February flowers

Welcome to my February flowers post! I noticed as I uploaded this that it's my 500th post. I've also been doing Flowers Monthly for almost 6 years! Far from finding it repetitive, I enjoy the monthly ritual of photographing the garden and flowers and collating them into this mosaic to represent what's been in bloom during the month. I go back and compare with previous years, and even though a lot of the individual blooms are the same, each collage has its own personality. It's a reminder that the garden is always changing and evolving even though the same seasons always follow each other.

Anyway, this month the garden is still fresh, but starting to take on its full, slightly overgrown and overblown look. Roses are still in full bloom, but hydrangea petals are starting to speckle and the first autumn berries have appeared. Above, from top left we have: a pretty striped cosmos; snowberries; a new hydrangea called You and Me; clematis William Keay (in his second flowering flush, yay!); osteospermum; pink penstemon; white frilly fluffy begonia; white echinacea; dahlia Cupcake; swan plant flowers and happy munching caterpillar; rose Sexy Rexy; cactus dahlia. In the middle is a little bouquet featuring a Compassion rose - gorgeously scented and grown from a cutting. I have a post planned soon to tell you more about this season's roses and how the cuttings went.

For now I will sign off and add my post to the list at Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day... have a look for inspiration from all around the world!

For previous Flowers Monthly posts click here.

Snapshots from January

 Hi friends. Here is my first lot of phone snapshots from the new year. The weather was all over the place, keeping a semi-regular schedule of its own... A few day of hot temperatures, then a couple of days of cloud. Some rainy days. Then repeat from the start. The garden (and weeds) are flourishing, and as long as we keep getting the warm temps, I'm not complaining too hard.

 I started the year with a quick project for my niece's 4th birthday. She wasn't super impressed with the handbag to begin with (as she opened it, she muttered to herself, "oh, I hope it's not a hat!") but I'm hoping it will find its way to the dress-up box and be useful in the future! The pattern is from Tangled Happy - if you want to disappoint a 4 year old in your life, you can find it here.

 It was an exciting day when I picked the first tomatoes of the season! These Juliet cherry tomatoes were ready on the 5th of January and they were quickly followed by Orange King... I'll go into more detail about tomatoes in another post, but they are all doing quite well this year.

 I continued working on my Greg blanket. Once all the squares were completed it didn't take too long to join it up, and it was a good way to spend a few grey afternoons.

 Before I went back to work after my summer holiday, I spent a few days with Mum in Timaru. On one day we drove down to Riverstone in Oamaru. This is a restaurant surrounded by lush, mostly kitchen gardens. They grow all their own produce for the restaurant and visitors are free to wander around and take it in. It's quite a drive to get there but worth the effort! We had a lovely wander around the gardens, before sitting on a sheltered bench with coffee and a punnet of delicious locally-grown cherries.

 This is another vista from Riverstone. And a view of my propagation station (set up on the top of a compost bin)... I've said before that you can never have too much lavender!

 Back in my garden, the bees are getting busy. My garden flourishes mostly thanks to the efforts of bumblebees. There are a few honey bees around, but as we all know they are in decline so I'm glad for the work of my bumbly friends!

 I finished The Luminaries on my second read. It was good, but I think could really have been edited into something a lot slicker. There was a lot of unnecessary epilogue stuff at the end, filling out plot points that had already been explained. I also finished Greg (details in this post).

 More tomatoes in my harvest basket - also spring onions, zucchini and beans. The glasshouse is in full on production mode and becoming more of a jungle with each day!

And the month ended on the saddest possible note with the passing of Mr Lui. Still missing him like crazy, but taking heart from these pictures showing him enjoying the everyday pleasures. He mostly had a very happy month.

January flowers

Welcome to January in my flower garden! I've still got a lovely selection of summer flowers which I'm pleased about, as sometimes in previous years I'm in a bit of a dull patch about now. I planted some lily bulbs last autumn and a couple of them are flowering, and the roses are still mostly doing well. The poppies are moving into the pretty seed head phase and the dahlias are starting to open.

Above, clockwise from top left: one of the new lilies (scented, and pink, double yay); lavatera; astrantia; cupcake dahlia; hollyhock; carnation; sweet pea; Christmas lilies; poppy seed head; dierama (grown from seed which I thought was pink but it's come out more red sadly); lacecap hydrangea; pelargonium. Centre: Claire Rose makes a beautiful statement in a vase.

I'm joining in with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day where gardeners from all around the world share what is blooming in their gardens.

Snapshots from December

 Here are some of my phone snapshots from December. It's such a beautiful month for flowers and decorating, and the trick is to try and find the time to stop and appreciate it. I had the last of the bright vivid peonies to admire, and roses and sweet peas moved to take the spotlight as the peonies faded. 

