Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day ... On This End-Of-Summer Day.

Summer is here with a vengeance now.  The days and nights are very very sultry and extra toasty warm!!  The air drips with moisture as the humidity levels climb and climb.  At the end of a long hot humid day, the colours in the evening sky go a long way to lifting the spirits.


The garden ard I are not at our gardening best at this time of the year.  We are both wilting and waning now, and finding it tough going.


There aren't all that many great displays of flowers at the moment.  But if you take a closer look in amongst all the foliage you will notice the odd bloom here and there.  All praise to those hardy plants that are still blooming away despite the insufferable heat and excruciatingly painful humidity.  They deserve to be highlighted.


There are loads of lovely flowers on the Tabebuia pallida, which is now almost totally recovered from the destruction it suffered last year.


My fabulous Fiddlewood or Citharexylum spinosum is still covered in sprays of tiny white blooms.


The climber, Clitoria ternata, which is a weed in my garden, has burst into bloom all over the spots I haven't as yet got to weed!  While I certainly love the blooms on this plant, it does take over very quickly when the rains arrive.


Thunbergia erecta 'Tru Blu' looks fantastic with its lovely purple flowers.


I need to add more Galphimia glauca around my garden.  I love the little splashes of yellow it provides.


My new Spathoglottis plicata has been blooming.  I'm looking forward to planting this under the repaired pergola and watching it spread.  More white in my garden, yahoo!


The Lipstick Hibiscus or Malvaviscus arboreus is bursting into bloom.


Strangely, I spotted just one golden raceme in the Cassia fistula tree.  I'm not sure why it's suddenly appeared as the blooming time for this tree finished quite a few weeks ago now.  Still, it's a pretty sight.


My Mussaenda philippica 'Aurore' has recovered from its drastic trim back.  I was worried for a little while there because it seemed to take ages to suddenly spring back into life.  But now it's throwing out new branches and sporting a few floppy flowerheads.


I nearly jumped for joy when I spotted this.  One of my Hibiscus schizopetalus climbers has actually flowered, even though it's still only a metre or so tall.  Both my Japanese Lanterns were cut almost back to ground level when the pergola was being repaired, and they're taken their own sweet time in coming back.  I was very pleased to see a bloom.


The Duranta repens down the driveway have also shown lots of new growth lately and a couple have started showing off their flower sprays once more.  I've missed their display in the year since Cyclone Yasi knocked most of these shrubs out of the ground.  It's wonderful to see these gorgeous flowers again.


There are flower sprays on the Crotons,


and the Dragon Wing Begonias are flowering again after getting a severe haircut.


My favourite Angelonias, the whites, are flowering.  I need to start adding lots more of these beauties to couple of  garden beds I have, now that I know just how well-suited they are to this climate and our local conditions.


The young Lagerstroemia indicas are still throwing out flower spikes.


The Salvia leucantha is blooming, but it's almost time for a trim.


The Scutellaria suffrutescens is another plant that I really should start adding to some of the bald spots in the garden beds.  It really does well here.




I'm joining Carol for her Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day meme,


and Gesine for her Blogger Bloom Day meme.


41 comments:

  1. Thank you lovely lady for my mid week flower fix, and what some beauties you have. It amazing to see how your garden has recovered from Cyclone Yasi. As for the humidity I’m sending you a cool light breeze it might take the chill out of the air here!

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    1. Hi Sue. So strange ... but just as I was reading your comment we had a shower of rain blow in and there was indeed a cool light breeze whipped up suddenly. So thank you! It was so lovely after the long hot day we had today. The garden has recovered very well after all. I myself have been amazed considering everything had to get through the dry season first.

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  2. I love your Angelonias, Bernie. I have looked at them a couple of times in nurseries and wondered if they were up to our heat and humidity. After seeing yours, I'll definitely give them a try here.

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    1. Marisa, I would definitely recommend them. They have withstood so much up here over the last year and a half since I first tried them out. Not only do they stand the heat, the humidity, the full sun, the torrential downpours and the poor soil here, they are also very waterwise plants. They just need the occasional trim after flowering and that's pretty much it! I am most certainly going to add lots more around the place now.

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  3. So many pretty flowers in your garden, Bernie. Your back porch area is lovely, so full and lush, and I love the repetition of the hanging baskets.

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    1. Thanks Donna. Those baskets are so old now, but they still hang in there lol! The back porch area is almost back to its former glory. I think maybe one more year and I'll be happy with it.

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  4. Oh Bernie ~ Every time I see what is blooming in your part of the world, I want to head outside to work in my own gardens. You have so much loveliness there and I'm so glad so many plants have recovered after last years storm damages.

    Enjoy ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Hi Flowerlady. Yes I'm so pleased to see almost everything liven up after the rains. It's delightful to see the garden almost back to what it was before February last year. I think in about one more year I'll be quite happy with my little corner of the world once more.

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  5. Bernie, I enjoyed the photos of your garden. JUST LOVELY! It is fun to see some of the plants that we have in common, as well as the ones we don’t. Thank you for the tour.

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    1. You're most welcome, Lucy. It's great fun touring gardens all over the world on Bloom Day. I look forward to it every month.

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  6. Wow you have some magnificent blooms! The Fiddlewood is indeed fabulous - and Angelonias are for me a newly discovered pleasure. Your garden looks beautiful!

