:: sophora microphylla ::

Our national flower here in NZ, although, unofficially, is the beautiful golden yellow Kowhai - we are lucky to have one in our backyard and its flowering is eagerly awaited not only by the humans, but also the tui, kereru and bellbirds. Tui in particular will fly miles to get a taste of the delicious nectar.

:: borago officinalis ::

a wee teaser of the very lovely and very scratchy and spiky starflower...or borage...

:: pansy vi ::

There has been a pansy explosion here - from just a couple of punnets planted two Summers ago by Miss P, we now have an abundance of very pretty floaty pansy blooms proliferating the area between the vegetable garden and the clothes line...that's a self-seeding I really don't mind!

:: erysimum ii ::

Another of my favourite flowers is flushing with fresh blooms under the pear tree at the bottom of the garden this Spring - the humble wallflower. They really are such a delicious flower in their modest, compact, unobtrustive form and seductive, spicy scent - I smile whenever I spy them out - and they manage to hang on tenaciously to what are seemingly the most precarious of spots to grow - quite literally in the cracks of walls. Ours have it good as they are in a flower border tended by Miss P and occasionally even receive a helping of hen-'enriched' compost.

The County Ball by Winthrop Mackworth Praed, 1820

Interestingly, the term 'wallflower' - which describes generally introverted personality types who still seek out social events and then choose how much to interact - was first used in the poem above in 1820.