Garden Bloggers Bloom Day 15th November 2010

Sunny days and warm weather have brought the first of the summer flowers out so our "Down-Under" garden is filling with colour. For the purpose of the Bloggers Bloom Day I've decided to include some flowers from the nursery too and the first of these is the Wisteria, now in its full glory:

Meanwhile, back in the house garden some late apple blossom hangs on. You can just make out the  young apples, set from the main flowering, behind these flowers:

Up at the nursery again one of out cream delphiniums known only as Y0102 is showing off:

The nursery is separated from the house by about 200 metres of medium incline so I think we'll stay for one more delphinium before going back to the house again. This one is part of trials to produce delphiniums compact enough for sale as pot plants. It is a little too tall at 55cm but that makes it ideal for a low border plant:

On the way back to the house I notice the first sunflower opening up. The seeds were planted under cover in early August:

The first day-lily is flowering. Our day-lilies are raised from seed we bought from Nan Riply of the American Hemerocallis Society http://www.northernlightsdaylilies.com/index.php?pr=Walkabout_Gardens

And now, looking towards the house the Cecil Brunner rose is putting on a show too. This rose blooms for most of the summer:

You probably all know this common papaver specie. I don't.:

Nor do I recall the name of the white flowering plants behind the campanula glomerata:

Still not to the bottom of the hill pansies are happy among the forget-me-nots:

And the pink hollyhock that has been flowering all winter is still on the go:

And a geranium specie:

And a white campanula percicifolia:

And so to the house garden where Westerland is all over the garage:

Wedding Day is about to dawn. This is my favourite rose, prickly and flowering only once a year its something to really look forward too. She is early this year.A bit of a shot gun affair no doubt.

Something you may not see too often in the northers hemisphere, a Manuka hybrid. This is one of our native, endemic I believe, New Zealand plants. We have many, many plants endemic to this country.

This carpet rose has also flowered right through the winter but is doing so a little more enthusiastically now.

Ok, I'll walk back up the hill, past a nasturtium that does a great job of covering the ground later in the season

And back to the delphiniums. This one is Double Innocence, which we bred and sell from seed

These are more trials for short, border type delphiniums

Well, that's 20 images. There are many more but the above should give you a taste of "What's Happening - Down Under"

If you want to know more about our delphiniums please check out our web site, here: http://www.delphinium.co.nz/

If you'd like to be part of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day visit Carol's blog here: http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2008/02/getting-involved-with-garden-bloggers.html

Cheers

Terry

Match Stick

This is going to be more of a matchstick than a post but I missed putting something up on Monday so must make amends.

It's amazing what a difference 10 days can make. I've never closely watched the progression of the sycamore tree from flower to fruit before and am astounded at the pace and beauty of it. The elm is fairly nippy about producing seed pods and it's true, they mature and fall more quickly, but as you see from the image below, the sycamore has almost mature pods while flowers on the same panacle are still blooming.

And just for fun:

I told you it was just a match-stick

Earthquakes, Earthworks and a Good Feed

Some keen gardeners and those with earthquake phobias might like to skip the first few paragraphs - just jump straight to the first images and you'll be safe.

This week's blog will have to do for the past two. After a hectic week attending to work, garden and other things that come under the general heading of "life" and finally sitting before the pc on Tuesday evening, the wheel fell off. Blogger was down and as Janice and I flew to Christchurch on Wednesday morning for a few days rest I simply enjoyed a break from blogging too.

Since the Magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Sept 3rd, and because there have been so many sizable aftershocks (including a Mag 5 a few days ago) Christchurch has earned the reputation in NZ of Earthquake City . It was interesting therefore to see how the city is handling the quake and its aftermath. The first thing we noticed was the lack of disruption and damage. Quakes of this magnitude in places where building codes are less stringent would have caused the city to be flattened -witness Haiti for example, where a quarter of a million people died. In Christchurch there was no loss of life and damage was limited to the oldest brick buildings, some of which have simply been strengthened, some pulled down to be replaced.

Wanganui and most of New Zealand is either on, or very close to, active fault lines, so we regularly experience small quakes here too and are used to a little rocking every now and again. However, as we were "upgraded" to a 26th floor apartment in the hotel we stayed at we were pleased there was no significant shake while we were there. Never-the-less, the fact is that had there been another quake we would have been perfectly safe.

So why am I telling you all this? I have no idea. Perhaps I'm highlighting our good fortune in living in a society that values life enough to take steps to prevent its loss. Perhaps I'm telling prospective visitors to Christchurch and NZ not to worry about earthquakes.Either way I'm digressing from things horticultural.

Spring is well and truly here and heading full tilt towards summer. The vege garden is flourishing, more trees are in flower and perennials are waking up to the fact that they have to get on with another growth cycle..... again. I too must wake up to the fact there is an awful lot of work to do in the garden, not the least of which is making more terraces (more earthworks with a spade) to extend the vege garden into - because i'm RUNNING OUT OF ROOM.!!!!

I love trees and so the blooming cherry which flowered outside my office window (upstairs at home) a few weeks ago and the sycamore and manuka now in flower and also seen from the office are great friends to me.

