:: helianthus iii :: dahlia v ::

There was a big wobble in the night and now a crazy Southerly wind battering the house ever since the other decent jolt at 6am... I feel all weird inside today. 

Kind of on alert, kind of enlivened and excited by the sheer power of nature and all at the same time, terrified, actually, that there will be a colossal shift in the plates very soon.  

This sunflower gets the picture today as it has the heft to represent a dirty big shake.

 It's growth habit also deserves mention: it decided to grow and thrust itself upwards directly next to the Hills Hoist washing line 'out the back'.  Nature does what nature does, you see. 

In doing so, it began to impinge seriously on my washing-hanging mojo - and in the end it was poking it's head right up through the clothes line - so it won - I let it grow and grow until it bloomed - that was the deal - bloom and then I'll cut you and admire you inside on the table!

And on this last day of February that is what I'm mostly doing :)

:: dahlia IV ::

deep red dahlia that lives under a shady kowhai adjacent the veggie patch...much darker than this in real life ;-)

 Sunday is a great day for resting and reflecting...but it wasn't one of those days around here...well not for the two tallest (still) two-leggeds...

 ...it was a 'doings' day of gardening, cooking and house maintenance and the odd bit of animal husbandry thrown in for good measure...although I usually find digging horse poo into a garden bed quite meditative...

...after yesterday's fairly intense heat the garden was definitely a MUCH nicer place to inhabit today...

Summer bounty

...flower-picking for inside became a moment to ponder - these dahlias are really great value...I think I may have paid $6 for each little bundle of dahlia tubers - and each plant has flourished and generously provided me with vase after vase of gorgeous bright blooms throughout Summer and next year very likely there will be even more - as the tubers multiply - how good is that?! I dare you to buy yourself a few and enjoy them for years to come..

tomatoes bursting with colour and flavour...a wee bit different to the average supermarket offering!

:: helianthus ::

The glowing golden orb of an ornamental sunflower of unknown providence...probably a cross between many others...

 ...the big yellow one in the sky is sinking slowly on what has been an incredibly warm day here in Christchurch...loving the heat...now how to sleep?

:: colchicum ::

 This isn't a wee flower, is it? Or is it? ...Zeb is already quite famous on the interwebby - he gets up to lots of tricks does this lovely boy. He belongs next door actually, but I've been spying him relaxing in our front garden, lazing about for awhile now (which is all good - he has a truly lovely presence)...caught him in the act...think he's after birds or butterflies - the white ones would be good to catch, Zeb!

 Inheriting a garden is a wonderful thing - mostly - today I was gobsmacked to discover this little patch of autumn crocus growing right at the footpath corner of our driveway - I can't believe I'd NEVER seen it before! Cool.

I really thought we might have our own saffron patch, to be fair, but alas, upon investigation, it appears it is a related-but-not-the-real-deal flower that blooms at the same time, looks about the same but doesn't have those frighteningly-expensive crimson stamens. Nice to see the bees enjoying it and the flowers are rather beautiful.

Turns out if you have Gout or Familial Mediterranean Fever, I might be able to help you out - although, as it is also highly poisonous in the wrong quantities - it might be 'touch and went'!

:: achillea millefolium ::

What a can of worms is yarrow?

For starters there is this list from wikipedia of all the names yarrow has had...

arrowroot, bad man's plaything, bloodwort, carpenter's weed, death flower, devil's nettle, eerie, field hops, gearwe, gordaldo, herbal militaris, hundred leaved grass, knight's milefoil, knyghten, milefolium, milfoil, millefoil, noble yarrow, nosebleed, old man's mustard, old man's pepper, plumajillo, sanguinary, seven year's love, snake's grass, soldier, soldier's woundwort, stanchweed,  thousand-leaf, thousand seal, woundwort, yarroway, yerw. 

...and I bet there are more!

The botanical name Achillea comes from the Greek God Achilles, who is said to have taken the plant into battle to help staunch the blood of wounds.

