Summer Flowers - Petunias, marigolds, salvia

Here is another small round-up of garden colour during summer 2015/16.

I mentioned in an earlier post that our hotwave petunias flowered profusely throughout summer. This is a photo of our hanging basket just bursting with blooms.

We also had another hanging basket with marigolds which also flowered all summer long.

In several small pots, we also had different colours of full double marigolds. A cute shape, like little pompoms and very bright colour as well.

We also had salvia blooming during summer. I think this is a 'heatwave' variety. It is still producing a few blooms here and there, going into winter.

Lotus Story - Summer 2015/2016

We picked up a lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) off another home gardener on eBay. This one is meant to produce blooms with white petals edged faintly in pink.

This photo is soon after purchasing, late December 2015. A few full aerial leaves and many new leaves coming up. It was only in a 30cm pot so we soon potted this up, I think to a 50cm pot.

Here it is, freshly transferred with some floating azolla and Elodea underwater. We also purchased some cold-tolerant fish (white cloud mountain minnows) to eat mosquito larvae. They are really good at it and even doubled their number over the summer! I will write a separate post on these fish soon.

Within two weeks (mid January) it had already filled the pot. This photo is from a month after we got it. We never really saw the fish again throughout the growing season because the surface was always covered.

Unfortunately, the lotus did not bloom that season and died back down once autumn started. The fish are all still there and fine. I guess we will wait for next spring when the lotus will have the full spring/summer season to grow and flower.

We had a little intruder in late January. This little frog was found hiding underwater in our lotus pot. It appears to be a Peron's tree frog (or emerald-spotted tree frog, Litoria peronii) and was seen to change colour from white to green in an attempt to camouflage when spotted.

Very quickly hopped away and disappeared after being scooped out. Have not spotted any other frogs invading our water gardens since.

Blue Moon rose

The first rose we picked up was this beautiful Blue Moon rose. Unfortunately, it did not survive the first spring after the move. A combination of pests, unpredictable weather and myself, probably.

Here it is blooming in our old place. It's meant to be a lavender-blue shade but again, it seems to shift colours depending on the environment so it leans a bit more pink here. Very fragrant and beautiful upright shape with lots of petals.

We liked it so much that we recently picked up another earlier this week to replace it, this time a climber instead.

Potted Colour - Fuchsia, petunias, begonias, lobelias and a rose

When we started stocking our garden, buying small cheap and cheerful flowering annuals was a quick, easy way to brighten up the yard.

We picked up this Fuchsia Candy Lights on sale around Christmas-time and it has been flowering fairly continuously since then. An odd looking flower which is meant to flower almost all year round.

These extremely bright petunias were a great buy (again on sale). They are called "Hotwave Petunias". We had them in a hanging basket and they flowered very profusely all summer long and into autumn before finally giving in to the colder temperatures. We also had some purple petunias as groundcover which flowered and spread very well all summer and into autumn.

These red, white and pink (redleaf?) begonias have been flowering since summer up until now going into winter.

A lot of the time, when you buy "potted colour" at garden centres, they don't specify what it actually is. After quickly Googling "small, blue flowers", I think these are likely lobelia (Lobelia erinus). A really nice cornflower blue that contrasts against all the other colours in the garden.

We also have several mini/patio roses for extra colour (they are unscented). This is one of them just beginning to bloom, a really nice red miniature rose which is an almost perfectly scaled-down exhibition form.

In the Veggie Patch - December 2015

We were getting some results from our veggie patch last spring/summer. Here are two 'crops' - jalapeno peppers and zucchini.

Small white jalapeno flower and buds in the background.

Here's what they look like fruiting on the plant. We don't actually eat jalapenos much so we left these on the plant for a while.

Cheerful bright yellow zucchini flower. 

I find it very odd how it fruits. There's something very strange about zucchini plants.

Not to mention, they take up too much space! We got rid of this soon after - there just wasn't enough crop for the amount of space it was taking up. You can see the little jalapeno plant on the top left.

Lots of Lilies - December 2015

We seem to also have a large collection of lilies. Here are some blooming in summer 2015/16.

This peace lily followed us in the move and is doing really well. It has by now been separated into very many pots. It did very well this recent summer and flowered a lot.

Also picked up a beautiful oriental lily from Bunnings in December. This went on to fully flower with massive deep pink flowers and strong fragrance. It even put up a new shoot. At this point, it has mostly died back since we are going into winter. Hopefully it will bounce back next spring/summer.

In late December, we picked up a red anthurium lily which did very well and has been separated and flowering constantly even up till now (late May 2016). However, we have been having quite a warm autumn which might influence that. Not sure if it's a miniature plant because it has much more slender stems than others we've seen.

I thought this looked particularly like an IKEA advertisement. It wasn't intended - we move our lilies around, indoors and out, to brighten things up.

Bug Life

Spring and summertime mean bugs are everywhere! Aside from watching out for pests, here are some other 'visitors'.

Underside of a friendly neighbourhood orb weaver spider (Argiope) in cross position with characteristic web pattern.

Hanging outside a bedroom window was this massive long-jawed orb weaver (Tetragnatha). A bit scary-looking but also a friendly garden spider. We did see a few redbacks as well in spring/summer 2015, but luckily had no incidents.

Found this fancy moth hanging out on the washing line - some Googling identifies is as an Australasian Privet Hawk Moth (Psilogramma casuarinae or possibly P. menephron). Decent bark/leaf camouflage, but it doesn't quite work when it lands on a blue washcloth..!!

This one was a bit harder to identify, but eventually was found to be Nausinoe pueritia. Really nice creamy brown colour with white patches ringed in black, almost like leopard spots.

Mister Lincoln rose - November 2015

Splurged on a Mr Lincoln standard rose in November 2015 - very large, very fragrant, classic deep red rose.

However, later in the season, we found that the colour changes from red to more fuchsia depending on the weather. Petals also darken to black-red as the flower ages.

As we are currently going into winter (late May 2016), Mister Lincoln has been very heavily pruned back.

Dearly Departed

This Little Lady miniature phalaenopsis orchid didn't survive the move. It was a gift in July 2015...

We have been building up our orchid collection since then though! Many (many many) pictures to follow.

Moving In - August/September 2015

When we first moved in, there was a giant climbing jasmine bush that took over most of one wall in the front yard.

Some research told us that this is white/pink jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum) which is also referred to as Chinese Jasmine.

It has many many clusters of pink buds which bloom into fragrant white flowers... almost too fragrant!

At the moment (May 2016), it has been pruned back very heavily and only occupies one little corner. It is slowly starting to creep back across the fence though!

Introduction and test post.

Here's a photo from before we moved into our current place.

This is a dwarf sunflower grown from a Mr Fothergill's kit. I think it was on special at Kmart when I purchased it. Google says it's a "Buzzy Windowsill Garden Sunflower" with seeds of the Dwarf Sunsation variety.

Easy kit to use, but you get one flowering and I think that may be it...