Saturday 29 June 2019

The Sights




Mizzy BunnyButt outraged as usual.

Time again for another #SixOnSaturday when folk all over the world give us a peek into their gardens.  Be sure to drop by The Propagator to catch all the great SoS links.

Here's what's shaking in my garden.


1.  Water lily update.

Last week, I shared a hope that a certain nubbin at the base of one of the water lilies might prove to be something interesting.  Well, it did.


We got lift off.

And because every good mugshot needs a profile -


Hello, world!

The little guy's broken the water's surface & is definitely a bud.  How cool is that?


2.  The Great Lake.

While we're at the water, if you took a step back & perhaps had too much to drink, you might not notice . . .


Faux pond.

. . . that there was no place to hide the Doodle pool in our new garden, so I planted around it.  However, if you were sober & took a step to the left . . .


No escaping ugly.

. . . Mlle DoodeFace's point of entry ruins it all.  I've many thoughts brewing on how to hide it better.

It's amazing how established all these plants look.  This area was lawn when we moved here in February, with only the anemone & day lilies just coming up at the back.  There'll be some tweaking next year so the wall can be used for either peas or cucumelon.  Maybe both.


3.  Fuzzy Buddy.

I asked my son to take a snap of #4 (below) & while he waited for me, he got one of this fella.


Bee in the toad flax.

They're just amazing, bees are.


4.  Identification needed.

Last year, I found a pot with some dead sticks in it that, once given food & left to their own devices, actually grew.  The shrub didn't bloom but some of the SoSers thought it might be a fuschia.  Here's my photo of the whole thing.


Not a fuschia.

Here's my son's photo of some of the blossoms that've come out on 2 or 3 of the branches.  That swinger bloom in the back of the photo shows how much wind we had at the time.  I'm holding a notebook behind it to act as a windbreaker.


Nice surprise.

The blooms hang down & are doubles, with the outside petals having a pink stripe in the middle that doesn't really show up as pink as they really are.  So 2 rows of petals or petalish flower parts with stamens in the middle.

Does anyone recognise it?


5.  Old flame.

You may remember I was slightly excited about the flame flower buds.  Here's what they look like now.


On fire.

I'm not sure why it has 2 different colours of foliage - too much sun maybe?  Whatever the reason, it hasn't stopped this thing from charging up the bed springs.  It's supposed to be hard to grow, so I watch it like a hawk.


6.  Cocks comb.

I featured these when the plants were young & the foliage nearly translucent.  The new growth has that same effect, but it's the blossom that fascinates me now - they're fuzzy & shiny like silky velvet or velvety silk.


Celosia Dracula ready to fly.

Apparently it's edible, too.



Need a biscuit break.



That's my limit for this week. 

Come by next time to see if Mr BigNose has figured this thing out.

Thanks for dropping by!




16 comments:

  1. The flame flower is looking great. I've heard they're tricky to grow - my mum has one too (she calls it a flame creeper). Great fuzzy buddy photo. That pool of water is bigger than our tiny pond - I'd be tempted to take a paddle in it in this heat, being careful not to damage the water lily!

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    1. I remember you saying your mother had one. The pool's begun to get critturs in it, so no thanks. It's for our Labradoodle who goes in, cools off, turns around & comes out again. I put both lilies near her entrance so she moves right past them. The plants on the outside suffer more from her incursions. At least at the moment, that is.

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  2. I didn't know cocks comb was edible, but that makesl sense- it is related to amaranth, isn't it? it is good of you to keep a pool entry for doodle!

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    1. Yes, it is related to amaranthus. Not sure how tasty it'd be, tho. As to the Doodle entrance, this is actually her dog pool, as she's uber sensitive to heat, so there has to be an entrance for her. I find the pool really, really ugly - we've always had ponds for her until recently - so I'm doing my best to disguise it.

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  3. Your mystery plant looks like a deutzia to me. Great way of disguising the Doodle pool.

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    1. A few people have suggested this & an image search certainly looks like what's growing here. Pretty excited about it.

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  4. Soon the waterlily flower! .. what color?
    Very nice flame flower ! a bright red at the right place

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    1. It'll be a surprise. I think I bought both a white & a pink, but I'm not sure that I did nor do I remember which one went where. Hopefully they'll both bloom this year. In a dog pool! Who'd've thought?

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  5. All coming on very nicely Loraj, I agree that it could be a deutzia, lovely! Looking forward to the waterlily flower, next week perhaps? :)

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    1. I hope it's next week for the water lily. I'm getting impatient!

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  6. Your "pond" does the job for its most important stakeholder, ugly or not. I'm contemplating some kind of pod arrangement.. just have to convince child #4 to ditch the swing.

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  7. Mlle DoodleFace is pleased w/her pond, yes indeed. Previously, the only thing I pulled out of the pool was dead leaves. Now that flowers grow around it, I'm always saving bees & moths, there's squigglies hatching it & water bugs . . . even seen a damsel fly or 2 buzzing about. Apparently the only one who cares that it's ugly is me!

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  8. Interesting Six again. I like the flame flowers, in particular and look forward to seeing the lily soon. I am thinking of a half-barrel pond at some stage, but not this year. Yours looks really interesting and pretty, although you may not agree!

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    1. Mizzy BunnyButt'll be outrage (again) to learn you preferred the flame flower over her. I like the planting around the pool (altho next year I'm hoping to go a bit more tropical), just not the outer surface of the pool itself. And yes, when will that lily bloom?????

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  9. I have lots of wild Toad Flax flowering on my drive. The birds must have dropped the seeds there. Just left it in place. And before you ask. How wild was it? It was livid.

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    1. Livid? I'm so glad mine is sedate. Toadflax, like oxalis, seems to get everywhere, but it's a lovely thing when it's blooming.

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