Sue, how wonderful a setting that's in your garden. It reflects the creativities and artistry from the loving hands of the gardener that created it. I just love it!!!
Kim
Flowers in the Garden #2
Hey Kim, you have a bee too! Yours looks quite fluffy, but still has alot of black. I shall have to find a bee who will sit still and smile for me, so you can see how yellow they are here.
Sue
The bromeliad chandalier. (DH 's idea)
Sue your garden rooms are fabulous. I especially like the spanish moss in the bike shed. Love what you have done with your broms, did you happen to see the broms on the Longwood thread? I thought of you the entire time I was in that area. If you take a look perhaps you could have another room of broms, perhaps take an old wooden door and cover it with the broms?
Kim that is a lovely trumpet - is that the same as brugmansia? I never could get them straight. Great bee shot as well, they are busy this season.
Terri, thanks, we are quite proud of our flowery efforts and this year they are really shining on us. Is your hibiscus hardy or must you bring it in? Lovin your dahlia too.
WoW! Love all your garden rooms Sue, such imagination! Thanks you've given me ideas!!!!!
It is a hardy Hibiscus Candee. My Dahlia looks tiny compared to the size of yours!!
I saw a bee on a sunflower today!
It stayed inside the sunflower for ages!
OMG, Terri, that must be a bumble bee is it? Its huge! They don't have bumbles in Australia, but they do in Tasmania and NZ. Is that a little bee on the Agapanthus in the last pic?
Hey Candee, yes I enjoyed your brom pics, and I do have lots of ideas for displaying my broms, and one was vertically, so now I have many more ideas to add. Thanks! I'm trying to build my collection even more, so that I have quite a variety to work with. Some like shade, and others like bright light and full sun, so theres one for every situation, (except snow)
Mr frog, (falling to bits)
So Terri, I think I saw that flower to the left of your sunflower at Longwood. What is it? It has a really nice round shaped head of flowers and such a lovely blue.
Sue, you better get to fixin that poor frog, he needs to be in the ER stat! Do you have your broms planted in soil or what? I may try another some time as the one I had years ago had several different broms on kind of a crooked limb that was sticking out of a pot and it was quite neat, I'd like to try them again and may have better luck with your expert help.
Candee - I think that blue flower that Terri has is an agapanthus (lily-of-the-nile). They are used a lot as landscaping plants here in California. They normally supply the "blue" in many red, white and blue 4th of July arrangements.
Sue - you have some great rooms in your garden. What a wonderful way to put "treasures" on display. And I enjoyed the lesson on sugar cane mulch.
Kim - Your brugmansia is lovely. I have yet to get a bloom on my white one.
August is Crape myrtle time here in our area. Shot of the three in my front yard. Lovely blooms, but some people consider them messy as they drop blossoms all the time.
Dianne, what a gorgeous presentation. Again, I killed mine, I swear I have rid more than I have sown LOL! Those are spectacular, we have 2 blooming here at work and although quite lovely they are nothing compared to yours. You do a fine job on pruning and keeping them a nice shape.
Thanks for the info on the agapanthus, I have heard of that.
I think it is a bumble bee Sue. I hadn't noticed the other bee in the Agapanthus. Poor mr Frog needs some attention!
Dianne,The crape Myrtle looks spectacular in your front garden , such a Wow entrance to a beautiful house.
Have you eaten your pineapple yet Candee? It would make a nice tropical container for an exotic arrangement!
Russian Vine, looks like it's snow!
This message was edited Jul 29, 2008 11:47 PM
No pineapple yet perhaps in October, got a way to go yet.
Don't you just love that entrance to Dianne;s? fabulous
Fabulous entrance, like a Hollywood Star's house!
That crepe Myrtle is gorgeous soilsandup. I love the flower carpet it causes! Unfortunately DH doesn't!
I like the russian vine Terri! I've not heard of it before. Is it fragrant?
Candee, I plant my broms in a very free draining mix of large pearlite, large bark peices and potting mix with no fertiliser. Some plants don't acheive their foliage colour if they are fertilised, and it also makes soft foliage that burns easily. Of course, that doesn't apply to green leaved shade loving broms that send up flowers! The only time I fertilise is to encourage new pups after flowering.
This is some kind of water tank, with a tap at the bottom.
