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.

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.

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.

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.

September flowers

 Hello September, where did you go? I seem to have blinked and missed it. Spring might be here but Mother Nature hasn't got the memo and is still lashing us with cold and wet wintery weather! It's not time to take the flannelette sheets off the bed just yet.

I did actually have last week off from work and we did, actually, have a couple of warm days in there... they are a distant memory now. My aim was to get stuck into the garden, in particular the front garden which has been a bit neglected. We had the drive repaired recently and it looks amazing, meaning everything else looks shabby in comparison, and I wanted to enlarge the beds and put more plants around the roses, etc etc... I'll go into more detail in another post when the beds have filled out a bit and look more photo-worthy. Suffice to say, I got about half of what I wanted done! It was hard work digging, planting and shifting things. I'm pleased with the effort though and if I had another week off I'd get the lot finished... alas I'm back at work next week so it will be back to the weekend gardening, as long as the weather behaves.

Things are waking up in the flower garden, slowly due to the long winter and cold start to spring. If I look back at photos from previous years I can see that everything is set back a bit in comparison. I still have plenty of bulb and blossom though...

Above, from top left: ipheion uniflorum (spring star), fondant hyacinth, a posy of daffodils and geranium, peach blossom, almond blossom, vintage looking pansy, camellia fairy blush, pink and purple anemones, paper daisies, anemones in their natural habitat, yet another anemone, monarch daffodils.

This is the spring planting lining my driveway. It's a riot of pastel frills and ruffles and smells just heavenly. It fills out a bit every year and will only improve as the camellias get taller. Interestingly enough, the hyacinths have put on a much better show than last year and I wonder if it's due to cooler temps or more frosts or something... a lot of spring bloomers seem to be improved by frost first. Anyway, working out the front has been much improved by having this to look at, and I've even had passing neighbours stop and tell me how nice it looks. That spurs me on... hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of it up to standard soon!

Linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day even though I'm a few days late...

August flowers

Hi again! Welcome to August in my garden. It's been up and down weather-wise... we had some warm sunny days at the start of the month where I threw all the windows and doors open and got the house aired and dried to its bones. We had winter storms and snow flurries, heavy rain and frost. But no matter what the weather's doing, the earth and the plants know the date, and everything is counting down to the spring awakening.

As I showed you in my last post, the wonderful hellebores are blooming and they really are lighting up the garden. Even with the frost and rain, their petals are firm and unblemished. Winter blooms continue with camellias and daphne, and the first early risers of spring are unfurling their petals - some delicate anemones, the long lasting blooms of paper daisies, one-minute-wonder crocuses and the first brave daffodils.

Last weekend it rained, I was travelling and then got sick as well. This weekend there is less on the agenda and I need to get stuck into the garden. Suddenly all those jobs that I thought I'd tackle at a leisurely pace when I got round to it have piled up... and they all need to be taken care of before the mad growth of spring kicks in! If you need me, I'll be in the garden...

July flowers

Welcome to July in my garden! Winter weather has set in and it's been incredibly cold. No snow I'm happy to report, although there have been a couple of storms with sleety showers. But we're well into the frosty mornings and it's been the norm to wake up to minus two or three degrees, and even -5 has not been that unusual lately. Frosty mornings are standard for winter in the South Island of New Zealand, however we have had a lot of heavy frosts lately (and the last two winters were milder than average) so it's feeling pretty damn cold!

My garden is noticing it too. Usually at this time I have something in flower that I can pick, such as pansies, borage and rosemary (I often use these edible flowers on cakes in winter!) but the pickings are very scarce this year. All the borage have succumbed to frost, the rosemary buds are barely showing, and the pansies are hiding their faces. This time last year the first of my hellebores were opening, as was the daphne and even some early spring bulbs. This year the buds are still tightly furled. Luckily I still have camellias and wintersweet to fill my vases... although I am starting to crave a bit more variety.

Above, clockwise from top left: symmetrical succulents, wintersweet, daphne buds, a frosted seed head, camellia Fairy Blush, a dried hydrangea flower head, frosted leaves, some brave geraniums in the glasshouse, a red rose hip, a crazy flowering lavender, a slowly opening camellia Cinnamon Cindy, a pink armeria in the glasshouse. Middle: an ikebana arrangement with azalea branches and camellia flowers.