The wisteria loves to climb the sycamore and rewards me with this sight of them both in flower. I love  the sycamore seed pods seen developing mid left in the image below. They will bring "helicopter" excitement for our granddaughters later in the summer.

The manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) is beginning to flower now and will be a mass of blooms in a week or two.

And the clematis climbing up the tortured willow is a great sight in late spring

The willow has also allowed us to hang a swing from one of its branches and this has given much pleasure. Here my cousins James and Jasmine enjoy a ride in the autumn a few years ago

But back to today


The orchard is changing again as the azalea finishes flowering, the lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) reach upwards and granny's bonnets flower in front of the myosotis

And the first flower appears on a new rugosa rose 

The Rhododendron comes into bloom

The vege garden already alluded to as rapidly becoming too small is flourishing. The plant poking through the bird netting protecting the radish seedlings is a cabbage palm Brassica oleracea and the bare ground will be planted up with another crop of onions, beet lettuce seeds etc in a few days. We are harvesting sugar snap peas, carrots, radish, lettuce, beet, spring onions, spinach, broccoli and looking forward to much more

Vegetables and herbs are my favourite plants because not only do they look good but they also feed you. Janice and I love cooking and I'm looking forward to having a garden full of many different species for use in flavouring our meals. Last week I made some delicious vegetable pastes and sauces for garnishing. So delicious they were! Try parsley and spring onion, shredded and then blended with olive oil and lemon juice using a mortar and pestle. Or oregano and thyme likewise treated. Get the combination right and you have a wonderful garnish that's so easy to make....fresh

Just one more thing. This spotted lettuce (below right) has a great flavour and does not go bitter as the plant ages. Fantastic!!

Sorry I can't give you the name as I bought them as a plug. I'll get it later. Anyone know?


Cheers


Terry

Blogger's Bloom Day October 16th

I missed the Blogger's Bloom Day post last month and am a little late this time too. But here is what is flowering in our southern hemisphere garden this 16th October 2010. Why I make the hemispherical distinction I don't know because we don't have a northern hemisphere garden!
The first images just has to be of the new puppy "Ergo" in the Forget-Me-Nots. Ergo is 10 weeks old and clearly loves gardening. his name came from the fact that we needed a box for his bed and the most suitable box we found had the name "Ergo" branded on it - therefore we called the dog Ergo.

We have the first Sugar Snap peas. Hurray!!!!! Janice and I love all the fresh veges we harvest from our garden (I sowed more radish today) and l love cooking too.

And the last tulip

Blueberries in flower. I just can't wait until the summer. These plants are at teh top of the orchard in heavy clay soil and exposed to a fair amount of wind. They do surprisingly well. As with all fruit however we have to be sure to beat the birds to them.

Then there are the native trees that love to flower at this time of the year. This one is a Pittosporum specie of which there are many.

And this is a tiny Sophera microphilla which is sporting late flowers no larger then my fingernails. It's the first time this plant has flowered since planted some 6 years ago.

The dogs also like gardening among the bluebells. The damage you see on the leaves of these was because our older dog, Kaz, made her bed on top of them until they became too uncomfortable.

The fish and the delphinium are being threatened by the rose and the honesty. Never let honesty threaten you. It's always the best policy.

Ask Johnny-Jump-Up! This one is tiny growing in front of the what's its name?

This Wisteria Amethyst just loves the garage.

And I'll finish as I started, on a blue note, with the first aquilegia flowering in front of the forget-me-nots.

No, no I won't, Heres the view down from the top of the orchard. Getting rather colourful it is but just wait until next month, the colours will all be changed.

There's lots more happening in the garden although its mostly backbreaking weeding and mulching work and the planting of seeds and plants. There's heaps more to be done.

Cheers for now

Terry

And after the tulips

This weekend was a good one. On Saturday I spent time with a community organisation planting trees around a large sports park and then today managed to divide time between work in the nursery (just a little) and work in the garden. The garden may seem a more attractive proposition and at the moment you may be right.
Heres a lonely bunch of wisteria racimens below the garage soffit.

The main task was to sow more seed, mostly in cell trays or straight into 4inch pots. The seed included gazanias, echinacea, cardoon, euphorbia marginata which are mostly for planting in and around the orchard on the hill. I still have to direct sow some buckwheat for attracting insects and plant marigolds for discouraging them. Gardeners sure do queer things.

Unfortunately I haven't mown the lawn for a couple of weeks. The daisies do look nice though:

The three small azaleas we have are  really doing their thing now. This one almost the same colour as the apple blossom on the nearby tree - see below:

For the vege garden I sowed zucchini, carrot, onion (four types). Here's the first sowing of onions that were weeded last week:

I also sowed radish (3 types) dwarf beans, runner beans, broccoli, two types of tomato, celery, chilli, capsicum, cucumber and I'm sure, some other veges too.

Here's the first sowing of runner beans from three weeks ago:

It was a cool day but sunny so I was pleased to get a few images of what's happening in the garden.

I love the bronze phormium (New Zealand Flax) hybrids. Above one seems to be looming like a giant spider ready to pounce on the red azalea while below it looks far more benign:

And here's a flax leaf:

All for now. Have fun in the garden.

Cheers

Terry D