In biodynamic agriculture yarrow is the main ingredient in the preparation 502, which is added to compost heaps in order to bring light forces into the soil. Yarrow has a connection with sulphur and Venus forces and attracts trace elements important for fertility.

There are so many uses for the plant - herbal, edible, companion planting, agriculture and in many different cultures.

 My relationship with yarrow is one of mixed feelings.  

It is so pretty and delicate and yet a complete pain in the proverbial.  With deep-reaching roots it has a very firm hold in the garden - this makes it great for erosion control (introduced in NZ for this) and also mines up minerals from deeper in the soil - useful for stock feed and compost making. It also makes it nearly impossible to remove, if it's not in the most convenient spot for it to put roots down like this -as it is in our garden...it sits right next to a vegetable bed and so I'm constantly in battle with it, whilst admiring it...

:: centaurea cyanus ::

Although not blue, this is a very pretty example of the common cornflower.  

As a herbal medicine it helps heal conjunctivitis, it is well-known in its blue form as the tiny dried petals in a certain brand of tea - Lady Grey, the petals are edible and pretty in salads.

Young men used to wear a blue cornflower in their buttonhole and depending how fast the flower faded determined the strength of their love with their significant other...

...another name for cornflower is Batchelor's Button aka bluebottle aka boutonniere flower aka hurtsicke aka cyani flower...

 The name cornflower held because the flowers would grow in the fields between the corn and other grains.

Queen Louise of Prussia and her brood were saved from Napolean's forces as she hid her children in a field of cornflowers and made wreaths from the flowers to keep them quiet.

The cornflower is the symbol for several Northern European political parties and in France as a remembrance flower in the same way we see poppies used here.

 'A benefical weed'.

Who would have thought a flower could have so much meaning for so many?

:: althea officinalis ::

I think of the soft pink or white fluffy confection when I think of 'marsh mallow', but alas, there is no marsh mallow in marshmallows anymore...

...another of the very beautiful flowers that has arrived in our garden via the wildflower mix - what a brilliant way to increase biodiversity so quickly - and another perennial, too - bonus!

The ancients of Egypt, Greece and Rome all ate parts of this plant and used it to help heal. 

The name Althea comes from the Greek 'to cure' and the family name of Malvaceae is from the Greek for 'soft'/Latin 'mollis', describing the emollient, softening and healing properties of the marsh mallow. It is often used as an ingredient to help sore throats and mucous linings heal.

Beauty, tenacity and utility - what a great combination. 

:: phacelia ::

A rather pensive day here in Christchurch...the clouds have been hovering low and moody all day, and the temperature did not warm as it has everyday for the past couple of weeks.  

Miss P has been tucked up in bed for most of the day, reading, as she managed to get some kind of bug.

Then, of course, it has been the 5th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake that changed everything in this city.

On the positive side, I've had a spontaneous visit from a friend from the North Island, whom I hadn't seen for over two years and I think we might have talked nonstop - that was fun!

Phacelia, I read, has over 200 species in it's genus.  I think I've only ever seen two varieties - this one and one with the same colouring but a toothbrush-shaped head??? They are a great flower to have in the garden - wonderful for attracting beneficial insects into the mix.  Right now I have the beginnings of a green shield (or STINK BUG) gang and I wonder what beneficial thing I might be able to encourage to encourage those guys to exit my garden, pronto?

:: unknown wildflower ::

Another of the specimens that has sprung from the packet of PLAN BEE wildflower mix from Mr Fothergill's. 

I planted several seedlings of this flower alongside some other blue flowers that I think I might post tomorrow.  They look pretty happy co-habiting under the crazy-shaped feijoa tree in Miss P's flower garden (because, really - it might become a weed garden if I didn't interfere just a weeny bit, right?!).

I did try to identify it by web-searching 'wildflower pale blue'...and found one other image from someone who'd photographed it while in Joshua Tree National Park in the US - but the author of that photograph didn't specify what it was, either - so help!

