Winter colour - Begonia, cyclamen, anthurium

Going into winter, we were worried that the garden would not be as colourful as it had been in spring/summer. However, there are plenty of flowers that bloom in the cold season.

The begonias are putting on quite a show and look quite nice in their rectangle planter.

Our anthurium lilies are all blooming as well. This plant produces smallish blooms in a nice rich red colour.

We also have a rose pink cyclamen which is flowering very profusely at the moment. So winter is still quite a colourful time in our garden.

Fruit trees - Passionfruit, mango, papaya, guava

 A few fruiting plants that are growing in our garden at the moment. It may be a while before we get any produce from them but they are doing very well.

Passionfruit from Bunnings that is obediently curling around the supports provided. Sometimes you need to guide the plant back where you want it to grow, but they do a good job of hanging on.

You can see the passionfruit in the background here. In front is our mango tree which has been growing well since it was properly established.

A red papaya tree grown from seed. We saved a handful of seeds from a delicious papaya and chose the best seedling to plant in the ground.

Some new leaves growing from a young Indian guava tree. The new shoots seem to be tasty to pests so we have netting strung over this tree to protect it.

Woolie's Bougainvillea

This bright bougainvillea was an impulse purchase from our local Woolworths in spring 2015.

It had masses of flowers when first purchased and these lasted for a bit.

Perhaps it was over-fertilised to give so many blooms, eventually the plant withered away.

However, it managed to come back to life after a while and started flowering again in late summer.

It then kept going throughout winter and into autumn 2016. A nice pop of colour in the garden for quite a bit of the year.

Veg and Herbs - January, March, May 2016

A selection of green growing plants from the garden in the first half of 2016.

The radishes were left too long in the ground with not enough space so we got some very interesting shapes. Unfortunately not edible by the time they were dug out.

We had a bit more luck with the tomatoes and okra. These were just purchased as small seedlings from Bunnings and grew up in an old wheelbarrow.

It produced some very nice okra and we saved some seeds for spring.

The basil also did very well and is still growing happily into winter with lots of small white flowers.

Kumquat harvest

Our small kumquat tree produced a small harvest in May-June.

Here is the fruit ripening on the tree. Some of the smaller fruit were removed to allow the larger fruit to grow.

They turn a nice colour when almost ready to be picked. If you leave it too long, they may split/fall off the tree. 

Here are some of the kumquats we picked - very nice as a marmalade.

Hibiscus - Island Empress and Double Johnsonii

At the start of winter, we picked up two pots of hibiscus. They still had buds on them and surprisingly went on to bloom in June.

This one is Island Empress, a medium double, dark pink bloom.

It was a bit of an untidy double habit, but very nice pink-red colour and dark glossy green leaves.

It had quite a few blooms before the weather got too cold.

The second variety we have is Double Johnsonii. It is also a medium double, but in apricot with a red centre. The leaves are also a brighter green than the Island Empress. The bud appeared more red but then switched to peach when blooming.

Here you can see a little bit of the deep red centre, and the peach petals are also blushed with red. Hopefully they will put on a good show next summer.

Visiting Garden Centres in Sydney

 Every few weeks, we drop by our local garden centres to take a look at what's on sale.

Flower Power is one of our favourites as it has a very wide range.

We also go to some smaller ones, where I took this photo of a pitcher plant with its lunch.