Problems & Surprises

This week's high temps had Mr BigNose languishing, but allowed no rest for the gardener, be she wicked or otherwise.  Early morning waterings, raising of sails, shifting of pots to ever moving patches of shade . . .

When we hit 35C, the plants in the not-so-shady border began putting their affairs in order, despite their sail.  So began the Great Dig 'Em Up Exodus to the front garden.  Miraculously, they seem delighted with their new home.

All these emergency measures didn't stop the usual business of the garden, however.



1.  Surprise second bloomings.

Having the alspice go a second round, especially in this heat, gave me a bit of a surprise . . .

. . . while the hellebore resurrection came as an absolute shock.

These both bloomed in their original colours, but the witch hazel, which has always been burnt orange . . .

. . . sent out a coupla yellow petals.


2.  Castor flowers.

Did you ever see anything so fascinating as castor flowers?

Like the lungs of some alien species, so beautiful yet gruesome at the same time.


3.  New Britches

About a month ago, an acanthus plant arrived looking like this:

Amazingly, it only lost one of its spotty leaves & now has new growth.

4.  Symphytrum Rubrum.

The same nursery sent an ornamental comfrey covered with mildew, which I treated.

It bloomed while it was still sick, but since treatment, has a lovely & large new leaf growing in the front.  (That's one of the relocated brunnera photo bombing at the right.)


5.  Angelica Gigas.

The angelica must be very delicious indeed.  Various anti-S&S measures that work for other things in the garden, don't work in this instance - combos of wool pellets, organic pellets, dead bramble & rose sticks, nightly covering with bottles or jars plus vigilantly conducted S&S patrols.

My last ditch - & fortuitously successful - combination is a fleece skirt, a copper ring & a nightly cover.  I'm not sure why this works, as I've plucked slugs off the wool pellets.  It may simply be the wool skirt & copper ring hold the covers in place better.

The jury is still out as to whether or not angelicas are worth it.


6.  Habranthus Robusta.

My brain's got no memory why I ordered these.  They may've featured in an SoS garden, or shown up in a sale or waved at me from inside a winter catalogue while I was wishing for spring.  The bulbs arrived when I was up to my eyes making new beds, so I stuck them into a planter w/some other strays, & hoped for the best.

The best is that they are gorgeous.  Here's a close up to see all those delicate inside bits.

I have photos of these blooming 5-6 weeks ago, so you get your money's worth with them.  Let's hope they multiply.

And that's my #SixOnSaturday for this week.  If you'd like to read other Sixes or better yet, want to join in yourself, drop by The Propagator who hosts us in his comment sections.

Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time.

Blooms!

While much is happening in the garden this week, there's been fun & food & people celebrating #1 Son's Big Achievement.

I'll forego the usual chatty report for my #SixOnSaturday post, & leave you with Six photos of blooms seen in many of your gardens, no introduction necessary.

There's plenty more Sixes over at The Propagator's, so make sure you stop by.








1.  Canna

2.  Freesia

3.  Glads.

4.  Sunflowers.

When this pale yellow sunflower appeared in several SoS gardens last year, I fell in love.  It's just as beautiful in person, growing on either end of our corn patch, threatening to become a favourite.

The birds planted a few of their own, so we have the giant sunflower 'trees', as I call them, because they have one huge main flower, then several smaller flowers growing up the stem.

5.  Nasturtium.

This photo doesn't show how blood red these flowers are.


6.  Fuschia.

Ok, so I did natter a bit, but this is me we're talking about here.

Hope you enjoyed the photos & thanks for stopping by.

Now back to the party!

Mixed Bag

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It's #SixOnSaturday time, a weekly hashtag used by gardeners all over the world to feature six things from their gardens.

To read their posts or even join in yourself, visit Mr Propagator for some great stuff.

Let's see what's made an appearance in my garden this week.







1.  Sun.

Our first year in this garden & I've learned that what was the shady border in February/March, is not particularly shady in June & July.  I've had to resort to a sail for my poor shade lovers.

Not so shady border.

The brunnera & 2 of my actaea will be relocated to the front garden next year.  Everyone else seems to be coping well enough with the sun, including a third but larger type of actaea.


2.  Water lily.

The long awaited water lily has bloomed.

BigNoseWalk Pond.

Just kidding.  Wish I had a pond this big, but we've had to content ourselves with the Doodle pool.

This is my first year putting aquatic plants in it & one of our water lilies has finally opened.  I couldn't remember what colours I'd bought, but to be honest, I'd've been pleased with any colour, so I didn't complain when it open up yellow.

1st lily blossom.

Then it started to blush, keeping that buttery yellow centre (plus a necklace of toadflax flowers).

Changing colours.

And that blush faded to cream.  The bloom reacts to light, which is why the older bloom (below), looks more closed than the younger bloom above.

Coupla friends.

Whatever its dress, all sorts of insects love it.


3.  Speaking of insects . . . 

I got a bee box for Christmas but with everything that needed done in the new garden, I hadn't given a lot of thought about where to put it.  The instructions said it could be set on a post, so the pot shelves became its temporary home.

The shelves are in a fenced off paved area away from the flowerbeds with only some herb robert & an optimistic valerian growing up through the pavers.

New tenants

I was surprised & delighted when the bees found it.  These look to be leaf cutting bees.

Less than tidy.

Some are better at housekeeping than others, as you can see.