It has a low, bush habit so far and is a small flower - 2.5 x 3 cm, approx. I have no idea what it is -do you?

:: nemesia ::

best pic I could take - wind fairies were not helping!

Some time ago in early Summer, we scattered a whole packet of Mr.Fothergill's Wildflower Mix, which came with a copy of New Zealand Gardener magazine, over a tray of seed-raising mix and...

...as you'd expect - hundreds of tiny plants germinated!

This is one of them - a sweet and delicate petite 'nemesia' (I think!!). It is not named on the packet, but what is named is not what this is...so I'm guessing - do you know? 

The seeds are part of 'PLAN BEE' - a way of getting us humans to sow flowering plants to provide bees and beneficial pollinators with the nectar and pollen they need.

I'm enjoying the delicate, swaying, gentle character of these very pretty flowers. Planted in a couple of places, I am looking forward to them clumping up and putting on a corker display for Autumn.

:: cosmos II ::

Friday night and it's been a week - wobbles and then a few more...

...I'm ready to assume the position...flopped out on the sofa...

...farewelling someone special from our school community...

...six cute, fluffy wee chicks hatched in the middle of the week - tiny miracles each one...

...and then two more hens went broody...

...nearly a whole week of enveloping warmth...our week of Summer in Christchurch?

 ...beans and zucchini in abundance...

...corn taller than me...pumpkins taking over...

...and now the cosmos are really beginning to bloom...this one is a double - so unusual...

...how has your week been?

:: rosa vi ::

Each year Miss P likes some certainty on her birthday - there are a couple of gifts she likes every year. One of these items is a rose and there are a few now at various locations as we have moved a bit...

A very pretty rose this one is called 'Rock'nRoll' and is great value being a floribunda, I think, and seems to just keep on blooming these wonderfully-lively-coloured flowers. It ROCKS!

:: aster ::

Here is something I've been waiting for for a very long time...gorgeous aster flowers massing happily in garden plot of OURS!! Yes! I harbour one of those funny, covetess loves for these fairly ordinary, simple flowers. I love them because they are another generous flower with a decent flowering period and a longish stem for cutting and bringing inside.

The name Aster comes from the Greek word, aster, meaning 'star', after the shape of the flower.
What more is there to love?

:: gazania rigens ::

Like the centre of the sunflower, the centre of this fireburst of a gazania is an intricate double-helix pattern. Similar colours and look, only a perennial groundcover that is drought-tolerant and hailing from South Africa.  Another of the asteraceae family - I am amazed at how many flowers are - but I guess, anything that looks a bit daisy-like probably is related to them.

I tried quite hard to dislike this flower - Miss P chose it for her succulent and cactus garden and I was all concerned at the bright, clashing colour-scheme. Well, I'm well over that now - we have a veritable RIOT of colour popping up all over the place and I've decided that these are actually quite incredible and wonderfully intense and such a great echo of Father Sun in the middle of the (now, finally warm) Summer.

:: rose bud ::

In lieu of what we might think of as tradition for Valentine's Day, this is the best our little garden has to offer today...a pretty red rose bud.

...much better day today - not thinking constantly whether there might be going to be a huge aftershock.

:: hoya, happy valentine's day! ::

Well, it was a bit distracting yesterday after 1.13pm...that 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, NZ really shook me up, so much so that I forgot to do my daily flower blog! We are all safe and well and there was only a little bit to clean up and the cat to find - but an hour later we'd found him hiding in our corn rows.

As it was Valentine's Day as well, I'd planned on finding a beautiful red rose to feature...alas I did not! Such disappointment.

Here instead is a beautiful head of hoya, which I photographed in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens Wintergardens a few months ago - such a striking coral - and I think it is a hoya...am I right?

:: curcurbita pepo ::

This Spring we engaged an apiarist to set hives in our garden, which we are leasing.  She does all the hardwork and we get to witness the small miracles that are bees, enjoy better polination and hopefully some honey, once it is that time.

Our front yard was a mossy, damp, compacted rectangle of grass, surrounded by neglected 'easy-care' shrubs and some old roses.