Here are some photos from one of our -5 degree mornings. It's a very invigorating way to start the day... quite refreshing! (Have I convinced you? I haven't convinced myself!) Oh well, at least everything is reasonably tidy and will stay so as long as it's too cold for weeds to grow! Just as well because there are still plenty of other jobs to do, like pruning the roses. Guess I'm not quite ready for spring then!

Linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

June flowers

It's June, the first month of winter and generally the least floriferous month in my garden. We've had a few frosts by now which have knocked back the more tender plants, and while some things like roses are still producing buds, they are unlikely to open now... more likely just wither, brown or rot. There is promise in the swelling buds on camellias and hellebores, and I'm seeing the green leaves of bulbs peeking through. But mostly this month I'm reliant on foliage and berries, as well as the odd hardy bloom here and there.

My best performing plants for early winter are my early camellia, wintersweet, roses (hips are colouring up now), geraniums (still flowering strongly in sheltered areas), cyclamen (indoor only), snowberry, pansies and primroses, lavender, and there is still a bit of coloured foliage on shrubs like azaleas and blueberries. In the next couple of months I'll have more flowers with hellebores, daphne, mid season camellias and early bulbs.

What are your favourite garden performers for early winter?

Above, clockwise from top left: pretty indoor cyclamen, blueberry leaf, snowberries, wintersweet, primroses, rosebud, azalea bud, calendula, camellia Elfin Rose, succulents, pansy, more succulents. Centre: a fragrant bunch of wintersweet and coloured foliage, with the last two rosebuds included (better than leaving them out to be frosted!)

I'm joining in with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens. As it is summer in the northern hemisphere there are bound to be lots of inspiring posts to look at, why don't you pop over and have a look. 

May flowers

Welcome to May in my autumn garden. It's late autumn and while there are a few brave souls soldiering on, many of the summer flowers are at last fading. Winter isn't my favourite, but I always embrace the change of season - with the emphasis on change, meaning a new range of blooms for enjoying and picking. New this month is the wintersweet, a seasonal delight and something that always gets me through the first month of winter. My camellia Elfin Rose is still going and looking lovely when backlit by the sun, and I hope the rest of my camellias won't be far behind.

Clockwise from top left: autumn coloured hydrangea, cheerful pansy, possibly the last rosebud for the season, the first wintersweet for the season, Elfin Rose camellia, sweet alyssum, hollyhocks, a late rose, Baujade apples, nerines, astrantia, pink penstemon.

I kind of missed Bloom Day this month (time is flying by lately) but I'm linking up now, I'm number 100 so there are plenty of other gardens to check out if you click the link!

April flowers

We had a short sharp introduction to winter this week as a cold front blew across the country. It's not really acceptable, snow forming on the hills and sleety showers in the city - what is this, June? and as I write this gale force southerlies are still slamming the house. So, summer has gone and at this stage it feels like we skipped autumn and went straight into winter! Luckily there is still plenty of colour in the flower garden and there are even some surprises this month, including some confused anemones which are sending up flower buds!

Above, clockwise from top left: salvia, Cecille Brunner rose, astrantia, dahlia, pink-tinted succulent, sedum flower, fairy mushrooms, camellia Elfin Rose (another surprise. I bought this in a bargain bin last spring and it had a couple of flowers then, so I wasn't expecting that it would flower so early in the season), cosmos, cosmos and scabiosa backlit by the sun (a quintessentially autumn combination for me), calibrachoa, penstemon Blackbird.

How is your garden this month? Hope you're having good weather and good flowers. Don't forget to check out Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for more flowers from all around the globe!

March flowers

Hi and welcome to March in my garden! Summer might be winding down but the garden is as flower filled as ever, and the lowering light makes blooms and petals even more beautiful. There are seed heads and berries forming and it's fun to look each day and spot new changes.

Clockwise from top left: an unknown climbing rose grown from a cutting, autumnal tints on a hydrangea, viburnum berries (these plants have always been in one of my side gardens but I never noticed berries on them before. They are so vibrant - wow!), white rose grown from a cutting, a patchwork looking cosmos, pink penstemon, lupin and lavatera, water drops sparkling on a hydrangea, burgundy scabiosa, autumn cyclamen, apple blossom geranium, scabiosa seed head. Middle: lupins and gaura backlit by the evening sun.

