Changing Colour - Mister Lincoln rose

Here are a few more photos of our Mr Lincoln rose over summer 2015. Previously, I had some photos where it was a very nice deep red colour but I did mention that it changes shade with the weather.

This was the bloom when the weather was very harsh, extremely hot. I don't think this flower developed fully as there are much less petals than it should have. Also, it is almost a bright pink!

Here is a full size photo of the standard to show the size of the bloom. This was much fuller but still not a perfect shade.

Although we did get quite a few blooms over summer, I think the weather was too unpredictable to get very nice flowers. They also did not last very long, however they were quite upright on the stem. We have now pruned it back so hopefully will get some nice blooms next season.

Controlling mosquitoes - White Cloud Mountain minnows

I mentioned previously that we were keeping white cloud mountain minnows in our lotus pot to prevent mosquitoes breeding. We started out with a few outside and a few inside, around Christmas time 2015.

The outdoor ones cleared out any mosquito larvae overnight and were quite happy outside in the summer. However, we did have to move the pot into shade on the days where the temperature was in the high 30s to 40s.

Here's the small planted tank that we experimented with indoors. In the background is driftwood with crested java fern, some java moss in the middle and then small Bacopa cuts in the foreground.

These fish actually did very well and all those small dots you can see at the surface are fish spawn. They are prolific breeders which spawned multiple times over summer. However, most of the spawn disappeared - likely eaten by the adult fish.

We ended up putting these indoor fish outside when we started another water pot with a water lily. Of the tank fish, only one baby managed to survive and is now happily living outside in the water lily pot with the rest.

The outdoor fish also spawned, and the spawn were more successful, probably because there's more cover for hiding in a water garden. From those, we now have an extra seven fish - you can see the smaller baby fish in comparison to the adults in the photo above. This will need some thinking about next spring/summer so we don't get overcrowding.

As you can see (although lighting is different between the photos), these fish tend to be a brighter colour when living outside. I only feed them once a week or so, but I think you don't even have to do this if you have many plants growing in the pot (I have Azolla, Elodea and various random growth).

Growing sunflowers from seed

In addition to cosmos, we sowed some sunflower seeds at the same time (around Christmas 2015).

The seeds sprouted in a few days. It was a mixed pack so we guessed what variety based on size and colour of the seeds.

About 1.5 months in, I was a bit impatient so I picked up a blooming sunflower pot from Bunnings for a few dollars. That is the one on the right - although they have multiple heads (not visible here), the others never really developed. The pot on the left is one of our own sunflower plants, still a bit weedy but growing tall quickly.

After 2 months, growing very tall and strong with buds forming at the top of each plant. The leaves grow in a very symmetrical pattern.

The first one to bloom was this one. A medium sized bloom maybe 8-10cms across. Just a single bloom on a plant.

This variety took a bit longer but was overall a larger and stronger plant - maybe about 1.3 metres in height, with larger blooms.

In addition, this was a plant with multiple heads at different levels that all developed without a problem. We really liked this one and saved some seeds from it for next growing season. They definitely add bright splashes of colour to the garden.

Here are some other weedy little sunflowers that determinedly produced blooms even though the plant itself seemed very frail. Look at the tiny one right at the bottom..

Another thing we noticed was that the sunflowers seem to attract a lot of ladybirds. Although it may be all the aphids that were attracted to the cosmos, however we noticed only aphids on the cosmos and only ladybirds on the sunflowers.

Summer Cosmos

Around Christmas last year, we tried sowing some seeds such as sunflowers, california poppies and cosmos. These are some photos of the cosmos.

We used a colour mix so we were not sure what colours the flowers would be but most of them ended up this purple/pink shade. 

There were a few different ones like the white with pink centre in the middle, and the white/pink combination on the right.

However, I don't think we will grow cosmos next spring/summer. They seem to attract aphids (although maybe because they were all concentrated on the cosmos, our other plants were spared) and are very tall, messy, unwieldy plants. They probably look better grown together in a large quantity, maybe in a cottage garden.

