coming out. The first green tomato (yes, it is a Cherry) has been sighted.

And everything is growing like there is no tomorrow.

What else - the Smoke Bush is heading for peak, and lots and lots of other stuff is out.

So, that's it - I hereby declare 24th October to be the Spring Peak for this year.

This Iris???? A white one, not the old white that is the Orris Root one, just another Iris in Paradise.

Speaking of Birds

Speaking of Birds - I walked out yesterday morning to find Blackbirds had decided to build a nest on the Meter Box.

It wasn't finished, and had no eggs in it - so it went. If they can find it in the nearby shrubbery, that is fine - even though they eat my lettuces.

But we often have to reset the switches (if we put any three of the jug, toaster, microwave and heater on at the same time), so months without being able to open the meter box doesn't seem to me to be the way to go.

Let alone what the meter reader would do when it was time too send us a bill.

King Parrots

The other day I posted a picture of the Rainbow Lorrikeets. Cripes, they are Bossy. The King Parrots have been in, and the Lorrikeets, although smaller, quite aggressively chase them away from the seed (we only put out sunflower seed).

Here's a King Parrot waiting its turn.

Here's an aggressive little Lorrikeet:

And here's the King Parrot (it's the brighter, male), when it finally got to the seed:

The General Galleni rose behind it ain't half bad, too.

Benambra Rose

I have got no idea what this rose is really called. I call it the Benambra Rose, because that is the cemetery in which I found it.

It only flowers once, in spring, is beautifully scented, and very spiny.

I have just about eradicated it from my garden beds, where it took over. Apart from where I let it grow through a lilac. Now I keep it mostly on my fenceline and control it by mowing across it. This year I think it is time to mow it all down to ground level just after flowering, as there is grass all through it. If I do it then, there will be flowers on it again next year, but with less grass in it.

Anyone silly enough to want to grow it, let me know and I will send you a heap of bits I pull out of the garden bed.

Off to play with flowers

DH and I are off to the old folks home, where we make up posies of flowers with his mother and other oldies, and put them in bottles. And see if they remember any of them

I need to get a few ferns for a bit of greenery though - that happens for all this month, just while the flowers are really prolific and suit the exercise.

So stand by - I have a few more pictures to post later

Sweetpea's Garden

Thanks to a certain "Indifferent Gardener" in Sydney, I have just found Sweetpea's Garden. Somewhere in country NSW - nice to find another Australian garden blog. :)

Found it.

Didn't take long at all - I have been meaning to try to identify this rose:

You know how it is - you've lost the tag. But this time I was in luck - I knew where I got it from, and I could remember the phrase in the catalogue that made me want it so - "This rose was destined to become one of the great florists roses of the 19th and early 20th century".

Yep - there is was, in the catalogue. It is Catherine Mermet, a Tea Rose of 1869.

Hellie - are you writing that down??????? It does strike well from cuttings. And is quite vigourous and disease resistant. It has been surviving growin in the middle of the lemon tree for years.

Pictures posted

The Garden is looking good, but isn't at its peak.

The artichoke is waiting to flower

The General Galleni Rose is stunning

And there are lots more photos HERE - too many for me to blog.

I have finally decided I will store my snap-happy snaps by the month - I couldn't work out what I would do until then. So I can look back on it 12 months later. Off to work on deadlines.

Moving Treeferns

Maureen asked about moving treeferns - and I tried to e-mail you, but the address I have on file bounced. :(

So here is my way:

1. Don't leave it too long before you do it. (It is not a thing I would do in summer!)

2. Cut off all mature leaves.

3. Cut across at base, just above ground line. Make no attempt to take roots - it doesn't work.

4. Dig hole and plant.

5. This is the important bit - keep soil moist but also keep inside crown moist for several months at least. Some people wrap the trunk in hessian and keep that wet - I have never had to do that. But leave the hose in the crown just slowly dripping as often as any restriction will allow.

Have a look at them in nurseries - no roots!

Spotto - Another Aussie Garden Blog

Midday in the Garden of Good and Evil is a Sydney garden blog I have just found. I suspect I know who is in that garden, too - there are dragons there somewhere, I have seen them before.

Yet another textile person with a garden as well.

Garden visitors

No Alice - not yet. We're not there yet. Best pictures will be, I think, in about a week's time. But maybe by then the Ixias will have finished. Hmmmm.....

In the meantime - here are today's visitors. I can never remember if these are the Rainbow Lorrikeets or the Eastern Rosellas. I think the first. I think...

It's Purple!!!!!

I could not believe my eyes today - the latest colour in my Sparaxias is Purple!

Some people know how besotted I am about the colour purple.

And it was just sitting there. Totally out of the palette of white, lemon, orange red!!!!

Purple!!!!!

Still running ...

Still running like a cut cat with deadlines (If only Australians understand that phrase, please 'scuse me ...)

So here are some quick pics:

The treefern we moved is flexing its muscles, and looks like it will be happy there.

My irises are stating to come out

And, so is my Solomon's Seal.

Back one day soon - my garden is looking lovely - and the roses and irises are going to peak at the same time, which is unusual. Usually the roses start as the irises finish.

Gotta run!