Flowering in October 2011

Here is a photo from my friend's garden: a mauve salvia.
I need to ask her if this was one of her self-seeded salvias or a named one.
Whatever, it's pretty.

We've come from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1217347/

Turns out it's a named cultivar: Salvia 'Waverly'. See http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58765/

PS There's a terrific catalogue of cottage garden-style plants at https://www.frogmoregardens.com.au/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&view=book&id=3&page=1&Itemid=15
The photos are sumptuous!

This message was edited Oct 2, 2011 1:22 PM

Philadelphus mexicanus: one sole flower on the entire plant!
Yet that lovely citrus-blossom perfume from this one bloom wafts over when I'm working nearby.

Another one from my friend's garden: a white shrimp plant.
I remember Mya had one too ... was hers variegated? This one has green foliage.
My friend was given it as a cutting and said that it was very slow to strike. And the plant itself is still very spindly.
I can't help thinking what colour/s it might produce if it is cross-pollinated with the other shrimp plants in this garden ...

It's called Justicia betonica and I've found a photo of it on DG ... posted by Judy last year: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7416334

This message was edited Oct 2, 2011 1:18 PM

A closeup of the geranium maderense showing how the flower ball. comes up on the long stems.
It can be so much larger than this but my geraniums are all flowering this year on one year old plants , which is unusual and most likely why they are smaller.
Jean.

Some of the "purple" tulips I ordered this year. Not very purple , but still pretty.

Purple babianas and dutch iris

Ajuga. Flowering well this year. Usually not so many flowers as it is under the old cypress .
Jean.

Here again are the native hibiscus. I like to compare them when they flower at the same time--the so-called 'Brick Red' (which has always flowered pink) is much larger than the tangerine this time.

Bauhinia acuminata has started flowering again. Has only the lightest scent and it doesn't seem to waft.

Cestrum, I have lots of abutilons flowers poking through the jungle of other plants.
The buddleas are all taking off again too. The yellow should really be cut back, but I am just too lazy. Besides I like it huge
I love that white shrimp plant. So delicate .
Jean

Jean, the abutilon that looks like Vesuvius has had only a few flowers so far but I noticed this morning that it has set two green seedpods! (Ignore the variegated foliage, which is from another abutilon which is yet to flower.) So if my little foot-high plant can do that, your abutilons have probably set seeds all over the place. You might have mistaken the seedlings for weeds LOL

That salvia 'Waverly' has a pretty delicate appearance to me (although it's not; seems to be quite tough). I've taken a stem of it to strike as a cutting but not the white shrimp plant as, apart from anything else (I prefer the coloured ones), there is only that single stem with the flower bract at the top.

This message was edited Oct 3, 2011 5:03 PM

Cestrum, my abutilons that look a bit like Vesuvius are also flowering very well. I am going to keep a close eye out for seeds pods now , but its hard to get in close to any of them at all now. The jungle has grown up and they grow up through the middle of it all.
There is dark red that I can get to, so i will check .
I still havent moved my small variegated one out into the open. I must get to it. I do have a few cuttings of it in the greenhouse, that look like they may keep growing.

I dont have the salvia Waverly but this one in the photo from last year , is one of my favorites..
I cut them all back this year so have to wait for those that bloom a bit later. Meigans Magic.
It blooms nearly all year unless someone like me cuts the poor thing back
Jean.

That's also a pretty two-toned Salvia, Jean. I don't grow many of them because space is limited and I have other priorities. But they're the sort of plants that look spectacular grown in drifts, and you have the ideal garden in which to display them that way.

It's funny how sometimes you don't notice seeds on your plants until someone draws attention to them. I have friends who were born and bred here--gardeners, too--who never noticed that the frangipanes set seedpods. (This might be because they don't grow any themselves, although their neighbours all have them.) This photo of a tree full of seeds was taken in Brisbane several years ago.

