Africanaussie

It has been so dry here lately, and windy, which dries out the soil even more.  There is promise though in all the buds popping up around the garden.... I love the excitement of seeing little curled up pockets about to unfurl into sheer awesomeness.  As a child I couldn't resist peeking inside the poppy buds to see what colour was going to open next! Firstly there are amaryllis coming out all over the garden.  I know they like a bit of dry weather to induce flowering.  This little red amaryllis is happier in a  shady spot. The giant peace Lilly are living up to their name, the flowers are huge and the stephanotis buds weave through the greenery.  I really must look up some ideas of how to train this vine as I keep looping it back onto the frame. I just think the little buds are so pretty, and their scent is awesome, but it looks very straggly in this corner.  does anyone else grow them and have any ideas of how best to tie them back? ...

I have a bunch of lovely flower photos and thought they might brighten someones day.  I am often in awe at how beautiful buds are before they open into their full blown glory as flowers.  Take this bud of the Desert rose, such a perfect whorl. In fact a whole bunch of perfect whorls. Then slowly one by one they open up into the most perfect trumpet shaped flowers. The ground orchids stand up firm and proud above the leaves around its base. i think the green ants are part of the fertilization process. Maybe the leaves know enough not to try and compete with the beautiful flowers. The Rex Begonia buds are flat unassuming disks but then they unfold into these pretty little beauties. All these flowers last so long once they open and add continuous colour to my tropical garden.

This plant, called a desert rose, has been one of the shining stars in my garden. Appropriately, in South Africa it is called a Sabi Star!  It always seems to be flowering, and although I bought it very long and lanky it does now seem to be putting out some branches. Such lovely flowers. Then I noticed something the other day - it is putting out a seed pod, oh no!  not just one seed pod but lots of them!  I had heard that in order to capture the seeds you need to place the seed pod in a paper bag.  Gosh with all these seed pods I am going to have a paper bag tree!   I have a little one in the side of the pod that was grown from a seed - I got it from an open garden a year or so ago.  If anyone in Australia would like some seeds, just e-mail me at  vemvaan@gmail.com.  I am not sure how long it will take, but the story is that when these seed pods explode thousands of tiny seeds are ...

The desert rose is once again in full flower.  This is an amazing plant, it flowers almost continuously.  Look at the detail of the little white cup inside the pink flower  If you have been following my blog for a while you will know that I have been frustrated by my hippeastrums not blooming.  Well I think they need the leaves to die down.  I chopped the leaves off of these and look what happened - they are sending out buds :)  The passionfruit vine is loaded with flowers and soon the ground will once again be littered every afternoon with the delicious sweet fruit.  When you walk by the vine you are surrounded by their sweet scent.  the orchid is enjoying its little sheltered spot.  they say they need sunshine, but this one is in a very sheltered spot, so who knows - I think they have a mind of their own. The rex begonia is flowering - what a lovely plant this is.  The foliage is stunning, and from on...