Friday, March 15, 2013

A Beginning Of Autumn Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day ... March 2013


March is officially our first Autumn month, but we don't see fabulous changing foliage colours here.  The Gum trees in the bushland around my place stay green all through the year.  Just in the last week or so the conditions have become rather more comfortable.  While the daytime temps are still pretty much the same as the summertime temps over the last three months (around 31-32 deg C or 87-89 F), the humidity has dropped considerably.  This makes a huge difference!

Unfortunately the wet season has proven to be a bit of a fizzer.  We're now almost at the end of our wet, and we've seen very little in the way of torrential downpours that are typical of a monsoonal rainy season.  So far this month we've only managed to reach a total of 67.2 mm  (2.6 inches), and most of that fell over a couple of days back at the beginning of the month.


So we've been seeing plenty of blue skies dotted with huge fluffy white clouds!!  Ho-hum!!

Summertime was downtime in my garden, so there's only a few blooms to show today.  Out in the courtyard ...

unknown Water Lily

Angelonia angustifolia 'Serena White'

Coleus

Jasminum officinale

Costus productus or Orange Spiral Ginger

Clerodendrum ugandense.

Out in the shadehouse ...

Neomarica longifolia

Globba winitii

Anthurium

Aeschynanthus lobbianus.

In the tiered garden beds ...

Pentas lanceolata

Iris domestica

In the driveway garden beds ...

Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

Galphimia glauca

Thunbergia erecta 'Tru Blu'

unknown Bromeliad growing on the Elaeis guineensis

 Polygala.

To finish off today, I'm adding some photos of a magnificent Lace Monitor I spotted climbing a tree in the bushland close by our fence.  Whilst it's not a bloom, it certainly does have fantastic dark grey colouring with creamy yellow scales forming stunning bands and blotches across its body.


It's just as beautiful as any bloom, in my opinion.

Another little visitor I spotted today, while roaming around taking flower shots, was this huge land snail.  I haven't seen any for a while.  The end-of-summer into autumn is usually the time I spot lots of these creatures, but I think with the lack lustre rainy season performance, they're not out and about as usual.

I'm joining Carol for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day


and I'm joining Donna for her Seasonal Celebrations meme.


19 comments:

  1. Such beautiful plants, so much colour! I love your photos.

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  2. More of your lovely blooms Thanks for sharing

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    1. There wasn't all that much to share, but thanks for your lovely comment Pitta. I can't wait until it's time to start adding a few annuals here and there.

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  3. Hi Bernie, they don't look like they feel the heat yet. I love most of all that bluish flowers of the Coleus, ours are maroon so the flower colors are much different from yours. I also miss the white pentas, which lost this year, only the purple and red are left now!

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    1. Andrea, most of the Coleus flowers I have are blue. I don't have any maroon ones. They sound lovely. I also lost a few of my Pentas towards the end of the dry season last year. It's almost time to replace them.

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  4. I love the Lace Monitor he is fantastic although if I was to meet him face to face I may just run the other way! You still have some beautiful blooms in your garden. Such a joy to see, I have a greenhouse bursting into life 110 red Geraniums 3 cm high 12 Dahlias potted and on the move 4 Hosta’s and another 50 to plant !! (big bag of Hosta seeds) it's an exciting time if only I could send you this darn rain and snow!

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    1. My goodness. 110 Geraniums! I can't wait to see them out in your garden. I know how much you love your Dahlias, so I'm expecting to see some beauties. With 50 Hosta seeds still to plant, it sounds like you're going to be kept pretty busy over the coming weeks. How I would love some of your rain ... but so keen about the snow though!!

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  5. Wonderful blooms!
    I grow coleus for their beautifully colored leaves. I forget they have such dainty blooms - very pretty! I see water lilies, ginger, and pretty grasses here in the U.S., but the others are new to me. Really beautiful!
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie

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    1. The Coleus blooms do go rather unnoticed. I just can't pinch the new flowerheads off straight away. Thanks for dropping by, Lea.

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  6. Bernie these flowers are wonderful and I love your critter, Lace Monitor....fascinating creature...if you ever want to link in, this post is wonderful for my Seasonal Celebrations meme which celebrates the change of seasons around the world.

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    1. Thanks for the invitation, Donna. I'll have a look when I'm finished replying to comments.

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  7. End of summer for you, beginning Spring for us. We have white Pentas in common -- mine are rooted cuttings under glass and some of last year's returning from roots outside. Your Globbas are nice. Gingers are what I substitute for Hostas here.

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    1. NellJean, I've started taking some Pentas cuttings finally! The first ones were from my beautiful white Pentas. It's definitely my favourite. I'm hoping I have lots of success with my cuttings. I'm slowly starting to build my Ginger collection. They are the most fabulous plants.

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  8. End of summer for you, beginning Spring for us. We have white Pentas in common -- mine are rooted cuttings under glass and some of last year's returning from roots outside. Your Globbas are nice. Gingers are what I substitute for Hostas here.

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  9. Hi Bernie! You have a lot of lovely blooms as you enter into your autumn season. I love the plumes on your pennisetum and the domestic iris is quite a beauty! Glad to hear the humidity has reduced. I can imagine it is a nice change to have cooler, evening temps. Great shots of the monitor! That is really cool! Happy GBBD! Cheers, Jenni

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  10. Despite not getting rain in your rainy season, your plants are still doing well.
    I hope that our rainy season will be kind to us....my garden is parched.
    I loved the photo of the Lace Monitor, it's quite a large lizard, and I would probably run inside if that were in my garden.

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  11. Wow, Bernie! What a beautiful garden you have. I'm really impressed with your great collection of lovely flowering and foliage plants. Love your Lace Monitor shots too... handsome guy!

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  12. You have such beautiful blooms and foliage and creatures in your garden. I love that 'Rubrum'...so very lovely.

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