Thanks for the info Sue on the broms. I may pick up another next time I see one.
That looks like it would make a neat rain barrel, put it up on a pedestal and open the lid when it rains and you would have water ready for your gardens that are distant from the hose.
Terri, Sue, and Candee - thanks for the kind words. We were driving around super bowl Sunday almost 20 years ago since neither my husband nor I are football fans and wanted to do something. We were house hunting at the time, and I fell in love with this house immediately. We must have been the only ones at the open house ( for those of you not familiar with super bowl Sunday, that is the day when most of America is watching TV) I would love to have a bigger yard like all of you, but for a city lot, it is not a bad size. Terri - that Russian vine looks huge? Is it? Can you keep it smaller by pruning, or does it love to go clambering everywhere by the looks of your photo? I remember you using some Russian vine in one of your earlier arrangements, and I was thinking, what a neat plant that was.
Hi all, The russian vine is not fragrant and it climbs forever! Most people don't like it because it takes over, which is exactly why I wanted it to hide from the neighbours!!
The flowers are really small and dainty, but there are 100's of them. I have tried pruning it in the past but it just grew bigger so now I just let it do it's own thing. It dies off in winter
The flowers last quite a long time when cut.
Sue, I could do with your water tank at the lottie!
Hi , yes Terri, i'll pop it in an envelope and post it off to you tomorrow! Thats a great idea, with the rain and all, but lucky me gets plenty of water, and really don't need to water much. It might be good to put by newly planted things i suppose, at least untill they get established. I didn't look at you pic yet terri, but I have to wait till I've posted, or I'll lose it all!
this is the view from my bedroom window in the mid-morning.
Interesting story Dianne, you are one of the few not glued to the TV, good for you. We can take it or leave it ourselves, lots of hype for little enjoyment. It worked out great for you and you found a dream house for sure.
Terri, I love that path you have created, so lush and just popping with color everywhere. You say you have a small garden area but I sure don't get your meaning of small, every photo you present is just another lovely garden spot.
Sue, talk about a room with a view. What a great way to wake in the morn. Looks like you are looking out over vast tundra! You have everything so well maintained, makes mine look like a jungle over there!
Thanks Candee. I spend ALOT of time in the garden, in fact, I now reckon there IS something wrong with me! Its all I want to do!
Fab view Sue, looks like paradise, beautifully created. It's no wonder you want to be out there so much.
Thanks Candee, If it looks lush thats because I cram so much in there and I don't worry about the weeds!
Sue - that is a magnificent view. How big is your lot? I can't see any neighbors anywhere near. How wonderful to have that kind of space. I think most of us who frequent Dave's Garden do tend to spend more time outdoors than housecleaning - I know I certainly do.
Solidago is flowering! The yellow crocosmia in the pot hasn't flowered yet.
See the fly on the dahlia? Lol!
Terri - nice solidago and dahlia. How big does the solidago get? I can't wait to see your yellow crocosmia. Here's someone to keep your fly company - a bee exiting from his visit to the Amaryllis belladonna. I posted some whole garden shots over at the yard to vase thread.
I love the flies and bees, theres 2 flies on your beaut Dahlias Terri! I've been taking some pics to send to an old friend in NZ, so I'll share a couple.
Hey Soils, I am on 1 hectare (2 & 1/2 acres) I've left about 1 acre alone, and am gardening the rest, but leaving wide strips of lawn to drive around on, as Dh has motorbikes and likes to do laps on weekends! He's pretty good and hasn't damaged the grass too much. I'm not fussy about grass anyway, as long as its kept mown.
This was in the morning, hence the long shadows. The house front is facing south, which is our shady side in the southern hemisphere
I had to show you this one. This Kangaroo is over in the neighbours yard, and I used the zoom to get in close, then zoomed again on the computer before cropping it.
Sue, another beautiful shot of your ranch, that is just divine! Isn't he cute or guess I should say she with her pouch full. Now was she just hopping by as a guest or is she a frequent visitor to your neighbor's?
Sue - wow, having over an one acre area to garden - gets me tired just thinking about it. I have maybe a tenth of your area and I can hardly keep up with the weeds. We should have a "cut flowers and floral design" roundup at your place. :)))
And what a cute shot of the kangaroo family.