 I usually try to go for a subtle look when editing my photos for Instagram... but sometimes I just can't help myself and go all out with textures and colour washes. I love the dreaminess of the rose above. My favourite editing programme is Pixlr, which has lots of options from simple to dramatic.

 Of course that little thing called Christmas began to slip in and the decorations came out. My favourite little glass baubles ornamented many an Instagram photo.

 I made several doilies for Christmas presents. In the above left photo, the doily at the bottom right is called the Passionflower Doily and you can find the pattern here. There was something wrong with my first attempt at the doily (not the one above) and I wasn't happy with how it turned out. So I began to work out another design, roughly based on a vintage doily from my collection. The first couple of attempts are in the left photo and the blue doily on the right is how it turned out. Hooray! In the meantime I attempted the Passionflower doily again and realised I hadn't made the right number of stitches to start with, which had thrown out the whole thing. So I started again and this time was very happy with the finished result.

 These pictures mostly sum up the December crafting... doilies and blanket squares. 

 My friend Caren and I had a swap in December for 12 Days of Christmas. We each sent the other 12 little gifts to be opened one each day in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. It was such fun to open a present each day and really made Christmas feel exciting. Caren sent me all sorts of delicious treats such as chocolate, fudge, organic vanilla, coffee and drinking chocolate. She also sent beautiful Christmas ornaments and the little house above... it is lit from within by a battery tea light. I do love adding a little house to my collection.

 Lui enjoyed getting into everything I was doing this month! Here he is testing the blanket squares for softness, and photobombing my carefully styled shoot! He is 12 years old now and very companionable. When he was younger he wasn't really interested in hanging out with me too much, but these days (when he isn't sleeping) he is quite happy to accompany me around the garden or through the house. I love his company.

Let's end the month with some more dreamy flowers! The Cecile Brunner roses are always lovely in a vase. Poppies don't last as long so I take close up photos of them in the garden... lovely!

Happy new year to you all. xx

Oh and just for fun, this is my #2015bestnine (ie most popular Instagram photos). It's interesting to note that it's all crochet... well, those are some of my favourite photos too!

A summer hailstorm

 My lavender bushes are at their peak right now, loaded with fragrant purple sprigs. The best way to spend a summer evening is out in the garden with snips and basket, harvesting bunches and hanging them upside down to dry. They only take a week to dry and then it's just a matter of crumbling the dried buds into a container and hanging some more up to dry. When I've harvested all I can, I'll fill lots of little organza bags for under-the-pillow sweetness.

 Of course I'm not the only one who likes the lavender... bumble bees are very busy getting in there and gathering pollen. I must say I enjoy the company of these hard little workers and I find them very obliging in getting out of the way as I pick my bunches, although they do often continue to harvest the flowers in my basket!

 The plants on the deck are filling out as well. 

 In fact everything was looking pretty good, until last Sunday when a rather bolshy thunderstorm blew in. Rain and wind lashed the garden, and then hail pelted down. It was rather heavy and rather loud.

 Not to mention cold... brrr! This looks like a nice coating of cherry blossom, but it's actually hail. Fortunately more rain came along after this and washed most of the ice away.

 This is not as bad as the big storm that lashed Sydney, but it was enough for me and my garden! 

Most of the damage was sustained by big-leaved plants which are all looking battered and tattered. I was sad to see the damage on the Cercis Forest Pansy (top left) because I love it's heart shaped leaves. The hosta my neighbour gave me (top right) really took a pummelling. I might be able to trim and feed it to convince it to grow some new leaves. 

In the vege garden, the beans mainly bore the brunt of it (bottom left), but luckily they have only just started producing flowers so there weren't many to be knocked off. My apples have been the main casualty (bottom right), with lots of little apples knocked off (I'll consider this nature's way of thinning them out), but the rest were badly pock marked. I'll still use them for cooking and cider making, but I feel bad for commercial growers who have probably lost entire crops.

So that's the latest from the early summer garden! How are your summer/winter gardens going?

December flowers

Here we are in the December flower garden. Rose season is in full swing, and I have to say the roses have never looked better! All that watering at the start of the season has led to strong foliage and lots of flower heads. Take note for the future, self! 

Above, clockwise from top left: purple poppy, pink gypsophila, The Fairy rose, Claire rose, sweet peas, Queen Elizabeth rose, pink peony poppy, Peace rose, a little pastel pansy, lavatera, Sexy Rexy rose, Queen Anne's lace. In the middle is a grouping of sweet peas and roses in little glass bottles... a lovely scented centrepiece.

