Rainy days

I haven't updated for a while due to the hot weather sapping my energy and ability to concentrate. It's been too hot and sunny to do anything in the garden (or do anything much at all really), so most of my weekends lately have been spent underneath the ceiling fan in the lounge watching TV and/or reading.

We're in the middle of some lovely rainy weather at the moment though, and with it some nice cool breezes. I dumped out just under 50mls collected in my little plastic rain gauge yesterday afternoon, thinking that was it, but there have obviously been showers overnight and they are predicting more wet weather for the next week or so.

I went out with my camera on Saturday during one of the brief intervals between showers.

Graptoveria of some kind

Cinnamon Basil

Mushrooms are popping up everywhere at the moment
This one is in with my Callistemon 'Little John'

Cat's Whiskers, Agave attenuata and pots with various things under the tree

Broms and orchids under the Buckinghamia Cellsissima (Ivory Curl Tree)
I love the speckled look that the trunk of the tree gets when it's wet

My experimental (and homemade) bird bath made with a terracotta pot saucer nested
inside a plastic saucer and hanging basket chain. I haven't seen any birds  using it yet

The Cat's Whiskers flower spikes aren't built for this weather - they look very pathetic indeed

Back view of the 'new' garden bed
Cordylines (Pink Diamond and Red Wings) with Agave attenuata

Salvia 'Tavistock'
Very successful at self-seeding - it's popping up everywhere at the moment

The front of the 'new' garden bed

Parsley flower heads full of ripening seed, laden down with raindrops

Cordyline (Pink Diamond), strappy lemongrass and various things in containers

Hopefully the cooler weather will stick around for a little bit longer (though I don't like my chances).

Wordless Wednesday - Passionfruit Flower

Serenade

Twice this year I have been witness to a juvenile Grey Butcherbird who visits my garden to sing its beautiful song (to its reflection in one of the windows perhaps?)

Considering that I'm mostly only at home on weekends, and when I am home most of my time is spent out in the garden, AND that the birds tend not to visit if I'm around, it's pretty good luck that I can catch it in the act at all.

Pausing mid-song to peer at me.

The above photos and the below video was from a concert he/she gave back in February of this year.

It had been months since I had seen it, until this past weekend when I was pottering about inside for once, and heard a familar-ish song coming from the front garden. I thought for sure that it would fly away the minute I stepped outside, but it was too busy singing to take too much notice. I shot quite a bit of video of it, but for some reason our street got really busy all of a sudden and drowned out the song in parts. The below video is all I could salvage.

If it is the same butcherbird, it sounds as though it has worked hard over the months to perfect its song. I never knew this until recently, but butcherbirds are mimics. When listening to this one's serenade on Saturday, I could hear magpies, parrots, noisy miners and more I can't identify but that seem familiar.

Now that I have listened to the first video I took in February again, I can hear hints of the song that it would one day become. 

Such a beautiful little creature, and I am so pleased that it feels safe enough to use my front garden as a stage on which to perform.

Not an aloe?

It may look like it, but this is not an aloe. Who knew?

I only recently found out that it's actually a type of bromeliad - a Dyckia brevifolia to be exact. It's a terrestrial type of bromeliad native to South America. I have taken numerous photos over the years of the enormous clump of these at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, and had labelled them as 'Aloe' in my flickr photostream. I am pleased to confirm that all are now correctly labelled (phew!)

Earlier this year I bought one at a market - the stall holder told me it was a succulent, which only compounded the problem. Glad it's not just me...

As the above photo shows, it's looking a little worse for wear. See, I thought it was a succulent, so I put it in a tiny bonsai pot because I thought it would look cute, and tiny bonsai pots don't seem to phase succulents. I don't seem to have a photo of it in the original pot unfortunately, so you'll have to trust me on my assertion that it was cute... for a time. Obviously it didn't enjoy the cramped conditions too much, because after a few months it started looking brown and blotchy (as per photo above) and the leaves started curling. I did some research online, and discovered that it is really a type of bromeliad, which led to my swapping out its living arrangements for something a bit roomier in the hopes that matters would improve.

Happily, it's recovering. It's now in a smallish (25cm diameter) basket, hanging from one of the murrayas in the side garden. Because dyckias are terrestrial bromeliads I used a blend of potting mix with a bit of coir mulch and perlite for better drainage than my normal mix.

And I am pleased to report that it now has a baby coming along beside it. Perhaps one day I will have a mighty clump of my own. Now where will I put that?

Raspberry Lollipops

There's always something blooming in the the patch I refer to as the 'New Bed'. It's full to the brim with plants, as I am constantly poking one or two of this or that in there (usually when I can't find a spot for something anywhere else).

