Flowering in Australia November 2009

Hey, you all. I think you are a great group of people.
The "pigfaces" are called Iceplants here. They are a very pretty
succulent. I looked at the link, Lordy, I didn't know there were so many either.
Thank you for all the help in explaining your plants.
Charleen

Jean the poppies are fun to grow. That one you last posted is similar to one here. I purchased seed a few years back from a lady on eBay. I was after one named 'Storm Cloud', a murky mauve. It never came up. However lots of big pink "mops" did!

We will have to be careful this season with the seed. A large crop of shocking pink mop tops have come up in frount of the orange flowering Canna 'Bengal Tiger'... Break out the sun glasses! :(

Charleen, I have heard "Pigface" refered to as "Ice Plant" here in Oz. After one terrible year of bushfires here in Sydney, folks on fringe bushland areas were seeking "fire proof" plants. "Ice Plant" was recommended. At the time I had no idea what the writers were refering to!

That poppy is downright beautiful.
I guess they are tough plants. They are bright are't they??
Bengal Tiger, I do have a canna called theat. does yours have "Sterile" seed that
are no good. It has Beautiful Orange blooms. I transplant some into my new flower beds.
Charleen

This is the only large single poppy plant this year, with friendly visitor.

One corner of the garden with poppies and daisies.

Two of them, Beautiful. That is a pretty color too.
How wonderful. Love to see bees.

Some of the bottlebrush which are now doing really well since the large trees were chopped down. One is actually putting on a new lot of flowers above the now opening ones.

Some of my kalanchoes. I love them for their hardiness. I have quite a few and am always looking for different ones. I do like these with the bright flowers but I have others with lovely foliage.
I'm showing off a bit here too as I have finally managed to do something different with my Canon program.

Beautiful, do you grow these outsides?
They are very pretty.

Charleen hi. Kalanchoes are succulents and are very hardy. Here is a pic of my Stenocactus. Colleen

Colleen, that is the cutest little bloom on that cactus.
Thank you. How cold does it get down there?
I love all the flowers and pictures. Everyone is so
Great.
Do you have a lot of cacti blooming?
Too many Questions, huh?
Charleen

Hi everyone ...I think I read somewhere that the Ice Plant was called Pig Face because you once pigged out on it (ate it), if you were very hungry and lost.
I wouldn't like to try it as it was also called "sour fig" which refererred to the actual flower buds. I can't grow them here though I have tried many times because the rosellas come in and chew the plants until nothing is left.
I have those smokey pink balls of fluff and the purple one too ...how long do we wait until the heads are ready? I have seen pictures dried poppy heads and they are brown, is that when we pick them?
colleen your cactus is so cute.
The pictures are all lovely everyone and look we are sharing them with our friends across the globe ...very cool.
jean ...I went cross eyed at that ...how did you do it? I don't know how to do anything but snap the picture and downsize it, you are so clever. I love the kalanchoe too, do you have the yellow one? I like my yellow one very much.
I haven't been able to get out there yet.

Ummm it's raining ...maybe later.

Yes Charleen I have quite a few of the smaller cactus flowering at the moment. They're so beautiful. We had a very mild winter this year but we do get frosts. If we get a frost we usually know that we are going to get a lovely day. The temp does get to 0 but by 10am it's usually back up to 8-10degrees. Succulents don't like to get frosted but I don't get too many frosts in my back yard. I have huge pine trees and I think they protect everything. I'm hoping that the Brugsmansias will be okay out the back if I can keep the grubs off them. Colleen

I goot some brug cuttings today. Above the Y. I bought some
and then the man gave me 3 more. He was so nice. I did take a pic.
Insiginia Gold is this ones's name. It was so beautiful.
I enjoyed visiting.
Charleen

Chrissy, once all the petals fall off the poppy, tie a little paper bag over the head. A toe of stocking does the trick equally well, however the paper bags offer better protection from the rain. Write the colour or type of poppy on the bag.

If you do not want the poppies to self seed all over the place, cut the poppy seed heads off before they ripen. If left to turn brown, they will be like little pepper shakers sending seed off all over the place.

We will have to be careful here this year, as I mentioned above, the shocking pink mop tops are not a good look in front of Cana 'Bengal Tiger'! :(

I will be collecting seed of all varieties in separate bags.