This area in the garden always gets a bit wild over summer as everything grows tall and bushy. I like the pastel tones of the lambs' ears and lavatera but I realised recently that something had always struck me as jarring about the scene, and that something is the pink penstemon. It's a really hot coral pink (more so than this picture shows I think), and just clashes too much with the surroundings. So I'll leave it be since the weather is too hot to shift it now, but next winter I'll whip it out and replace it with something more pastel.

Everything looks much prettier when viewed from the other side! I'm enjoying the poppies while they last too. They are self seeded from last year and about every third plant has reverted back to red, so I pull those ones out, and hope I'll still have some pink seedlings next year!

It started to rain while I took these pictures, so I popped into the glasshouse and spied on the sparrows in the feeder. I love hearing birdsong in the garden.

That's it for today! I have some more garden pics to show soon along with some Christmas decorating. This month is flying along so fast!

November flowers

 Welcome to my November flowers post! Today the weather was pretty cold and gloomy - it was overcast all day, a cold wind blew and as soon as I left my house to go for a walk spits of rain began to fall. The month overall has been cold - we had our coldest morning on record earlier this month, and there was even frost! My garden didn't sustain much damage, just in a couple of random patches - one bean seedling, and a blackened patch on top of a dahlia. Most of my bean seedlings weren't through at that stage and the most tender things like tomatoes and capsicums are in the glasshouse. Some early rosebuds were a bit crispy around the petal edges but the fruit trees seem to be fine. But it was a bit of a shock to the system - frost in November, what??

Luckily there has been plenty of sunshine in the mix and the flower garden seems to be getting on with things according to its usual schedule. It's usually the end of November before all the roses are blooming, but there are some early birds in there to make me happy. Peony season is also in its beginning stages, although most of the transplants I put in a couple of months ago haven't budded... guess I'll have to patiently wait another year for those.

Anyway, there is plenty to pick and admire, like in the grid above! Clockwise from top left: Gilia birdseye; blue and white aquilegia; Cecile Brunner rose; snowball viburnum; Queen Elizabeth rose; sweet williams; white aquilegia; a frilly peony poppy; lupins; a pretty pansy taking on the hue from the surrounding Snow in Summer; pink aquilegia; Sexy Rexy rose.

 This pink rose is outside my front door and it makes me happy every time I walk past it. I don't know the variety as it was grown from a cutting, but it does very well in this sunny spot. It was the first to flower in spring and the last to flower in winter. So far it seems very healthy too with it's nice glossy leaves!

This lovely bush is common sage, planted in my herb garden. It's formed a large round ball which is covered with these fragrant mauve flowers, just lovely to brush against. In fact it's so big that it's probably time to divide it up, I'm sure I can find some other spots in the garden that could use a show stopper like this.

That's it for my November garden. The weather may be less than average but the flowers are floriferous so all is good! I'm joining in again with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

Golden hour garden

Hi again! This post has been a while coming, but I really wanted to show you some photos of my garden before all the spring glory fades. I'm starting with a picture from the back garden in the evening - you've seen this before, but perhaps not during the golden hour, when the light from the sinking sun glows behind the claret leaves of the maple?

Actually, I really wanted to show you these pictures from my front garden. This has been my pet project since late winter. I've been working on it a while, but the time has never been right to take photos - it hasn't grown in enough, it's not in flower, the beds need weeding, the grass needs mowing, it will look better next week. Oh well, enough of that, it looks as good as it's going to right now, and plenty of things are in flower, so let's have a look shall we?

About a year ago I started work on this little corner garden. I removed a lot of shrubbery, cut back some trees, and planted lavender around the edges. I also added this birdhouse. Ever since then, I've been imagining a clematis growing up the birdhouse. I have grown clematis before - a vigorous montana which took over a fence before I chopped it out. I'm hoping this hybrid one will be more well behaved. I'd like it to stay right where it is, but it will probably disappear up into the tree top... that's if it doesn't decide it hates its position, and die! Anyway, we will see... and perhaps we will take a cutting too, just to be safe.

Another big job for me early this spring was these round planters. I'd bought the two flowering cherries last autumn in a sale, but when they woke up for spring I knew I had to get them in! I wanted round planters as a feature and had originally planned to make brick ones, but after a while I realised that was going to be right out of my skill level, and if I wanted something to put the trees in before they flowered I had to come up with a plan B. So I used some wooden garden edging, and painted it this reddish pink... which to my mind is not that dissimilar to a brick colour, but a lot more 'me' :)

The trees looked stunning when they flowered. I can't wait for them to grow and bush out more, to form my own little miniature cherry blossom avenue. I'm sorry they aren't flowering in the photo above, but isn't the rhododendron in the background amazing? I identified her recently as Mrs GW Leak. I'm not sure who she's named after, but she is very beautiful with her freckled pink cheeks. 

