daffodils

The daffodils started flowering about a month ago, a stalk here and another in a different part of the garden.  Today I saw at least five golden blooms in a patch where I have planted daffodils and freesias. They look beautiful beneath the bare ginko tree and surrounding them are the freesias with flower buds ready to open.  I saw a hint of red. I am looking forward to them opening soon.

Helebores and wallflowers

The helebores, also known as the Christmas rose in the Northen hemisphere are doing quite well beneath the jacarandah tree.  Helebores flower in winter and though I am interested in getting the different varieties available, I will wait until I have time to tidy up the space underneath the tree.  The helebores are competing with the azaleas and until I can make a bit more space it will be wasteful to get more helebores with no space to plant them in.  It is tempting though when I see the different colours at the nursery.
The wallflowers are doing very well.  The flowers usually last till the end of summer.  I would have to remember to prune before the seed pods form.  Wallflowers can also be propagated by taking a cutting.  The one in my garden came from a bunch of flowers from a friend's garden.  She visited with the flowers about three years ago and when the flowers dropped I stuck the stems in a pot and now I have them in a couple of spots in the garden.  They are cheerful to look at especially when you get one of those drab wintry days.

Spring day

Spring is here today and I am fortunate to be able to spend just about the whole day gardening.  I took time to admire the flowers which seem especially bright in the sunshine.  The different patches of violets seem to glow and the purple iris looks quite regal.  I saw my first rununculus bud.  The anemones are still going strong.  Even the red chillies seem to shine in the sunlight.  I still have chillies on various bushes and I pick them when needed. I sowed red and mauve poppy seeds.  Poppy seedlings are already appearing in the garden and I plan to stagger the sowing so I can have a longer poppy season.  I have to remember to sow more bok choi and radish as I have been harvesting them.  At the moment I can live quite well on the vegetables from the garden.  I dug up a bucket of potatoes this morning and that should do for the next couple of weeks.