Foliage Follow-Up ... Caladiums on show.

I don't grow many Caladiums, but at this time of year I'm very appreciative of the few I have.  After a long hot, humid summertime, the garden looks rather drab and parched.  The Caladiums have risen from their slumber and are providing some wonderful splashes of colour in the shadier parts of my garden.

I'm joining Pam for her Foliage Follow Up meme. 

Foliage Follow-Up and a Flower Flaunt For This First Winter Month.

I'm joining Pam's Foliage Follow-Up  meme and Tootsies' Fertiliser Friday/Flaunt Your Flowers meme today. 

Right now it's our first month of Winter here in the northern tropics of Oz.  You know it's Winter here when you see the Poinsettias showing off and my Euphorbia pulcherrimas are showing their stunning bracts right now.  People often think the bright leaves or bracts look like flamboyent flowers.  But if you look closely in the centre of these bracts, you will see the rather insignificant yellowish cluster of true flowers.  Therein lies the reason for my posting about Poinsettias as part of Foliage Follow-Up and Flaunt Your Flowers.

Originally I had an enormous red Poinsettia growing in my front garden bed ... you might just be able to see it to the right in this old photo, behind the Russelia.  Unfortunately I lost that to drought conditions just over six years ago now.

It took me a while, but I finally have a couple of immature ones growing in my outdoor tiered garden bed.  I can't wait for them to mature and see them absolutely covered in their coloured bracts and tiny little flowers at this time of year.  For now though, they're quite young but they still put on a great display.

Here come the bracts on my red.  This was back at the end of May.

Now there are little flowers in the middle as well.

Here's the baby of the family.  It's my newest addition and it has creamy-white bracts.  You can see that the flowers have only just begun to show.

Here's my dwarf pink just coming into flower as well.   The pink Poinsettia is just a little behind the others with its' display, but very soon it will look like this.

Make sure you pop over to visit Pam at Digging and check out all the foliage follow-up posts listed in the comments section.  You won't be disappointed!

Then go to see what's in flower at Tootsie Time.  Enjoy!

It's an Early Autumn Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day Downunder.

Isn't she lovely?  Isn't she wonderful?  Oh dear, now I'm waxing on using Stevie's lyrics!  Apologies, but this solitary beauty appeared just this morning ... just in time for my stroll around the garden while the rain clouds hovered in preparation for the daily dose of liquid sunshine.  I couldn't have been happier to see this gorgeous thing ... it's a pass-along so I'm not entirely sure what it is.  (Thank you Ami, after seeing your comment below, I did some research and you're right ... this is Iris domestica, previously known as Belamcanda chinensis, and commonly known as Leopard Lily).  
Anyway, it was a joy to behold ... a promise of more beauty to come!

Here in the southern hemisphere, March is the first month of Autumn ... and in my corner of north-eastern Australia, Autumn is really the start of a brand new gardening year.


I say good riddance to the hot, sultry, steamy Summer and soon I'll be able to bid farewell to the horribly long, drenching 'wet' season with its' accompanying nasty, damaging cyclone season. 

So much of my garden is in recovery mode and it's not a pretty sight.  The whole place is looking totally sodden and water-logged ... there's no chance of mowing.

Everywhere you look there's stumps (can you see the Coconut Palm tree stump through the stairway railings?) where there used to be tall shrubs or trees.  There are rather ugly nastily trimmed trees, thanks to the force of cyclonic winds, and broken dying branches up high in trees where our ladder just won't reach.   These are sights I don't want to share.

But, on closer inspection of my potted plants and the very few undisturbed corners of garden beds, there are little splashes of colour here and there.

Scattered throughout the Courtyard, Shadehouse and Front Garden are some blooms ... some are hidden by hideously overgrown patches of ferns ... some have just started to appear again after experiencing a very, very tough summer ... and some have been in the background largely unnoticed until they're suddenly now they're one of the few things that are actually flowering!

My ever-tough Pentas and Hibiscus fit that category, along with the tiny flowering Cuphea plants that are hidden in under so many of the shrubs.

So, let's see what's out there if you look really, really closely!

My beautiful Viola hederacea and Azalea which are both adding joy to my day right now!  Sorry, I've gone a bit overboard with the photos of both, but I'm just so pleased to have these in flower out in the rather dreary Courtyard Garden.

This amazing Spathoglottis plicata or Ground Orchid has shown its' first ever little spray of flowers and they've been showing off for ages now ... they've got my tick of approval.

Look!  I spotted just a couple of lovely dainty Pink Trumpet flowers on one of my decimated Tabebuias.  It's almost like the tree is saying it will never be beaten!  Such a welcome sight!

I also spotted a raceme of golden yellow flowers on my rather battered Cassia fistula ... the lonely spray was way up high and almost hidden at the back of the tree, but my eagle eyes found it!

To share what else I found in bloom around my place, I have created a little slideshow.  There's music accompanying the show, so please go over to the sidebar on the right and turn off the Playlist ... the stop button is at the bottom of the circle shape on the virtual ipod, sorry it's hard to see!

I'll end off by showing some of the fabulous foliage plants adding a touch of interest to this early Autumn garden that's slowly getting back on its' feet, so to speak!  These fabulous plants have weathered the storms, the deluge and even the cyclones of the past Summer, and deserve their place in the sun!

I'm joining Mary's Mosaic Monday  meme,

Carol's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - GBBD meme,

and Pam's Foliage Follow-Up  meme with my post today.

Please do go and visit these sites to see some fabulous photos.