The New Bed is going well these days, but when we first dug it out it was a dry wasteland and nothing thrived. In August/September 2013 I pulled just about everything out and started again, but this time improved the soil with homemade compost. It made such a difference - the plants love it in there now.

One of the first plantings in the New Bed was the small, but bright, Grevillea "Raspberry Lollipops" (or "Lollypops" depending on the source).

The pot where it would eventually be planted. Back then (Sept 2013) it was in that bed practically all by itself. Not anymore!

Here it is from a different angle - the garden looks very lush and full these days. I took the above photo at the beginning of August 2014.

In some lights it looks hot pink (like above) rather than raspberry (below).

The finely divided leaves are reminiscent of Grevillea "Elegance" (another cultivar I own and love).

According to the label, Grevillea "Raspberry Lollipops" grows to 1.5m x 1.5m and flowers for most of the year. Mine has been busy establishing itself so it can't be expected to flower as much as it's supposed to (which it hasn't). It has put on some more growth recently though, along with the flowers, so hopefully from here on in it will live up to its promise.

More information (and pretty pictures) for Grevillea "Raspberry Lollipops" at Gardening with Angus.

Happy little stars

I was inspired to draw this Spring Star flower (Ipheion uniflorum) from a page in the Autumn 2014 issue of 'Your Garden' magazine.

'Spring Star'
Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum

That would normally have been the end of the story, but after doing a bit of reading about them I decided I wanted some for my garden. 

Wikipedia entry: "...a small herbaceous perennial growing from a bulb and producing flat, shiny, green, hairless, grasslike leaves up to 30 cm (12 in) long. The foliage has an onionlike scent when crushed. The stem grows up to 20 cm (8 in) tall and bears a solitary showy flower in spring (hence the Latin name uniflorum - "single flower"). Each honey-scented, star-shaped flower has six pointed lobes up to 3 centimeters long in shades of very pale to deep purple-blue."

I found them quite soon after I started looking - at my local big chain hardware shop (Bunnings) - but as is usually the way, at the time of purchase I had no idea where I would be planting them but figured I'd be able to shoehorn them in somewhere. I ended up putting them in the 'new' garden bed that runs along the patio. The bed gets hot midday and afternoon sun for most of the year so all of the tough plants live there. I planted the bulbs in a spot at the back of the bed where they are currently sheltered by cordylines and salvias. Being terrible at keeping records, I'm not sure when exactly I planted them, but it was definitely Autumn - sometime after March and before May this year. The only evidence of this I can find appears in the photo below.

You can see the Spring Stars' leaves (reminiscent of onion leaves) in the bottom right hand corner.

They are early-Spring bloomers and right on cue, they have started doing their thing (flowering that is). I planted two packets of bulbs - one light and one dark purple/blue. I haven't counted them, but I think the light purple are in the majority. I have read that there is a white variety which I will have to keep a lookout for...

I haven't actually hunkered down to smell the flowers, or crushed the leaves to see if they do smell like onions, but I will take note of these next time I'm in the garden. Apparently they are related to onions - they are in the allium subfamily (Allioideae) which would explain the supposed onion-like scent and leaves.

They are blooming happily amongst an assortment of random annuals and perennials (salvias, primulas, a grevillea and paper daisies). I don't water this particular garden bed very often, as just about everything in it has quite low water requirements, so it is definitely a plus that they are flourishing with minimal fuss.

Another thing they have going for them is that (according to the packet the bulbs came in) they don't need to be dug out and divided each year to keep going strong (unlike some bulbs). I will dig some up and divide them eventually though - to spread them to other spots in the garden and also to be able to give some to my mother-in-law who also collects plants and likes anything with a pretty flower (which this one certainly does).

Cultivation notes (via Tesselaars):

Botanical name: Ipheion uniflora /Tritelea uniflora
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Plant/bulb type: True bulb
Planting time: Late Summer to Autumn
Height: 10-12cm
Depth & spacing: 4-5cm deep & 5-10cm apart
Aspect: Full sun to light shade.
Soil: Well drained is ideal although very hardy and tolerant. We've even seen them growing through bitumen!
Fertilising: In poor soils top dress with a complete fertiliser each Autumn. Eg: Blood & Bone.
Flowering time: From early Spring for many weeks.
After flowering care: No care required! These bulbs are self-sufficient. Simply ensure the bulbs don't become completely dried out during periods of active growth.
Comments: Extremely cheerful and just as hardy. Plant where they can naturalise. They will quickly develop into dense clumps of star-shaped flowers.
Climate: Tropical to Cool.