Poles apart

I killed a succulent.

Everyone claims that succulents are the lazy gardener's boon. They thrive on neglect and look pretty while doing it. Well, mine is dying and making quite a scene doing it too!

Dead Popplet plant

There are two factors at play here:
1. Melbourne was rainy and cold most of the time.
2. All the plants were growing in the ground.

So now, not only do I have to learn how to grow plants in containers, I also have to manage the 40+ temperatures.

Oh well, no one ever said gardening was easy. Bring it on!

Spring notes

The biggest news this spring is a lone lime in our 4-year old tree! Every year we get excited when we see the white flowers on the plant. Every year we watch in despair as they drop to the ground one-by-one. This repeats the next season. Until now, one lime, which we almost missed behind all the leaves!

Lime

In other news, Carnation was still happily flowering away. They are my favourite flowers! I planted the seeds in a pot, so they are a bit leggy trying to find the sun. But the flowers still looked pretty, even when not upright.

Carnation

Daisies are the really looked-forward to flowers. They turn up almost overnight and are such followers of the sun! We have them in three colours, so its hard to decide which colour is the best.

Orange daisies

Purple daisies

Pink daisies

Other flowers at this time are the Magnolia and the Eternal Fragrance Daphne. The Magnolia has such a strong perfume that even our next neighbour can smell it in her house! The flowering season does not last too long, only 2-3 weeks. The flowers itself are pretty delicate and the petals fall off with the wind.

Magnolia

The Eternal Fragrance Daphne lives up to its name. The first flowers bloom at this time of the year for about 3 weeks. Once they die down, the plant gives out new leaves and extends its scope. The next set of flowers will bloom in November, just in time for outdoor sitting season.

Eternal Fragrance Daphne

A little overshadowed by its neighbours, the Cherry Leaf Lilly Pilly gives out new leaves at this time. The leaves are a dark red in colour, giving the tree (or bush?) its name. The Lilly Pilly is quite small, only about 3 feet high compared to the other one that we have.

Cherry Leaf Lilly Pilly

The Hakea is quite tall now and successfully blocking our neighbour's from viewing our kitchen! In the spring, there are tiny feathery flowers all along the stem. In the tall tree, they look quite spectacular.

Hakea

And finally, a previously unknown succulent is standing quite tall! This was given to us by my parents when they visited us in April 2012. It came in two little tea cup sized terracotta pots. In the pots it got water sparingly. When we setup our succulent bed, we planted some cuttings. There it got water 2-4 times a week. Judging by the height, it obviously does well with water!

Update Jul 2016: This is Variegated Crassula sarmentosa

Variegated Crassula sarmentosa

P.S. The Jasmine is starting to make an appearance with some flowers. More later!

Jasmine

Progress of summer

A year ago, we started the succulent project. This was to cover an area in the back of the house which got little or no sun. The soil is very poor, with only a shallow layer of good soil above clay. Succulents have shallow roots and grow without a fuss, hence they won the lottery to be planted here!

This Christmas we decided to complete the project. Within a year the succulents had multiplied and we got many more plants for free! We started off first by removing all from the bed and dividing them in individual plants. Then we worked in a sort of a pattern to use all the ones we had.

Multiple Semperviums

Succulents in a row

As with all good garden beds, we topped this arrangement off with a natural coloured mulch. The effect was quite pleasing.

View 1

View 2

The aforementioned cacti found a spot at the end of this bed. This is the route that our dogs love to use to wander into the beds. Hopefully no more!

Cacti

We were able to harvest a cucumber this year. It took a long time for one of the zillion flowers to become something edible! I also harvested loads of mint. I am thinking about controlling it's growth though, need to be ruthless and leave only one or two stems to continue the crop.

Cucumber

Mint

And finally, here is a picture of the Russell Lupin that we bought at Christmas! In the time we have had it, I have discovered it's seed pods (after flowering) are very harmful to dogs. So the time has come to relocate it the front of the house where none of them can get to it.

Lupin

Water wise planting

Succulents are nature's gift to lazy gardeners! They need little or no water. They thrive in hot and dry spots. They are so easy to propagate - cut and plant!

We had such an unloved spot at the back of the house. It is a sunny spot but the neighbour's trees don't allow a single drop of rain to reach the soil. It was the perfect spot for us to try out a new species of plants called Succulents. Succulents are quite attractive and come in great variety.

Echeveria Elegans 'Mexican Snowball' had a nice rosette of pale green fleshy leaves. The leaves were rounded at the edges. It also has a a tall pink stem growing out of the rosette which has a flower at the end. Unfortunately, that flower died all too soon.

Echeveria

Aeonium Schwarzkopf is a maroon coloured succulent with leaves arranged in a rosette on a taller stem. These leaves were much thinner than the other succulents and the stem was much taller too.

Sempervium are the most organised looking succulents to my mind! They are perfectly symmetrical and have layers of fleshy leaves. Their leaves are pointed at the end so they look more formal than the Echeveria. And it started sending out 'pups', or new shoots, very soon!

Sempervium 1

Sempervium 2

Sedum Jelly Bean had fleshy beans on a stem, with a tinge of red at the tip of the bean.

Jelly Bean

Crassula Surprise Party is a hairy bluish green succulent.

Crassula Surprise Party

Crassula Gollum is very interesting to look at! It has green fingers that resemble an underwater plant.

Gollum

Mesembryanthemum White Pig Face has an interesting name, but I am not sure why it is called 'Pig Face'. The plant has spikey, fleshy leaves and has equally spikey flowers.

Actinotus helianthi Starbright looks like the whole plant has been made by velvet cloth! The leaves look unreal and are shaped perfectly. The flower is the same colour as the rest of the plant and also feels like velvet.

Starbright

Kalanchoe is a difficult to pronounce succulent! We ended up confusing one of the younger staff at the nursery when we asked for this plant. It has round fleshy leaves and very compact flowers that grow in a bunch.

Kalanchoe

Our succulent planting area is not fully setup yet. Their hardy nature and ability to withstand anything has made us a bit complacent in finding them a settled spot in the garden bed.