Gradually, we have been turning it into a mixed mostly edible, perennial garden - my kind of easy-care.

One of the fun things about the way we make compost is that we do end up with a lucky dip of random seedlings popping up when we make our compost-assisted plantings.

Easily the most-crazy prize winner are the pumpkins which have erupted all over the front yard, with bright golden flowers just too tempting for the poor bees, who inevitably fly low, completely covered in fluffy yellow pollen.

:: gardenia ::

One of the lovely things about tropical holidays is the smell in the evening - all those beautiful flowers that come into their own in the dark, seductive scents wafting and drifting on gentle ocean breezes. The gardenia is one of those with a particularly sweet and luscious fragrance.

This bloom is from a bush planted 28 years ago in the front garden of a dear friend by her late mother. Recently, it survived being transplanted to her back garden and this Summer is covered in masses of splendid waxy-white flowers, pretty good going for a 28-year old shrub.

:: viola tricolour var. hortensis ::

Sweet faces are popping up about our gardens in the form of these cheerful pansies in all sorts of colour-combinations.  They are a most welcome flower family. It is amazing to me that they are still around at this time of the year - usually when it gets hot and dry and the shade is thin on the ground they are out of there. But they are still managing to flower. 

It began with Miss P planting out a small heart-shaped garden with several pansy varieties two Summers ago and now they have well and truly taken hold in the garden in general and that I do not mind.

:: cosmos ::

Here I have another Mexican - this charming cosmos.  It has a solid place in my garden for many reasons: for me it germinates fairly easily, grows without any fuss and is economic with water, it bushes up really well to fill big spaces, is bright and beautiful and it is a prolific bloomer once it gets going in both quantity and length of time it flowers for.

:: dahlia III ::

This flower reflects very little of the evening I see outside the window tonight - you know on the weather report they only put 'S'ly' develops...'s'ly' - not 'Bloody crazy wind that rips your garden apart' develops!!! Still this photo I took the other night, when all was still and all was calm and bright is something to focus on and not look outside at the carnage! I'm not sure of it's name, but I think this dahlia is a sunset dahlia...maybe. :)

:: leucanthemum x superbum ::

I know it's derived from the Latin superbus meaning excellent or really good but all I saw when I read the botanical name was 'super bum' - pretty peurile, I know - but from now on, my lovely Shasta daisies (the first two flowers seen here in their first Summer in the garden) will be thought of by me as Super Bums...oh dear!

:: chilli ::

A perfectly-formed, tiny and beautiful bud bursts open to...

...a lovely little chilli flower lantern.

:: rosa III ::

I can tell there's going to be a few pictures of roses...up to number 3 already of 36 days - the 36th day of the year already - that's almost 10% of the year enjoyed already! Amazing - I don't usually keep track of time like that...not that I am and yet it is a reminder to keep on doing the things that give me joy and feed my soul, for one day surely slips into the next...

:: fragaria x ananassa ::

Short and sweet for a Friday night - pretty strawberry flower peeking out from under the leafy canopy above...

:: dahlia II ::

At our local supermarket we have a great selection of seedlings available rolled up in a newspaper pouch - well-priced and just at the right stage to make good strides when planted out.  I actually didn't imagine I'd get much off these wee dwarf dahlia this Summer, but there they all are out there flowering away very well - a riot of rainbow shades.

:: fuchsia ::

Fuchsias...or...dancing ballerinas as I grew up to think of them! They hang gracefully mid-movement, delicately waving in the breeze. And gorgeous colours of such wonderful intensity.

:: Hippeastrum reginae ::

The beautiful hippeastrum reginae, or what I had thought was an Amaryllis, oops...an ode to a very sore head tonight...

:: rosa II ::

When one moves house there are many garden treasures to discover and mysteries to solve...or not! This is one of both of those - a very pretty rich red standard rose which bloomed in the Spring after we arrived and we still have no idea which rose it is...it matters not, methinks!