Winter flowers and fruits

We've always had very few seasonal flowers. Our past focus was on perennials that flowered, so that we didn't have to keep putting in and digging out plants at the turn of the season. With a balcony garden, this is much easier to do. So we decided to get some winter annuals. We're hoping that they brighten up the dreary winter!

Our regular nursery doesn't stock many flowers, he's also a perennial type of person I guess! But the nursery next to his had lots of flowers. We picked up Petunia, Calendula and Chrysanthemum.

Calendula

Petunia

Chrysanthemum

We also got a Strawberry plant. In Melbourne, we were losing all of them to the Possums. Hopefully no one steals them here! 

Strawberry

While we got these plants, we also re-did our vertical garden. We planted seeds of Coriander, Methi, Spinach, Kale and Chives. Except for the Chives, all of the others have started to grow nicely.

Sneak peek of spring

August is awesome in Melbourne, full of hope for us who are sun-deprived and heat-cravers! The days get warmer and more consistently sunny. Best of all is the activity in the garden with flowering weeds of Dandelion. These are amongst the first few to flower and are important for the bees who are coming out of hibernation.

Here are some pictures of what's happening right now.

The Virginian stock I planted last year, self-seeded and grew again. It looks awesome now!

Virginian stock

 One pea pod is developing now, lol! That would make a fine stir-fry.

Lonely pea pod

The last of the Hyacinth is flowering now.

White Hyacinth

I love the first leaves of deciduous tress. The pomegranate is showing signs of new leaves.

Pomegranate

The Daphne is spreading it's perfume in the entire garden, and looking pretty good doing it!

Daphne

Jasmine is just starting to flower.

Jasmine

As is the Magnolia. It also has a very strong scent.

Magnolia

The African daisies are really perking up their corner of the garden. On sunny days, the flowers open fully. They are as excited as us to see the sun!

Pink african daisy

Purple african daisy

Orange african daisy

The calendula have really kept the winter cheerful by flowering non-stop.

Calendula

And these are the last of my favourite flower - Jonquil.

Jonquil

Summer round up - 2

Princess lilies – For my birthday this year, Anshuman gifted me a new plant called Princess Lily. It has nice white flowers, with slight pink and cream streaks though it. Even the leaves are lovely, with a nice white border. Once the flowers die down in autumn, the plant still looks striking. It needs a partly shady spot, so I put it under the Hakea.

Princess Lillies

Cactus - Last post I was looking forward to a cactus flower. It did have several flowers, surprisingly very dainty for such a prickly plant! Only the purple cactus flowered. The red and yellow had no change from the last year. In fact the stem of the yellow one seems to be rotting, even though I never water it.

Cactus flower

Crepe Myrtle – This is one of my absolute favourites! I envy the people who have this growing in their yards. When full grown, the tree is 8 ft tall or so. The branches are quite linear, fanning out from the trunk. This gives a spectacularly organised effect when they have flowers growing at the end. So far, I have seen various shades of pink, light purple and white. They only flower for a month in February-March, so they are much looked forward to.

Crepe Myrtle

Carnation – These are still happily flowering away. Since the seeds were mixed colours, we have had white, light pink, dark pink, red and recently a dark purple Carnation. Strangely enough, they smell like cloves. I googled and turns out that the variety I have is called “clove pinks”, because of the smell.

Cascading colourful Carnations

Calendula – Until I grew this, I had no idea what a joy it is to see an orange flower. Maybe because that is my favourite colour! I had grown a couple of them in a pot, which took more than a year to flower and died after 2 pale yellow flowers. Since we did not have any vegetables in the patch this year, I sowed several seeds of Calendula. They struggled with some pests for a bit, but really shot to glory from January! Each flower lasts for roughly a week and attracts butterflies and bees.

Calendula

Winter is around the corner. While this forces us indoor, we have the lovely Daphne to look forward to.

How does your garden grow?

Time for a status report of the garden this spring.

Is there a prettier sight than lots and lots of flowers in bloom? The Jasmine has been doing it well the past few years, they look lovely!

Jasmine

The African Daisies, in conjunction with the various fruit trees are a nice sight from the kitchen window.

Oranges, Daisies, Pomegranate, Lime and Hakea

Last year, I planted Calendula in September. They did not flower at all, but did survive the winter. This October, the first sunny flower showed up. It was pale yellow, I did expect it to be more orange-y. But I read that the soil in which grows decides the tone of the yellow-ness.

Calendula

The new flowers this year are from the Pigface succulent. Last year, it almost died, till we replanted it in a better spot. This year, the buds turned into flowers pretty quickly. Each flower lasts about 3-4 weeks. Interestingly, the 'White' Pigface, also had a lone pink flower! I could not figure out how, as the entire plant had only one root. But anyway, I am not complaining.

Pigface

There are not many vegetables to talk of this spring. The Kale and Spinach are still doing well, worth 10-15 leaves per week. However, the Garlic did not develop into bulbs. The peas also did not survive due to the aphid attack. I had sowed some Lettuce seeds that I had collected last year, they are germinating now.

Lettuce saplings

We had planted Daikon Radish, but only got knobby ones. They tasted nice, but I probably left them in too long.

Daikon Radish

We are not planning to sow any new vegetables this year. To utilise the empty areas of the bed, I sowed seeds of Carnation, Calendula and Virginian Stock. The plants have just started to come up.

Virginian Stock saplings