I keep meaning to mention that not only are the flowers of Salvia 'Wendy's wish' fragrant, they retain that fragrance when they're dried--perhaps good flowers to use for those interested in distilling oils/perfumes from their plants ...

This message was edited Oct 4, 2011 10:08 AM

Can't resist posting another pic of the native hibiscus 'Brick Red'. Generally I prefer the tangerine, but look at this flower--quite lovely!

Beautiful Cestrum.
My native hibiscus ( purple) is flowering beautifully and seems to like it here. I had the pink but it grew for a year then just died
I think it may be a bit cold & wet for most of them .
I love the tropical hibiscus and used to have a few in WA but I wouldnt even attempt them here.
I have seen some of the winter dormant ones grow well in Vic nut just here, no, too wet & windy.
Jean.

The tropical ones would probably grow in your greenhouse/s, Jean. Don't know how these (Hibiscus heterophyllus) would grow there, although they did OK thru winter kept in pots up against a western wall here. I'll be planting them out soon and so they'll spend their first winter in the ground next year.

No room in said greenhouse cestrum. Its already full of babies. Just barely room for my chair now.
I will admire the hibiscus from afar.
Jean.

Can't you admire them sitting outside the greenhouse, Jean :-)
But a local plant grown well beats an exotic, struggling and sickly, any day, that's for sure ...

Cestrum, stop teasing, you naughty lady. I have to keep myself in hand and not be wanting all the exotics , let alone any more other plants.
I now seem to have somehow procured a lot of clivias . ...lol..
Oh well . Whats one more collection ? I should be locked in a dark room where I absolutely cannot see any plant photos.
Jean.

I'm now OK with the fact that I can't grow all the plants that I think look interesting. In fact, I've become quite cavalier: it's grow or die! Anyway, how boring would it be if we all grew the same plants ... and don't forget your cold-climate brugs, real treasures those.

I think you're in trouble when the only way you can see your plants is from overhead ... by helicopter LOL Until then, you're simply a keen gardener!

This message was edited Oct 4, 2011 4:03 PM

You are right, Cestrum. There are always "keen "gardeners but we REAL gardeners do need a bit of help.
I can always climb hubbys tower to look around. LOL.....
Besides, I still have space. I know I saw a space yesterday. I just have to find it again. ....giggle. giggle.
Jean.

I called into Bunnings today and they had all colours in the "native hibiscus"......absolutely stunning, because they interspersed that wonderful blue with the apricot and yellow, in blocks of colour...somebody was being creative and it was paying off....they were selling very well....

Also something that I had never seen....double Osteospermum sensation...what lovely things in white ,pink and dark pink I found this online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvcRTwmlDZY

I wonder where I could put them.....very much like Chrysanths with a double centre.....they were all lovely, but I think I liked the white best...so different..

I love my yellow one.

Dianne, I have heaps of different daisies and now you have caused me to want some of these. I must look for them when I go shopping.
There is a space somewhere in my garden. I just have to find it.
Jean.

cestrum, just had a look at Frogmore gardens, don't they do their catalogue well....lovely gardens.
Thanks for the link.

Yes, it's good, isn't it.
But the question, Dianne, is: what did you buy at B???

Well I resisted the Osteospermums, very difficult it was too.

Though I was helpless when I saw the only one of these......
It's an Azalea Mollis, which to me is like Vireyas....If I see one that I don't have, any resistance is pointless...I can even walk out of the store as far as the car....but leave such a beauty behind, never to see one like it again...not a chance......if it was one that wasn't perfumed..maybe......but it smells like carnations...a very heavy scent......gorgeous

Edited to say...Don't get confused by the foliage, it belongs to the Vireya next to it... Mollis flower first then the leaves come....It's name is Pink Ball..I bet that took a lot of thought...but it is apt.

This message was edited Oct 6, 2011 2:11 PM

Like the fish that got away, it's the plants you don't buy that plague you. And when you see one you want--in flower, so you can see and *smell* exactly what you're getting--you would have been kicking yourself had you walked away without buying it. Well done!