As for our other seeds, the poppies sprouted but didn't thrive. The sunflowers did quite well but I will write another post about those.

Crepe Myrtle - Lagerstroemia Tuscarora

After seeing all the beautiful crepe myrtles in bloom last summer, we acquired a small one as well at the start of 2016.

This one is an Indian Summer hybrid crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica x Lagerstroemia fauriei) variety Tuscarora, which produces rose-red to fuchsia-pink flowers.

It produced many clusters of flowers during the warm weather but now that it's much cooler, it has stopped flowering and the leaves have turned yellow-red. It has also been heavily pruned as we intend to keep it as a small-ish shrub.

Phalaenopsis orchid - Rescue story + Flower spike

I mentioned previously that we like to buy plants that are heavily discounted because they look a bit poorly and see if they can be brought back to life. Here is a success story we have had with a Phalaenopsis orchid (moth orchid).

We purchased it for $2 with no spike and around 2 leaves left on the plant. This was at the end of 2015. After bringing it home and repotting, it was much improved and started producing additional leaves.

Around early April 2016, we noticed a little bump that looked a bit like a new aerial root, but it looked a bit strange. After searching the internet for how to identify a phalaenopsis orchid spike, we realised that it was a new flower spike!

This is a month after it first appeared. It is clearer now that it is a spike because the pointy end is divided into a mitten shape. There are two ways to tell - shape and colour. Spikes have the mitten shape and are green while roots are rounded and are more of a silvery green (you can see a few roots in this photo).

At the end of May 2016, the spike has grown much longer. It will be another few months before it will be ready to bloom. You can also see our cymbidiums in the background even with a spike visible. While phalaenopsis spikes are confused with roots, cymbidium spikes can be mistaken for new shoots. I will post some photos of those soon too.

Roses - White Meidiland, miniature roses

Some roses in our garden from summer/autumn 2016. 

This is a White Meidiland groundcover rose that we purchased on special at the end of 2015. It has done very well and has produced quite a few blooms since. It even produced a cluster of four flowers on a single point this autumn.

We have actually started training it upwards on tomato stakes so it doesn't spread too much. The care card actually noted a faint lemony fragrance but we did not notice any and after checking online, it is not meant to be fragranced.

This is a pale pink miniature rose. These are only about 4-5cms in diameter.

Here is a yellow one. Both have a large amount of petals despite the small overall size.

Greenery - Maidenhair fern, maple tree, Westringia, aloe vera

Some greenery around the garden, basically those which aren't just for the sake of flowers or fruit.

Maidenhair ferns are very beautiful plants with bright green leaves coming off contrasting black stems (this is where the name comes from). We have this in a hanging pot because the weeping habit looks really nice this way. These are best grown indoors, but we keep it outdoors in a shaded position. When we get back to summer, it will probably need to come back inside.

We picked up a young maple tree for cheap from Bunnings a while ago but it is not doing very well and does not appear to be changing colour with the seasons (it is supposed to, according to the care instructions). I guess we will invest a bit more in a decent/named variety one day.

We like to pick up plants on 'special' at garden centres and see if they can be nursed back to life. If it doesn't work, we just end up with an extra pot for planting other stuff so it's not a big deal. This was a plant that ended up doing quite well. It is an Australian native shrub called a Westringia "Wynyabbie Gem" which produces small mauve flowers in spring, but may flower throughout the year. It is currently winter here in Sydney and we are still seeing it in flower.

We recently picked up some aloe vera while visiting in the Eden area. This has now been potted up and seems to be doing okay.

Elsewhere - Sydney Flower Markets

Sometimes I will post some garden-related photos that are taken somewhere other than in our garden. Here are some flowers purchased during a visit to the Sydney Flower Markets at the end of January.

These bright and colourful gerberas were $2 to $3 for a small bunch. So many shades were available at the markets.

Also picked up a beautiful bunch of pale pink/mauve chrysanthemums for $6. The flower markets are definitely a fun experience, but it's best to get there early so you don't miss out. On the other hand, prices are slashed leftovers later in the day, so you can get heaps at prices as low as $1/bunch.