SoS 13/08/22
We have had a week of relative warmth, redolent of spring, and we’ve even had sunshine which has been superb. I can hear the groans from the Northern Hemisphere as I write, but truly, it’s been an awful winter – too wet, too cold and too long! And the weather boffins are telling us that thanks to La Ninã and the Indian Ocean Dipole, it will be wet on the east coast of Australia until at least December.
I swear I’m done with it.
Anyway, my six:
Amazing what the sun can do to a pot of white pansies. They’re actually thinking about flowering with one taking the plunge.
Overnight, some white narcissi flowered. I decided it was absence of frost and an almost full moon. Bizarre behaviour but pretty to see in their terracotta tub.
This is the freshly landscaped back path at the townhouse. It goes nowhere. You may remember we had the line on the left as a swathe of Solomon’s Seal which we dug out. It’s settled into its new style with hellebores, but I doubt the flowering will be very good because the left gets little light.
On the right however, the hellebores are five years old and flower happily. There’s a mix of greys/slates, blacks and whites – singles, ruffles and spotteds. I’m particularly thrilled with the purest black.
This is part of the common garden at our townhouse. We cut back the original agapanthus and westringia because they had crept over part of the shared driveway. My husband and I decided the clumps left behind were so tawdry as an entrance to the complex that we decided off our own bat to re-landscape, independent of the Body Corporate. We chose to continue the white, grey and variegated colour scheme from our own patch. Because it faces west, is dry and we don’t want to pay for the water for it, we planted it with seriously hardy plants (pups from existing plants that we sliced off and replanted). I interspersed things with erigeron and corokia. We’re due for 50 mls of rain over the next 2 days (hurrah! Not!) so it will be well-watered in. If things spread the way we hope, it will look filled up quite quickly.
And finally, I’ve featured this before. I discovered a wonderful Australian flower artist, Aimee Pradel. She creates wire and enamelled flower pieces in handmade pots and I really wanted a pot of forever daffs. The finished piece arrived on Thursday from Melbourne and I am over the moon! I’d like one of her wreaths and a pot of auriculas as well – birthday and Christmas maybe? And no water, no soil, no worries about heat/cold – what could be better?
That’s it from me. Please have a look at Jon, The Propagator (our host)’s blog and visit gardeners who really know their onions.
Cheers.
Love your newly designed back path, very elegant! I’m sure your hellebores will do well there, I have some in deepest shade and they do ok.
Thank you, Pauline. I do hope they flower well – the house shields them from any light at all, even in summer when the sun is high in the sky.
That black Hellebore is rather stunning. There are definite signs in your garden that spring isn’t too far away.
Yes, despite the cold and wet, nature has its own rhythm and in the little city patch the magnolia grandiflora is covered in white blooms which are being battered by the rain as I speak. But in our home garden up the coast, I have tulips, crocus, almonds and cherries plums all in blossom. The rain may well annihilate everything. It’s tough when you know your food crops are being affected. That’s another SoS, I think.
That black hellebore is wonderful as is the back path. Well done on the new landscaping. Hope you don’t float away in the rain.
Oh god, Rosie, it’s bucketing down outside and even the cleaned roof-gutters aren’t coping. The dog dashed out for a quick pee and has taken himself back to bed. Such a good idea!
You are also enjoying hellebores!
Hi Barbara. Yes, I’ve been collecting ones I love for about eight years. There’s a heritage one a plantsman friend has which is stunning and I covet it, but the breeder died and the friend can’t remember it’s name and she keeps potting up seedlings but they turn out to be others in the same patch. It’s such a delicate and perfectly marked hellebore. Beautiful!