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    1. Thanks, Christine. The old Fiddlewood tree is filling the courtyard with perfume at the moment now that it's covered in flowers once more.

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  7. Your flowers are beautiful, it would difficult to choose a favorite. The climbing Hibiscus is gorgeous.

    I grew Angelonia for the longest time but dropped it in favor of others. I need to add it again for our summer after seeing how well it does in the heat.

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    1. G'day Shirley. I would give the Angelonias my highest recommendation as a heat tolerant plant. They've performed wonderfully well here.

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  8. Such an unusual hibiscus, tell us more about it.

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    1. Hi Rhonda. Yes I've been meaning to do a dedicated post about the Hibiscus schizopetalus. It's been on the to-do list for a while now. You've prompted me to actually get on with it now.

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  9. I love the Hibiscus schizopetalus!

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    1. I have to agree, Tom. It's my favourite red-flowering Hibiscus.

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  10. aloha bernie,

    i see a riot of colors and beautiful textures, i love your whites especially the mussaenda, i'll have to go on the hunt for a white version which i haven't seen anywhere here..the mountain backgrounds look captivating as a foil.

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    1. G'day Noel. I wish you luck with your search for the white Mussaenda. It's well worth the trouble as it really looks spectacular when covered in its bracts and tiny blooms. Over here it's a common enough shrub and rather taken for granted!

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  11. Bernie you always have such interesting looking plants featured in your posts and your row of hanging baskets is striking. That hibiscus is amazing looking!

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    1. Thanks Rosie. Those old hanging baskets have survived for a long time and the Dragon Wing Begonias are still going strong after four years. The baskets do look a whole lot better when the arching stems of the Begonias are literally flopping over the basket edges.

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  12. Bernie, your gardens are so lush! I know this isn't your favorite time of year with the intense heat and high humidity, but the sunset is glorious! The trailing hibiscus is a stunner and a great pic to boot as well! Happy GBBD! Cheers, Jenni

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    1. Thank you for your comment Jenni. Yes the place looks terrific after the rains come. It's always refreshing to see green grass and not brown. The sunsets have been fabulous and I've been up early just a couple of times to see some wonderful sunrises too.

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  13. Oh my goodness this is just what I needed on this gloomy day... From your beautiful sunset to your Mussaenda philippica 'Aurore'which I have never heard of but am now madly in love with... Everything looks wonderful.

    hugs, Cherry

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    1. I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed your visit, Cherry. The 'Aurore' is such a marvellous shrub and is certainly the Mussaenda I prefer over all the others.

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  14. So many blooms! So gorgeous! I really love the Thunbergenia and the Aurore, and the angelonias! Happy GBBD!

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    1. We're lucky we have year-round blooms here HolleyGarden, and even though summers can be very harsh there's still a few lovely flowers around.

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  15. I've never seen anything quite like that Hibiscus schizopetalus, it's gorgeous! Oh and I've never seen Croton flowers before. Thanks for a breath of summer!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed a quick look around, Danger Garden. All the Crotons are blooming at the moment. They do so love the rain.

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  16. Every time I see your gardens I find more and more flowers I want to add to my tiny already chock-a-block full garden..... I wonder if I have some space for the angelonicas. The Chinese lantern hibiscus is also one of my favorites. Your row of hanging baskets reminded me of how much I loved the Chinese lanterns in Malaysia. The repeating pattern you have there is very pleasing- might have to look for room in my garden to try that.

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    1. Africanaussie, the Angelonias will squeeze in anywhere. They do like a bit of sun in the mornings or afternoons though. I'm looking forward to adding them to a couple of spots in the outdoor garden beds this year.

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  17. Everything looks so lush. That hibiscus is great. I wish I was in the tropics right now.

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    1. Ryan, there are time during a long very hot and steamy summer's day that I wish I was anywhere but in the tropics!!

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  18. So much beauty!
    Very lovely!
    It is so wonderful to see your Summer garden when we here in the north are amist Winter's snow and freezing rain.
    Wonderful sunset, too!
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie

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    1. Thanks Lea. Hopefully Spring is not too far off for you now. I actually look forward a great deal to the Autumn-Winter here, but of course there's no snow, frost or freezing rain.

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  19. Beautiful blooms, to be sure...but ouch...that weather sounds intolerable!

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    1. Yep, the weather during our Summers can be very hard to bear. Thankfully the rest of the year is usually wonderful, so our horrid summer memories fade just a little.

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  20. I can never quite get used to you talking about summer, when it's winter here and vice versa! You've got some gorgeous blooms and my Texas garden is just now waking up after the winter. It's wonderful to see how your garden has rebounded after the damage sustained by the typhoon.

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  21. Everything looks like it made it through the heat. The Clitoria is stunning and one of my favorite blooms on this earth. I had forgotten about them.
    Happy GBBD! Nice music to view with your flowers. We have the same muscial tastes.
    David/:0)

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  22. Bernie, I am so happy to see your garden recovering so well from last year's storm. Everything looks lush, and there's a lot of gorgeous blooms despite the heat and humidity. I do sympathize about the weather, though. By August I will be experiencing the same. But now we are going into spring, and I will enjoy that as long as possible!

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