Changing colours

It is mid April and the Indian summer we are experiencing seems to slow down the autumnal process.  The colours are beginning to change, though, in the Manchurian pear tree.  It is at its best when all the leaves are in different hues of plum red and gold.  The peach tree is begining to turn yellow but the other deciduous trees are still green.  Even the rhus tree is taking its time.    It will take more cold weather before we can enjoy the autumnal colours.  It is not quite changing colours but the different chrysanthemums in my garden are blooming.  The small bush with bright yellow flowers looks brilliant even on a dull day.  The mauve and white ones look so open and friendly.

Chrysanthemums are so easy to grow.  I bought a few pots over a year ago and planted them in the garden, where they thrived with the help of compost and sheep manure.  When they finished flowering I pruned them back quite hard and took cuttings which had given me a few more plants.  Chrysanthemum flowers are sold in May for Mother's Day.  If you are interested in collecting the different colours, that is the time to buy a few pots and transfer them into the garden bed when the flowers have withered.  They need full sun or they will go scraggly.  Apparently chrysanthemums that have been treated to remain as a dwarf variety will also go scraggly when transferred into the garden.  The solution is to pinch the plant back about three times in spring and summer so it will stay compact.  I will be looking out for different shapes and colours of the chrysanthemums soon to add to my collection.

planting bulbs

This picture of the ornithogalaum arabicum was taken a few years ago.  I left the bulb in the pot year after year, adding fresh compost and blood and bone when the shoots make an appearance.  I did not trust taking the bulb out of the pot for fear of losing it.  Last year however I planted the bulb in the ground and the white flowers with the black centre were magnificent.  I hope the plant will come back this year.  It is not an easy bulb to come by but if I had looked hard enough I am sure I would have found some.
A few weeks ago I planted more bulbs in a newly created garden bed.  I planted a mixture of daffodils, bluebells, nerines, hyacinths and tulips and snowflakes.  After planting the new bulbs (birthday present from my sons), I checked out pots that had bulbs growing in them last year as well as a box containing bulbs I had taken out of the ground.  One pot with the label saffron crocus was showing green tips through the dry soil.  The pot had been left, forgotten, under the jacaranda tree after the first searing summer heat desiccated the crocus leaves.  The crocus bulbs were planted last autumn without a single flower showing.  I was disappointed and when the leaves dried up I decided to forget about growing my own supply of saffron.  This same pot of saffron crocus has given me one mauve flower and you can imagine my excitement.  The other crocus plants are not showing any sign of flowering.  I have picked the three precious stigmas from the crocus flower.  I don't think I can do very much with my miniscule supply of saffron but I live in hope of planting more early next autumn.  The ixia and sparaxis are sending up strong leaves.  It seems strange to see the new growths from the bulbs when the temperature is still rising to over 20 degrees centigrade everyday.  I hope these warm days will not prevent the tulips from flowering.  I did not place the bulbs in the fridge as I should have done.  If the weather is going to remain mild, we may have to give up growing certain bulbs, like the tulips, that need a good cold spell in its growth cycle.