They are so pretty. They tone down the orange.
Poppies don't last very long, do they?
charleen

That's very interesting thanks wayne ...so these come true to type.
charlene that's a lovely yellow brug you have there.

Not much out there to show it's been wet, grey and awful all day ...here is my Ice Cream Bean tree starting to bloom ...the flowers are white puff balls similar to lilly pilly blooms but larger. that's to the right and the Jacaranda is to the rear.

It feels like autumn ...here is a gloomy but better picture of the Ice cream bean blooms.
pretty good because there are three large bunches of sugar bananas ready to be picked, don't understand how because the wether is so odd but perhaps it was that warm spell we had in winter.

Here is a site that tells you of this fruit tree ...it says the texture is like cotton wool ...to me it is like dense fairy floss with a real ice cream flavour.
Hopefully I can grab enough beans to share with anyone interested, this tree has grown two storey high in about 4/5 years, I know they use them in the tropics to shelter and nourish the coffee trees.
http://www.capetrib.com.au/icebean.htm
I grew mine from seed given to me by a relative.

Lucky you Chrissy to have so much room to grow that tree. I have never seen it before. Please keep us posted.

From my own experience the poppies tend to come true from seed. Try the paper bag method of harvesting. Be sure there are no bud worms, otherwise you will end up with a bag of "manure". :(
Be sure to cut off the unwanted seed pods. You can dry them. They look great as indoor ornaments. Jack the cat here plays football with them!

My parents were over this afternoon for a cuppa (nice cake too, must give Jean the recipe :). Mum is totally in love with Brugmansia 'Lipstick'. The blooms are amazing! Thanks Chrissy and kind regards from my Mum to you! :))

Great looking Brugmansias Chrissy and Wayne.
I love the pic of the Jacranda tree with the Rose looking on, it made a beautiful photo.
The Ice Cream tree was very interesting to read about.
thanks
Charleen

my red torch ginger, ready to burst open...........

I envy your red torch ginger mya ...they just shiver and go to the big garden in the sky here ...it's lovely.

single poppies a bit drowned

Some Brugmansia seedling buds opening

Such Fragile beauty.

Brugmansia is such a beautiful Interesting
plant. Always something to learn.
This is Dola.

Thanks for that Dola shot ...I have some Dola brug crosses (I think a few other gardeners here do too) ...we await the blooms on our seedlings here. I agree with you yes always something to learn ...not only brugmansias but many other beautiful plants too. ^_^

Glad you liked it.
It is alwas a learning experience
to be around flowers and plants.

Finally, my aloe flower has started to open. I looked up the Plant Files and I am pretty sure this is Aloe maculata. Quite common apparently, but very pretty.
Brian, if you are out there, am I right with the name ?

G'Day,
Just found a funny one for you folk. I have an Aloe that I thought was A. maculata but was informed in the C & S Forum that it was A. saponaria (this was quite some time back) so I changed the lable to A. saponaria. Following Jeans query I was going to post a photo of mine saying if it looked like this then it is not A. maculata but A. saponaria. I went to check the spelling and found that they are the same plant and A. saponaria is the redundant name. So Jean if yours looks like this photo it is A. maculata also known as the soap Aloe, apparently it can be used as a soap substitute and has been in the past, that is probably why it is so common.
Brian

I am just watching Jamie Oliver cook and eat cactus in Mexico ...those big flat flaps, they have to remove the spines first ...he said it's delicious.
http://www.succulent-plant.com/crecipe.html
My lovely Dreamtime has darkened beautifully.



This message was edited Nov 9, 2009 8:51 PM

Chrissy I had the pads from Opuntia ficus-indica grilled the weekend and sliced into strips in a stirfry last night. If the pad is young the spines can be removed with a scrubbing brush. They are something like Zuchinni in that they are pretty tasteless but take on the flavours of the food they are cooked with, I find chokoes a bit like that too. The pads cleaned and ready to use as food are called Nopalitos.
Brian

pink mini rose

penstemon electric blue - I love this colour!

That is a beautiful blue, the mini is so precious.
I have several mini roses.

Dalfyre, that blue pentsemon is gorgeous.
Here's my latest epi.

love that penstemon!
brian I like chokos so that is interesting. I confess to never having heard of BBQed cactus, I have heard of a cactus grub in tequila (is that how you spell it?)
Brugmansia Zabaglione