Here's my little birdhouse corner again. At the foot of the birdhouse is a new (very small) azalea plant. I had one there which never flowered, so out it went! The new one is called Southern Aurora and is supposed to flower all summer.

Here's a close up of the new clematis. His name is William Keay. Again, I wonder who he's named after...? But he is very striking with a dark bar down the middle of each (huge) petal and a fluffy centre.

On the right, we have the pom pom flowers of the snowball viburnum. I bought this from the clearance bin last year, and was quite pleased to find self sown aquilegias also in the pot. I was hoping for a mix of colours and at first was quite disappointed that they were all white. However, when the snowballs opened up I found I had some white balls and some white stars all intermingling, and now I think it couldn't have worked better if I had planned it!

I have more to show you as the front garden has been my ongoing project for the past few months, but that's a post for another day. I'll leave you today with this last picture of Mrs G, glowing like a young maiden in the golden hour sunshine. 

Springtime in the garden

 Hello again! I've been enjoying the spring in my garden and I thought I'd pop in and share some photos with you. The weather has been  very changeable... which is typical for spring after all... but there were some sunny periods amongst it. There is nothing like a sunny morning or afternoon spent in the garden, and even though it doesn't always make for the most perfect photos I've still tried to capture it here. There are blossoms galore - appleblossom in the photo above - and the petals fall in a rain of confetti to gently dot lawns and shrubs. Shrubs are softly mounded with new green growth and bud-tipped stems.

 I mentioned my Cercis Forest Pansy in my last post. Here is another shot better showing the underskirt of violets. The orange azalea behind the fence is stealing the thunder a bit! I really should rip that azalea out but when I look at it's gnarled, mossy branches I haven't the heart. At least it only flowers for a couple of weeks.

 This is another azalea against the garage wall. I don't know the variety but it's so lovely! I forget how pretty it is, and every year it takes me by surprise. The buds start off bright pink, but fade into cream as the flower opens. So pretty.

 I enjoy the borrowed view that I get over the top of the fence here. It's fun watching all the trees burst into leaf and blossom along with the ones in my garden. Here is my maple Burgundy Lace, along with two Garden Prince almond trees.

 This part of the garden is filling out well. The lupins at the back are putting on a good show, and soon dahlias will be pushing through and there will be a whole host of flowers.

 This is probably the last of the anemones. They have done really well this spring, much better than the ranunculus I must say.

This is a strip of snow in summer lining one of the beds.  There are a few ranuculus peeking over the top. They only seem to do a couple of flowers per plant and don't repeat flower, so I'm wondering if it's even worth the bother of growing them after all... they don't resemble florist ones at all! No doubt I will keep them going though, as there is always that hope that next time will be better... that elusive next time...

Tomorrow it's the weekend and I need to get stuck into the potager. I did a bit last weekend but there are plenty more things to plant, including my tomatoes which need to be settled into the glasshouse. Always plenty of work to do, so stay tuned for the next update...

October flowers

 Welcome to October in my garden! Spring is here at last. She took her time arriving and it feels like everything should be further along than it is, but looking at my photos from this time last year it would seem that everything is on track. Blossom season is peaking with the eruption of the tall cherry tree in my back yard. It's a beacon for a week or two, along with the giant pink rhododendron in the front yard.

I'm feeling well behind with all my gardening and outdoor jobs. Mostly I just want some time to wander round properly with the camera and document it. I seem to be rushing from one thing to another, and I've barely had time to stop and smell the blossoms (roses will be next month!) For now, here are some snaps to show what is flowering...

Clockwise from top left: The maple tree is unfolding new leaves and quirky flowers; a white aquilegia; cherry blossoms; new leaves and flower buds on Cercis Forest Pansy; hot pink freesias; a nearly open flower head on viburnum Snowball; possibly the first rose to open; pink rhododendron; apple blossom; violets; pink ranunculus; prunus Accolade. Middle: these freesias are so bright and bold. They're not scented quite as strongly as the white ones, but you still get that hint of incense.

This is a shady corner which gets sun for about 2 hours in the middle of the day. It's difficult to photograph well - either too shaded or too washed out! I'm actually hoping for an overcast day sometime soon to shoot it better. But it deserves a mention for being carpeted with gorgeous violets, which light up the corner. The tree is Cercis Forest Pansy, which has lovely sculptural branches, reddish-purple heart shaped leaves and pink flowers in spring. It hasn't grown much taller in three years but is bushing out a bit.

That's it for now - hopefully I'll be able to give more of a tour soon! Linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.