Summer garden

The jacaranda is not its best this summer but still a beauty, overwhelming the blue and white agapanthus, still in bud.

Miniature agapanthus buds nestling against the jacaranda trunk.

Pink geranium intertwining through hebe bush.

Pierre De Ronsard rose with succulent

Bougainvillea doing well after winter pruning.

A sickly hoya plant manages a good flush of flowers.

Pink abutilon, much loved by birds.

low growing yellow abutilon.

Driveway garden doing quite well.

rhipsalidopsis

The spring cactus or rhipsalidopsis does not need any attention.  This year my spring cactus surprised me with a bunch of flower buds.  I don't know what I have been doing to the plant but whatever it is the gangling cactus decided to produce a show.  See picture below.

Cherries

The big cherry tree.  As for its variety, I have to check through my box of plant labels.

This smaller cherry tree is about half the size of the big one.

Green cherries from a few weeks ago.

Cherries, almost ready and must be protected from birds and possums.

Cherries, almost ready for picking.

Ravaged by possums

At this time last year this arch was covered in flowers from two varieties of roses.  At the moment there is only a single rose to be seen as the possums or possum have been eating the shoots.  I don't know what I can do about this.  Perhaps I will cover the arch with a netting that would make it more difficult for the vermin to nibble on the shoots.

With the shoots eaten away there is not a hope for the rose plants to develop buds and flowers.

This single rose survived the vermin.  I hope the buds alongside will survive to give some beauty in this ravaged spot of the garden.

The roses are back

A Mr Lincoln rose in full bloom.  It has a light scent.

The Mr Lincoln bush is right in front of the front porch and as it tends to grow up high it makes a nice display.  Buds and blossoms.

I would have to check for the name of this rose, pink and white and scented.

A couple of early white icebergs.

cherry blossoms

This is one of my two cherry trees.  I noticed the blossoms opening on Saturday and they are ready for the bees to do their job.  I hope to get a few cherries this year.  The peaches hardly had any blossoms so  the fruits will be missed.

ranunculus

My garden has been quite neglected so I am pleased to see these pink ranunculus making an appearance.  When the plant died down last autumn I did not dig out the bulbs, and fortunately for me make a comeback.

The white variety survived the neglect and I noticed a couple more of the white ones in other parts of the garden.

Globe Artichoke

This is one of three globe artichoke plants I have in my garden.  The severe frost we had last week did not affect the plants.  With spring not too far away I am looking to a few artichokes coming my way.  I pick them while they are still young and would leave one to mature into a beautiful purple flower.

Daphne

In the past I have tried to grow the beautifully scented daphne with no success.  The plant, usually purchased from a nursery, would grow for a season, showed no sign of flowering and then withered.
In the past couple of years I have bought a couple of pots of daphne from my garden club sales table.  They did not cost very much, so I decided to give the plant another try.  As is seen in the picture, one of the little plants, planted in a sheltered spot with morning sun, is flowering.  Some of the leaves are yellowing, so I might have to look at adding some minerals to the soil.  I hope this plant will grow to a large bush to provide scented flowers for the house in winter.  

Sugar cane

This is my pot of sugar cane.  In September 2012, I think, I planted a couple of sugar cane segments and by December shoots appeared.  There are more canes growing now and I have cut down one cane which was about 35 cm long.  It was not the juiciest of cane but I can say that I was able to share the experience of chewing on the sweet cane with my son and granddaughter.

This is the cut cane, with the leaves stripped off, and below the segments which we peeled and chewed for the juice.

autumn garden

Part of my garden in autumn.  The cherry tree leaves are just starting to colour but the ornamental pear is now bare.  The azaleas and chrysanthemum are adding colours to the garden and in the pot one snow pea seedling has appeared out of five seeds planted.

Another view of my autumn garden with the apricot in the background, with autumnal hues.
Below, a glorious maple.

crab apple and tree dahlia

This king parrot is feasting on the few crab apples left on the tree.  I was looking at the mauve tree dahlia flowers which manage to bloom beneath the crab apple tree when a couple of the parrots swoop down on to the tree.  I was fast enough to run inside for my camera.

The mauve tree dahlia.  I am now waiting for the white tree dahlia to bloom.

Choko

This choko vine is doing very well.  It is growing from a pot but I am sure the roots have gone into the ground.  I have been picking the shoots for vegetables which send the plant into productive mode, creating side shoots and flowers.  I hope to harvest chokos in winter.  At the moment both vines are producing a lot of flowers.  The other vine is climbing all over the hakea tree in my outside garden.  I can see the hakea flowers amongst the choko leaves.

The choko flowers are tiny.  Out of these three flowers one choko may form.  There are enough flowers to give me some chokos in winter, I hope.

feijoa and chilli

In March I did not expect to see the feijoa fruits grow any bigger as they seem to have remained the size of my little finger nail.  I blamed the absence of rain.  In the last few weeks a few of the fruits suddenly doubled, then tripled in size.  I have placed a net over the bush to protect the few precious fruits which are about the size of a small roma tomato.

These Thai chillies will keep me happy over the next few weeks.  I hope there will be enough warm days to ripen the green ones.

hydrangea

This picture of the hydrangea bushes behind the vegetable boxes was taken in early summer before the week of hot days which sizzled some of the tips and flower heads which were exposed.  I covered the bushes on hot days.

 
This pink hydrangea survived the heat.  Strangely, the flowers in the bush beside it are bluish even though the plants were cuttings taken from the same bush.  I wonder if one bush gets more leaf litter than the other.

These flower heads are from the same bush but they are at different stage of maturity.  The colours fade as the flowers age.

hibiscus

These brilliant red hibiscus sprout from a spindly plant which has been fed and watered but has no inclination to grow into a healthy bush.  I grew up with this flower, the national floral emblem of Malaysia.

A close up view of the hibiscus.

This hibiscus, a double pink, has been in this pot for years, I was told, when it was given to me by a friend of a friend who was moving to New South Wales.  At times this small bush could have up to four flowers in bloom.  Put into the ground it could grow to a big bush but I think it shall remain in the pot for the time being.

A close up view.

peaches

These peaches are from the tree in front of the front porch.  It is so close to the porch the possums have no trouble getting to it.  Covering the tree in nets helped but somehow the possums and bats managed to gnaw on some of the fruits.  These fruits are so tasty I would like to take a cutting from the tree.  The previous owner who planted the tree grew it from a cutting.

The peaches protected by the white netting.

green tomatoes

The tomatoes seem to be taking its time to grow and ripen.  I hope these healthy looking fruits will be ready to eat soon.  We need a continuous summer heat to do the job.

A bunch of cherry tomatoes slowly growing.  The wait seems endless.