Dianne, Wow! Beautiful belladonna, such a gorgeous colour. They are indoor plants here and I haven't seen one like that before. Thanks! The solidago here is with a 3ft cane next to it. I have some in another part of the garden which are taller for some reason!
Sue, I can only see 1 fly, must be losing it loL! Love your garden pictures and Kangaroos!
Caught a squirrel taking seed heads off the hollyhocks and sitting bold as brass on the fence, eating the lot!
Sorry terri, its a sunflower with the fly, in the top right corner! What have you been watering with? Fish emulsion? LOL.
Sure, round up at my place anytime, as long as it isn't our glyphosate product, also called roundup!
The roos are regulars. Theres a few mobs (collective term for Kangaroos) around, and each has their own territory, and visit the same yards around the same time each day, usually dusk and dawn. All they do is eat, and lie around under trees dozing. Lucky buggers! (oh, am I allowed to say that?) We don't get the roos at our place because we are fenced and have dogs, but they can be a pain in the garden, so I'm content to watch them at others houses.
Nice solidago Terri, thats a good one for the vase eh?
Cheeky squirrel, we don't have them here.
Sue
You know Terri if you had a pistola I could make you the tastiest squirrel potpie you ever had for the next cabin gathering. Steve's steams the meet real good and then I make them into a homemade potpie. Now don't anyone get riled up, we always eat whatever we harvest.
Do the roos eat the plants in the gardens or what? Good you have a fence, with all that land you would likely have a "herd" of them staying at your place lounging around day and night Sue.
Hi Candee, yeah, they eat small palms, but mostly eat grass. When the males are leaving their scent around, they put both arms around a bush and pull up to get the scent off their glands on their chests, and so will pull plants right out, or break them. Also the scratch in the mulch and lie on garden beds and plants.
If we were allowed to shoot and eat them, well, we wouldn't ever go hungry! Apparently they are protected, although not everywhere, and sometimes they have to be culled because there is soooo many! There would probably be a population of around 200 or so in our suburb! And some of the males are 7 feet tall when they rear up, and most of the females have a Joey in and out of the pouch.
Terri - we have squirrels here too. They love to run along the fenceline and tease the cats. I live by the river, and the river rats really like the persimmons. Between them and the birds who love the cherries and stone fruits, it is a constant battle to see who gets to the fruit first. LoL.
But, no kangaroos, thankfully. Since I am barely 4'10", I would not like to come face to face with a 7 feet male. Sue - I was taken aback by the world "roundup" when I first joined DG since my first thought is of the herbicide too. But, DG roundups are gatherings where people come to exchange plants, ideas, and just get to meet other DGers. I have been to just one, but it is a lot of fun.
Roundups are great fun. Steve and I have hosted two at our mountain cabin. One in 2004 and another in 2005. We even had a DGer from Utah join us in 05. Here is a link to the photos.
http://hhcreations.com/DG_RUs.htm
Dianne, we would make a great pair me at 4'11". Sounds like a real pair of trouble to me. No wonder we were kept apart at the cafe last night LOL!
Candee - what a lovely place for a roundup. Looks like everyone was having such a good time. If I lived closer, I would be there in a heartbeat :)).
Do you end up in the children's section for clothes too? LoL. I hate it when petites are geared for 5'4" and under, and I am a good 6 inches under. Thank goodness for capris and 3/4 length sleeves.
Here's a pic of a Schizostylis coccinea - I got it as a potential winter blooming plant since it's bloom period is Oct/Nov. It starts blooming here now, and does bloom through November, but very sporadically. Never quite enough to make an arrangement, but boy, does it spread. I have been pulling them out by the handful to keep them in check.
Dianne that is a lovely flower. Is it a bulb?
Terri - yes it is a bulb. Part of the Iris family. I forgot that they changed the name to Hesperantha coccinea now.
And Terri and Candee - those are great arrangements you two made for the cafe before it got moved to a new thread. Such imagination. Lovely. You should move them both over so that they will be on the tables for a little longer for all to enjoy.
Nemesias in the garden, specially for the short arses! Oops, can I say that?
And an Arctosis, which will be rotted by the end of summer (due to humidity) I tried to catch a bee on them, but they were soooo fast!