What is blooming in your garden this month? Is it spring or autumn? I'm linking this post to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

February flowers

Here we are with my February flowers post. This month my garden seems a bit more muted, or perhaps I've just chosen to focus on the softer flowers rather than the brash, end-of-summer colours of dahlias and salvias. I like the soft shades here as a respite from the hot weather we've been having!

Clockwise from top left: lavatera and gaura, carnation, Peace roses (currently opening as a bright yellow bud then fading to pastel fondant shades of pink and cream), gypsophila, white echinacea, dahlia, sweet alyssum, poppy seed heads, hydrangea, penstemon Blackbird, Claire rose, scabiosa. 

I'm joining in at Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, where gardeners all around the world show what is flowering in their patch right now.

January flowers

Hooray, it's summer in the garden. I've just finished my Christmas holiday and I'm back to work, which is a little depressing, but I have great memories of long relaxing days at home and in the garden. The grass is brown but the flower beds are full, and there's plenty of choice for the vase. I head out with basket and secateurs and wander around, picking flowers.

Clockwise from top left: lavatera (I'm not sure if this is a weed, though I did grow some annual lavatera a couple of years ago so it's probably self sown from that. Either way it's good filler), white tuberous begonia, soft pink geranium petals, hydrangea, godetia, calibrachoa (doing really well in the hot spot on my deck), lacecap hydrangea, another calibrachoa, the show stopping cactus dahlia, Christmas lilies, penstemon, Peace rose.

Special mention goes to this lacecap hydrangea. It's changed colour every season... when I got it about 4 years ago it was pink, then mauve, and now it's getting more violet. Maybe next year it will be blue. I've loved it in all its incarnations.

I'm linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens. Hope you are having fun in your garden this month!

December flowers

Well, here we are in summer already. How did that even happen? The weather is certainly not pretending to be summery... it's windy, cloudy, often raining, and if it weren't for the late light evenings I'd think it was still September. Luckily the garden has proceeded pretty much as normal, and even if the vege garden is a little slow the flowers are giving it their all.

Above, clockwise from top left: Cecille Brunner rose, pink penstemon, white gladioli nanus, fejoa flowers (looking suitably festive), sweet peas, peony poppies, lupins, star flowers on a small succulent, pink poppy, lavender, gypsophila, peony. Middle: penstemon, gladioli and white hydrangea make a pretty bouquet.

I'm hopefully not too late to join in with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I've missed it for the past couple of months so I'm trying to get back into the routine! I'm also going to try and get back to some regular blogging, as it's been pretty bare around here. See you again in a day or two!

November flowers

Oh November, where have you gone? I looked forward to you all year and you've passed in the blink of an eye. The garden is peaking and I haven't had time to appreciate it. When I went out tonight to photograph the roses I realised most of them were overblown and browning off. Oh well, tomorrow night I'll get out and deadhead them and hopefully some more blooms won't be too far off.

I've bought two peonies recently and today my neighbour gave me one he was getting rid of. I am going to have to have a reshuffle to fit them in, especially as I've realised the spot I'd planned for them isn't sunny enough. I have one there and every spring it buds up, but the buds don't swell or develop and eventually fall off. So I will need to put them all somewhere sheltered with full sun. Fussy little buggers, aren't they... but the flowers are worth it!

Above, clockwise from top left: lambs ears and geraniums, staples in my spring garden; Ash Wednesday rose; unknown peony (but doesn't give me any trouble with flowering); snow in summer; sweet william; Queen Elizabeth rose; dusky pink foxglove; Claire rose; peony poppy; chive flowers; unknown white rose; Sexy Rexy rose.

Our spring weather has been quite volatile. Wind is the norm, if we're lucky it's just a brisk breeze but often it blows up into a gale. I came home from work last week to find my Queen Elizabeth rose blown right over and the wooden stake I'd tied it to snapped in half. I found an old fence post and hammered that in and that's held it up so far.

That's it from me tonight... I'm going to try and organise my garden tour photos so I can get a post done on that soon.

October flowers

 I've gotten a bit behind with my posting in the past couple of months but I've still been taking photos! We haven't had the best spring weather but luckily that hasn't stopped the flowers. I had a reasonably good crop of ranunculus (not all the bulbs delivered on their promise though) and the anemones were very impressive. I also planted some out some new plant including two kinds of viburnum which will be nice next spring when they've bushed out a bit.

