cactus flower

I have a collection of cactus plants and most of them came to me about twenty years ago.  They are often neglected but at times I would repot them or remove the weeds.  Last winter I repotted a few of them and gave them a feed and placed them where they get the blistering afternoon sun.  I have been well rewarded with flowers and I notice buds on another thorny plant.  I will keep working on the other neglected pots and hope to see more of the rather attractive flowers.

exotics

The seed of this loofah vine was planted in October.  It has taken its time to grow and I hope the warm weather will help it to be productive.  I would like to see a few of the fruits to develop for vegetables and a couple to grow to turn into bathroom sponge.  The loofa gourd is grown for its fruit and picked when young and I suppose it is also grown for the sponge market.

The seeds of this peanut plants were planted at the same time as the loofah in October.  It is growing at least.  I am waiting to see them flower after which the flower stalks will push downwards into the soil to form the peanuts.  I cannot wait to see my exotic plants produce.

sugar cane

This is not the first time I've tried to grow sugar cane.  In September I bought a couple of canes from the Asian store and chopped up 4 pieces to plant.  The pot was sitting with the bother seedlings in a protected area and not much was happening.  When I moved the pot to a warm, north facing, protected area things began to happen.  It took weeks to come to the stage shown in the picture.

The plant is growing and is now almost 24 cm high and was transplanted into a bigger pot a few weeks ago.  Another shoot is appearing in the seedling pot so I am hoping to have a couple of clumps of sugarcane in my garden.  I would have to protect them in winter if they were to survive.

Some of my favourite flowers

What could be more beautiful than this lace-like blossoms of the elderflower tree?  The elderflower grows easily from cuttings and regular pruning will keep the tree low.

Love-in-a-mist will self sow but they are so easy to pull out if you have too many of them.

Blue love-in-a-mist.

The mauve version.

The stunning blue lobelia.

For heights, the acanthus mollis and hot poker (kniphofia) will do the job well.

Banksia

The banksia finally shows its beauty after over three years of waiting.  I bought the spindly plant from the bargain table at CERES in Brunswick over three years ago and planted it in my outside garden.  It took forever to grow and while other plants close by were shooting up this miserable specimen remained neither lively nor dead.  When it finally grew to over a meter high it began to look healthier.  Early this year I saw signs of flower buds which remained in the same state for months.

It has taken a few months for the buds to finally bloom and it has proven to be a beauty.  I have no idea what the variety it but it does not matter to me as I tend not to remember names.  I can see the flowers from my kitchen window and I am sure I will see the honeyeaters drinking the nectars.