Narcissus

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter who was known for his beauty. He was lured to a pool, where he saw his reflection and fell in love with it. Narcissus Jonquil is a perfumed variety with yellow or white flowers.

My attraction for this plant started from the 90s and it has been a favourite since. We saw it in on one of our trips to the Himalayan towns, where it is called ‘Nargis’. It has a lovely scent, with white petals and yellow trumpet centre. The one in my garden has yellow petals and a darker yellow trumpet centre.

Without doubt, this bulb has done well. We bought three in 2013 which flowered for a short time around September. In the next few years, more flowered for longer.

This year, there seemed to be 6 bulbs which flowered in quick succession. Here are the series of photos of once they all started flowering.

The last picture is the best one! The earliest Jonquil has lost it’s scent but not it’s looks. And the new ones are fresh and fragrant.

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

Winter notes

Things are slow in winter. It's cold and wet and gets dark early. If we are lucky, the weekends are dry. This is when I step out with my camera to capture the growth!

Let us start with the Guava. We saw fruits in February this year. They stayed small and green and rock solid until last week. Out of the eight, 2 started to turn yellow, though the size remained the same. I plucked one when it started to smell a little ripe. As it turned out, I plucked it too soon.

First Guava

 Anyway, the others were starting to turn yellow too. But, to my surprise, they were also getting bigger! In one week, they showed considerable growth.

Other Guavas

Next up are the Peas. I had sown a few peas in the middle of May. These were picked from the dry ones we normally use for cooking and got no special treatment before sowing. I simply popped them in under the now well-grown Tibouchina stakes. Two weeks later, the small saplings started to appear! Yet I waited till two more weeks to get a good picture.

Growing Peas

Over the weeks they have grown taller and bushier. As of today, there are close to 10-15 white flowers. The first flower is now becoming a tiny pod. I look forward to harvesting them!

A small Pea pod

Now, I love Jonquils! Every year they cheer me up in the dead of the winter. They can be seen from the kitchen window and I am able to see them in the morning while eating breakfast. This year, when I got home one evening, I saw the first flower of the season. So excited was I, that I took a picture in the darkness.

First Jonquil of the season

A few weeks later, all the Jonquil bulbs are flowering, smelling heavenly.

Jonquils in bloom

The other two bulbs that we have are not doing too well. I did not expect much from the Tulip as they do not last long, but I think the Hyacinth is suffering because of it's location. It still flowers every year, but much smaller than the first year. And it is really difficult to access now with the growing Orange and Myoporum around it. This year I will move it to under the Maple once the foliage dies down.

Hyacinth

Speaking of Orange, they are almost ready! Normally we start picking them in end of August.

Oranges turning orange

Then only vegetables that we have been picking regularly are the leaves of Spinach and Kale. They do very well in winter and I have been careful to keep Aphids and leaf eating insects off them. Every week we get a good dose of salad leaves!

Kale

Spinach

Coming up next month are Asparagus and Daphne!

Asparagus

Daphne

Back from a break

Every year, I take a break from gardening during the winter months. The shorter days mean that I leave for work in darkness and come back by darkness. The only time I get to see the garden is from the window on the weekends. I am glad now that our garden is mature and is geeen all year round.

Come August and the plants start to get restless. The oranges are already starting to change to the right colour and the Daphne is flowering.

Daphne

Orange

The Jonquils are the first of the bulbs to flower. I can see them from the kitchen window, it's such a lovely sight.

Jonquil

Last September, I planted Carnations. They are pretty slow to grow, but finally a  bud appeared in July, followed by another soon after. They are such delicate flowers!

Carnation

Carnation

The vegetables I planted in March are doing ok without any love from me! The kale and spinach have been giving enough leaves every week for me to use them in our salad.

Kale

Spinach

The garlic is also growing well but still a long way away from harvest. There are a couple of flowers on the pea plant but the plant is starting to dry out from the base up. Unfortunately my veggie patch was infested with aphids while I was on holiday. I came back too late to save most of the peas.

Garlic

Pea flowers

And finally, nothing cheers me up more than the promise of new flowers and leaves! The pomegranate is my favorite in this respect. As the tree has matured, the leaves have started to arrive earlier in the month. The jasmine is also showing new buds.

Pomegranate

Jasmine

The surprising new entry is this cutting from Tibouchina. I pruned the plants in autumn as they were getting too leggy and used the cuttings to provide support to the peas. Now it looks like one of them has set root! This will be fun to watch.

Tibouchina stakes

Spring is here!

Nothing says spring like the first show of flowers! After almost a year of nothing new to report from the garden, spring was a welcome change.

Last autumn I decided to try my hand at some flowers. Personaly, I find it difficult to keep a spot vacant for most of the year for annuals. But a garden needs flowers. So we decided to start with the easiest way to grow them - bulbs. Bulbs are convenient, they sprout up every spring and then die back, only to multiply by next year! Bulbs have to be planted in autumn for them to flower in spring.

Flowers from the Narcissus family are my favourite, having seen them blooming in the Himalayan hill stations. They have a beautiful smell and look very cheery.

Narcisuss Jonquil

We also tried our hand at growing tulips. The bulbs were a mixed bag of colours - red, white and yellow.

Tulips

White tulip

And finally, we picked up Hyacinth, which was unknown to us. It turned out to be very beautiful! The three bulbs were different colours. The flowers grew in a cluster on the main stem and smelt heavenly.

Purple Hyacinth

Blue Hyacinth

White Hyacinth

The biggest joy of all were the 10 or so oranges from our tree! They say that you never know when an orange is ready to be plucked until you have plucked it. Which was true because the first one we plucked in August was still too sour!

Oranges ready for picking

Orange harvest