Love the mollis azaleas Dianne, but I do prefer the usual colors in them of the brilliant reds, yellows and oranges.
I have to walk away from them as they dont like it here. boo hoo.
Jean.

Cestrum, hers my dark red abutilon. Looks like a double but just not fully open yet.
I am looking for abutilon seed pods but havent seen any yet.

Found these echiums all covered in bees . They are from the same mother plant but you will notice that the front ones are so much taller and a real blue , where the ones at the back are shorter and purple like all my others. Seems like the bees did a nice job somewhere.
I have echiums everywhere as they must be one of the most prolific self seeders I have seen.
I fully expect a few more million plants this year as all these babies start seeding too.
Jean.

My strobilanthes gossypinus is flowering after having had buds for months.
I have just read about the plant as I didnt really know much when I bought it a few years ago.
Quite a pretty plant with silvery gold hairy leaves . It likes a lot of water though.
I read that it is of a group that mat seed all at once. Yes, the whole species will flower , seed millions of seeds then usually die.
Here I have looked after it lovingly for years and now I see flowers, it will most likely die.
Luckliy not many of our plants do this or we would all be locked up after going crazy.
Jean.

That's a beautiful Abutilon, Jean....and just imagine how spectacular your garden will be with a million spires of blue, they are striking, aren't they...LOL

This is the first of my Clematis to flower, It's a bit shy this one, usually the snails get there first...

Love that name Jean, " strobilanthes gossypinus" sounds like a greek neighbour....

This message was edited Oct 7, 2011 2:02 PM

It's lovely when your flowers self-seed thru the garden, and so interesting when they hybridise and start to change.

Jean, I don't think I would have picked that as an abutilon! Very pretty. I wonder if the fact that it's a double makes it hard for the bees (or other insects) to pollinate it; perhaps you have to don your bee suit and pollinate this one yourself :-) Here are some immature seedpods on mine; the small one at bottom right fell off because it's empty, but the other two contain ripening seeds. (Don't know if they're viable, though.)

On closer inspection, the stamens are clearly visible in your abutilon, not hidden out of reach of pollinators ...

This message was edited Oct 7, 2011 1:15 PM

Wrong picture! Here's the current one.

I've been scrounging a handful of mulberries each day as I've been working outside. The tree is small because I keep cutting it back; I last pruned it (hard) in autumn, and it's just full of fruit now. The birds like them too--you can see where they've been nibbling on one berry. (I don't mind, so long as they keep an eye out for the cat!)

The advantage of pruning a mulberry tree, other than keeping it small and the fruit within reach, is that it stimulates fruit production: every pruned branch sets fruit (other than in winter). Here, you can get three distinct flushes of fruit if you prune during the growing season. Problem is that the second and third flushes of fruit attract fruitfly, which is an incentive to only prune it once a year.

Look at the difference between the leaves of these two fuchsias:
Left: F. boliviana
Right: Fuchsia triphylla ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’

Can't wait for them to flower.

This message was edited Oct 7, 2011 1:50 PM

Sorry Cestrum, I didnt write my post clearly. The abutilon only looks like a double but is actually a single.
Just not open fully yet.
I love mulberries and do miss them . We had lots when in WA but I wouldnt bother planting one here as it would take too long to fruit and besides, I feed the birds enough as it is.
Just started raining and I hear thunder. Better get off here and pull a few plugs out
Jean.

So it's a curly/frilly abutilon? Looks pretty, anyway.
Mulberries wouldn't ripen as early there as they do here, Jean, but I reckon you'd still get ripe fruit. Probably in summer. The berries are small and need a lot less ripening time/sun/warm weather than larger fruit. I would think space would be the bigger problem ...

Hibiscus DJ O'Brien again. Look at how the late-arvo sunshine makes the colours come alive as if lit from within. As pretty from the back as the front. I just *love* it!

And now the front ... I couldn't resist.