Platy's Garden Ramble

Saturday, 10 January 2015

Things in my Garden that AREN'T Roses

Just before Christmas, I bought a net for my apple tree but by the time all the festivities had ended and life resumed a more normal pace, there were many small apples on the ground and those that remained on the tree had lots of beak marks and chunks missing. I guess I have left it too late. Oh well, there is always next season. Meanwhile it is kinda fun watching those little feathered apple thieves do their worst, little camera hogging posers that they are.

Eating your apples, who, me???

Just taking a closer look......

OK, so it might have been me... Thanks, apples are delicious

Blueberry Ash

Buddleja Joan

Waterlily bud

This summer has been particularly wet. My grandfather used to say that it always rains after a drought! Guess he was right!!

Who turned on the rain?

Earlier, the Hollyhocks were in full bloom, their tall stems reaching skywards. The pretty, fluffy pompom flowers were a treat. They remind me of some crepe paper flowers one of my aunts taught us how to make when we were kids; many, many years ago. (Yes, that would be J :) )

Hollyhock - Charters Pink

Sunday, 4 January 2015

The Colour of Happiness

For as long as I can remember, I've had very definite ideas about what colours I do and do not like. I find living amongst pale shades of grey, accented by other vibrant jewel colours such as purples, pinks, emeralds and turquoises calming and restful, and if asked to nominate one favourite colour, I cannot. I have so many. Try as I might, though, I just cannot take to bright orange (unless it is juice in a glass or yummy pumpkin soup).

Many years ago a friend told me that yellow was the colour of happiness and I should try to include just a little bit in my quilts, which I did, mainly to keep her happy!

Now, despite my colour bias I am now noticing pale yellow tones slowly starting to infiltrate my garden, in the guise of some chameleon roses, roses that may begin as a apricot, buff or lemon yellow and fade to peach tones or even ivory or the multi-colour roses with pink or crimson flowers and lemon centres.

Long Tall Sally was the first to charm me with her vigorous growth and many stunning bouquets of single petalled blooms. Since then, I've slowly been adding these previously taboo hues to my garden, appreciating each one for its own individual and intriguing beauty. The only problem was that some of these more intensely coloured warm coloured flowers didn't mesh with some of the other cool coloured pinks, purples, crimsons and whites so I decided to designate one section for those transitional roses and companion plant with tawny reds, lemons, peaches and cream shades.

Long Tall Sally

Smooth Sunglow

The same Smooth Sunglow blooms a couple of hours later

Smooth Sunglow 24 hours later

Smooth Sunglow is a thornless rose, said to be 99% thorn-free. I bought my mother half a dozen or so "Smooth Touch" roses a couple of years ago as more friendly additions to her rose garden and Sunglow was one of these. Intrigued by the many moods of my mother's rose, I added one to my garden as well this year. Sunglow begins in a bright yellow shade, fades to a soft lemon and then the petals turn to a soft pink that deepens to the hue of the first pic above.

Rosette Delizy

Rosette Delizy is another chameleon roses. She has a particularly vigorous growth habit and fortunately I allowed plenty of space around her in the garden. Her buds begin a lemony cream colour and the colour develops to a soft to mid pink. I'm not sure she is totally suited to Sydney conditions as her buds tend to droop on those hot days we often experience.

Smooth Splendour

Smooth Splendour begins as a pale cream colour that also deepens to yellow before moving through the various shades of pink finish in mid pink shades.

Some random miniature rose

David Austin Leander

Leander

A couple of days ago I noticed that we had some babies in our garden. Half a dozen or so tadpoles are living in a bucket of water that housed one of my water lilies. They're really tiny, not much larger than my pinkie fingernail, and every couple of days I check their progress, delighted that some little frogs have chosen to raise their family in our garden. As a child, we often spotted "taddies" in a small creek that ran through the bottom of our neighbour's property, although these were larger than these little guys. I look forward to watching their tails diminish until they eventually hop out and begin their lives as frogs.

This is my first blog for the year. My wish for 2015 is for health and happiness for my friends and family and a I would like to send a huge thank you to my family for indulging me in these ramblings, for their kind comments about my blog (that I haven't always quite got around to answering) and moral support for my studies.

Monday, 22 December 2014

Hydrangeas - The Old Fashioned Favourites

Spasmodically I decide to have a bakefest and produce a multiplicity of Christmas cookies and shortbreads to be given as gifts to my friends and family. Typically this occurs in about a five year cycle. I think this is because it takes me about five years to forget how much effort this endeavour entails and then, once my previous experiences have been forgotten, I become instilled with the enthusiasm to do it all again, five years down the track.

This year was a baking year. I was inspired by these cute little cookie jars I came across in a store, having little idea that those ten jars would require ten batches of cookies/shortbreads to fill them! Not to mention the effect on my waistline of sampling some from each of those ten batches. In ways so typical of my own nature, I badly underestimated the amount of time it would take to create my little calorie laden (but delightful) morsels. Next year will NOT be a baking year.

For many weeks I've observed the battalions of weeds growing in both size, strength and numbers and today was the first opportunity I have had to redress the balance of power in my garden. The recent regular rainfall has meant that my failing to provide regular watering has been compensated for by Mother Nature and although some things look a little seedy, very little has totally died, and the weeds have truly thrived.

Because the weed situation was relatively under control up to about 8 weeks ago, a couple of hours has produced almost miraculous results. But then again, if you are dealing with monster weeds spanning around 80cm, once removed a large area of weeded garden is instantly created.

But this blog is about my hydrangeas. I have traditional hydrangeas, some "dwarf" varieties that intriguingly grow up to 1.5m in height (the same as regular hydrangeas) and I have a few "Endless Summer" varieties. The "Endless Summer" varieties were quite revolutionary. They will flower on both new and old wood (the older varieties flower only on old wood so new plants or those that are heavily pruned will not produce flowers until the branches have had a chance to mature).

Even though I have religiously made tags for each variety as I planted it, the ink in the permanent markers I used appears to be much less than permanent and I cannot easily identify some of the varieties pictured below. Maybe I can work on this next year, when I may or may not have more time!

The hydrangea is an old favourite that has, like so many of the old fashioned plants and shrubs, made a come back.

This is one of my favourite pictures. I can only wonder what colour the hydrangeas were, whether they were the same pretty blue as the pretty young girl's eyes (and yes, her eyes, although not quite so young now, are still a pretty blue), with the colour of the florets muted by the late afternoon sun. Her parents had a great eye for colour and form and I think her mother would have made her dress and chosen a pale shade of blue for this. Perhaps I will later digitally colour this photo how I think it might have been. The girl, or her sisters, may have recollections that might guide me.

Endless Summer "Original"

Endless Summer (L Blushing Bride, R Original)

Endless Summer Blushing Bride

Endless Summer (L Blushing Bride, R Twist'n'Shout)

Endless Summer Twist'n'Shout

Sunday, 30 November 2014

Mid Spring Mania

It's now more than a month since I began this blog entry. Mid spring has well and truly been and gone and my roses have mostly finished their first flush of flowers so it is nice to have the photos in this blog that were snapped on the run.

Driving around lately, the vivid purple-blue hues of the jacaranda flowers caught my eye, reminding me of the old adage that when the jacarandas were in bloom it was far too late to begin studying (for end of year exams), a constant reminder that I should not be wasting time and should be back at home finish my last essays!

I submitted my last essay yesterday so now it is time to reclaim the garden from the opportunistic weeds that have taken up residence and the bronze orange stinky bugs gathering in their numbers in the citrus trees while my back was turned. I'm feeling a bit essayed-out and so I'll let the pictures tell their own story.