These are the flowers of the Turpentine, a lovely tree which is absolutely smothered in flowers right now. You can see why they used to belong to the "gum tree" family with those flowers.
This lovely rose was grown from cuttings especially for me. I have three plants all growing closely together and supporting one another. They are a few years old now and this year growing very strongly indeed, so I think they must have finally settled down. These are the first two flowers and there are many more buds to come. It is such a beautiful flower with an equally enticing perfume, but wickedly prickly as you can see by the size of its thorns.
Again the name escapes me! Perhaps I'll make up all my own names and not tell anyone that I can't remember the real one. That might work. Anyway I love this plant for the colour of its leaves, for the gorgeous shape of its leaves and the red spikes of flowers. This is another plant which the birds adore. I have read that it can be weedy but here I have to pamper it to get it to grow well. White fly can be a problem but otherwise it's a lovely, lovely plant.
I mentioned these three flowers a week or so ago and they are still looking lovely. Pictures don't quite do them justice. They reliably come up year after year, but this year they are spectacular. Cow manure works its magic again.
Otherwise known as Australian Rock Lilies. Here's another plant that has looked very sad and sorry for itself these past two years but give it a couple of heavy showers of rain and it outdoes itself putting on new clothes. Not only are these beautiful to look at but they smell very nice too.
These beautiful little bulbs are perfect for the warmer climate where many bulbs will only last the one season. These were given to me by a lovely man I met at a Garden Club many years ago. Just as some pets are said to resemble their owners this lovely little round man was known affectionately to all and sundry as the teapot man.
I've grown a couple of Acer Negundos, commonly known as box elders, over the years because I found when choosing trees they had all the desirable characteristics I was looking for. First and foremost they had to be tough. Box Elders are almost unkillable; and the second was that they could tolerate having 'wet feet'. There are many trees regarded as very tough, but few like having their roots in cold wet soil, which is what happens here every winter (except the last two when there was no rain at all)!
Spring is the time when plants go berserk with flowering, as we know. Here though is the tiny delicate flower of one of the Japanese maples. You have to be really paying attention to see these in the garden because they come and go very quickly, just a couple of days really - plus they really are very tiny.
It's raining! Yayyyy! The tanks have been full for some days now, the dams have joined the party and the creek is running. Oh Frabjous Day!
Colour in the garden doesn't just come from flowers. These pink leaves are appearing after the rain all over my beautiful weeping Syzgium. The bushes also have clusters off red/pink flowers, but I have to choose whether to have flush after flush of pink leaves or one lot of pink flowers. It seems I can't have both. Cutting off the new growth forces pink re-growth a month or so later, but also limits flowering.
I love roses, but to grow them successfully I have to continually outwit wallabies, kangaroos and possums. I have had to resort to fences, so my garden sees my rose bushes imprisoned in a variety of gaol-like beds. If I don't lock them away the Eastern Grey kangaroos would feast each night on their new shoots until the roses give up and die.
Pigface (Mesembryanthemum)are fantastic plants which survive just about whatever the weather throws at them. They grow easily from little pieces and flamboyantly flaunt themselves very early in spring.