4.  Corn flower.

These seeds came in a kit of edible flowers - another great Christmas pressie.

Hungry, anyone?

Too beautiful to eat & they've got a lovely smell.


5.  Cheaper by the dozen.

They must've been on sale because I don't tend to go for multiples of the same type plant, but here they are, a 'collection' of 12 achillea plants that've just started to bloom.

A. Cerise.

Well, that's not really accurate.  When Cerise started to bloom, I checked my paperwork to see what other colours there'd be.  Turns out the white flowers that'd appeared out of nowhere a few weeks ago are really A. The Pearl.

A. the Pearl.

The foliage doesn't resemble Cerise's feathery fern-like structure, which made me wonder if, even tho Pearl was the only white achillea listed, some other unidentified white flowers were also from the 'collection'.

An achillea by any other name . . .

Or maybe I'm wrong about these white flowers being achillea, which means I haven't a clue where they came from.  Whatever the answer, white flowers are most welcomed here.


6.  Outlaws.

The magpies have successfully raised 2 fledglings who are hell on wheels.  The parents used to sit on the fence screaming at their wild offspring to get out of our garden, probably because of our cat.  Of course, the adolescents ignored them, & the parents eventually gave up trying to supervise them.

You grab that end . . . 

They're intelligent, destructive, funny birds who love swinging on the hammock.  In the photo above, they're trying to steal the curtain rod supporting the mattress spring trellis.

A coupla days ago, I stopped in the middle of cleaning up after the dogs to answer the door.  When I came back, the Outlaws were playing hot potato with the abandoned poo bag.  They quickly got it opened, after which they picked out each little bit of poo & flung them all over the lawn.

Recently, I saw one of them eating bugs on the neighbour's roof with a crow fledgling.  Tho larger, the crow did wing flutters at the magpie, like fledglings do to get fed.  The magpie verbalised back to the crow, then seemed to be showing it how to feed.  The crow would peck at a few bugs, then wing flutter again.  They kept doing this up the roof & over, out of sight.

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And there's my stories for the week.

Thanks for stopping by & don't forget to check out The Propagator's blog.

Hope to see you next time.

That's me done talking.

Borrowed Camera

4th of July wiener (& tofu) roast.

It's time for #SixOnSaturday, when bloggers feature six things from their gardens.  Be sure to visit Mr Props who has not only his own Six blooming like mad, but #SoS guidelines, should you think about joining us.  Links to his international merry band are found in his comment section.

Several of this week's photos simply defied my miserable camera phone, so my son kindly loaned me his digital camera.  After I miserably failed using the proper camera, he retook the shots.

In gardening, you can often improvise.  In photography, you need the right equipment & the right person to use it.







1.  Mrs Bradshaw & friends.

Countless weeks ago, the geum taunted me with her little yellow buds.  Then followed the occasional disappointing bloom, but this week, we saw the real deal.  Perhaps she had misgivings about strutting her stuff.

Geum & curry plant.

The geum's inherited so I don't know her name but've called her Mrs Bradshaw.  She looked red with her previous neighbours, but next to the curry plants, she looks very orange.  As to the curries, this photo doesn't show how brilliantly yellow they are.  And the aroma . . . all over the garden.


2.  Sea Holly.

This one looks a little fuzzy, but trust me, it's as spiky as any sea holly AND the colour is true.  Just love that stem.

Purple & proud.

We didn't get blooms from it last year & I'd hoped it was because of the drought.  This year, it's knocked itself out sending up half a dozen flower stems.


3.  Canna jungle.

The canna lilies are just now coming into their own.  They're quite beautiful plants, even before they bloom.

Cannas from the front.

Last year, they weren't more than 8" tall with tiny little blooms, despite being watered during the drought.

Cannas from the back.

Next year, these guys'll be planted around the Doodle pool.



4.  Apricot fudge.

In front of the cannas, there's 2 of these fellas which are new to me.

Longiflorum Asiatic lily.

Like their neighbours, they've got a wonderful structure, but one that looks like red beetle candy.  The bloom is supposed to be just as enigmatic looking.


6.  Burn unit.

The relentless sun in my back garden has necessitated a plant burn unit for the potted plants, & the use of shade makers for those in the ground - several of which, next year, will appear in the front garden.  I had no idea this fella below was sensitive to the sun, despite living with me for around 6 years.  But then, I have no idea what this fella is.  The parent plant self-layered 4 gardens ago, so I brought the little guy with me.

Burn patient.

At the moment, he's got leaves in 3 stages - leaves that were already grown when the sun got fierce, so look quite leathery; new growth that happened after the scorching weather started, so not burned but small & smooth; then new growth since I've hidden him behind another shrub, this new-growth-in-the-shade being larger, soft & fuzzy, the way I'm used to him being.

Does anyone know what he is?  His blooms are little catkin type flowers.


6.  Zinnias.

The first zinnias to bloom this year are Queen Lime.  As you can see in this photo, they go through a colour progression

Queen Lime zinnia.

The bud (3rd bit of colour from bottom) starts its flowering life as a deep red button surrounded by green baby petals, then opens to a more limey daisy effect still w/the red centre (very last flower at the back), growing into light burgundy-green petals (fuzzy foreground flower) that turn a dark burgundy (2nd flower on left).  Simply stunning.  I can't wait until one of them has multiple flowers on it in all their stages.

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That's my Six for the week.  Thanks for stopping by.

See you next time!