Above, clockwise from top left: clematis montana, pink and white ranunculus, apple blossom, miniature blue anemone (a special treasure from the alpine plant show), pink rhododendron, snowball viburnum, pastel anemones (with petals looking like they've been brushed with watercolours), violets, viburnum Mariesii, yellow ranunculus, white ranunculus, red watercolour anemone.

 I used this vase to grow hyacinth bulbs in and it's also been good for showcasing smaller blooms. I just put a small glass bottle inside to hold the bloom. (The anemones last a long time in the vase, opening and closing with the daylight.)

 Cherry blossom makes a frothy background for this ranunculus.

I didn't have garden roses in October so I bought some from the supermarket to tide me over!

That was October in flowers - it feels so long ago now. November has been hectic so far but I hope to get a post together soon to show you what's in bloom right now in my garden. I also did some garden tours on the weekend and I have some gorgeous photos to share... soon I promise!

September flowers

Spring is here, hooray! The weather hasn't been exactly quick to cooperate, but there's no denying the swiftly lightening mornings with slightly less chill to the air, not to mention the explosion of bird activity around dawn! It's finally time to do things in the garden like planting out shrubs, and preparing the potager for spring veges. There's also time to appreciate bulbs and blossoms, and to say goodbye to some winter performers whose season is almost over.

Clockwise from top left: vivid coral blossoms on peach Rose Chiffon, a hellebore setting seed, the first anemone of the season, almond blossom, a cheerful pansy, a pretty white and cream daffodil, gorgeous hycacinth, camellia Fairy Blush (still going strong and having bloomed since May!), the first lavender of the season, blue star flowers (ipheon uniflorum), the blue and pink flowers of pulmonaria, a gaudy but welcome daffodil.

How is your garden this season? Pop over to May Dreams Gardens to find links to gardens all around the world blooming in spring and autumn!

August flowers

Welcome to my garden for a small taste of what's blooming this August! I did wonder if I would find anything new to photograph at all, as it's definitely feeling like the tail end of the season now and anything still flowering is looking a bit tired. However there were a few surprises, like the jasmine I found trespassing over the fence into the neighbour's yard. When I pulled it back that particular part of the vine was covered with flowers! I am not sure why my flowering vines do this - no matter which side of the fence is sunniest, they always seem to push their way to the neighbour's side and flower there. Of course the neighbours don't mind at all, but I feel a bit put out. Plant - you flower for me, got it?

There are also small buds now to be seen on dormant plants like clematis, fruit trees and spring flowering shrubs. It won't be long now before everything bursts forth.

Clockwise from top left: snowdrop, a new hellebore called Tutu (see the frilly petals inside? And it was on sale so it's all right!), the first blossom on my almond tree (I hope the rest of them hold off till spring is a bit closer), polyanthus, ipheion uniflorum, camellia fairy blush (looking blossom-like in this picture, but it's been flowering since May), earlicheer daffodils, paper daisy, an opening bud of hellebore Pink Lady, the surprise jasmine, daphne (still smelling gorgeous), picotee hellebore.

Special mention goes to this picotee hellebore, mainly because I really like this photo. How is your garden blooming this month?

July flowers

There is plenty in flower in the garden this winter. We've had remarkably mild weather for the past three or four weeks, it's been really springlike some days but almost better, since in spring we get blustery winds. So I've spent as much time outside as possible. I feel like I've barely made a dent in the list of things to get done, but I did enlist some help in chopping down some of the wild shrubbery along the front fence line. Out came the horrible pittosporums and then I realised I had a big empty space to fill. I've got a camellia (Elfin Rose) and a snowball tree to go in there and I think some hellebores will be nice too, so I'll transplant the seedling ones that have come up.

Next it will be rose pruning and transplanting, there's more weeding to do, things to plant out, and before I know it spring will be here! Winter's been great so far, and I feel fully entitled to say that after all the rain and flooding we endured in autumn. However a cold snap is meant to move in tomorrow so I could well change my mind.

Here's what is in flower in my garden in July (clockwise from top left): Camellia Cinnamon Cindy, linaria, purple hellebore, rose hip, picotee hellebore, camellia Elfin Rose, miniature iris, winter cyclamen, hebe, jonquils, erica, daphne. Middle: scented winter posy of daphne and hellebore. I'm linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.  It's interesting to see the differences between winter gardens (southern hemisphere) and summer gardens (northern hemisphere) this month. Where does your garden come in?