Flower Flaunt Time ... At The Start of our End-of-Winter Month

With the arrival of August, the departure of our glorious Winter season is in sight.  Right now the garden is in a sort of limbo.  It's 'dry' season so there's not much growth at the moment, and the same 'ole things are blooming that have been blooming all Winter long.  I'm now waiting patiently for the arrival of the Lily blooms to provide something new.  But that's a way off yet.

So here's a glimpse of the same-ole, same-ole!

A few Pelargonium blooms.

Some lovely Antirrhinum blooms that start off as a tightly packed purple bud and then burst upon to show off a wonderful orangey, yellowy, pinky combination.


My favourite Impatiens hawkeri or New Guinea Impatiens.

A Pansy or two.

A Bromeliad inflorescence.

There are still masses of creamy Corymbia torelliana or Cadaghi Gum flowers at the top of these very tall trees.

My gorgeous white Pentas lanceolata,

and my beautiful white Bauhinia.

There are some lovely Salvia flowers ...

... and blooms on my trusty winter annuals, the Petunias.

I'm joining Tina for her Weekend Flowers meme,

Tootsie for her Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers meme,

Nix for Floral Friday Fotos,

Ewa for Flowers On Saturday

and Alicia for Open Gardens

Friday Flower Flaunt ... The Rose Show.

Now I admit I have never grown Roses in any of my gardens over the years, so these are not flowers from my garden.   But I became the carer of the Rose Garden at my school, when my team and I were re-located to the room right behind this garden area.

I can not unfortunately offer any varietal names for the beauties that grow in this area, as no labels or tags were ever kept after planting, but I can wax lyrical about their beauty and the perfume from a couple of the Rose bushes.

This particular bush is covered in spectacular looking white Roses that have a wonderful perfume.  There are two of these white Rose bushes growing in the garden, and they the spots where my white-flower-adoring eyes are drawn to every time I walk up the path towards my building.

The headiest perfume though, comes from the two bushes that have the delicate pink Roses.

Now for some of the other Roses that make up for their lack of scent with their spectacular colour.

I'm joining Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers,

Nix for Floral Friday Fotos ,

and Tina for  Weekend Flowers.

I'm also joining One Mother Hen for her new meme Open Garden.  Do pop on over and join in the fun.

Flower Flaunt Friday ... On This Glorious Mid-Winter's Day

Well the conditions seemed to have returned to our usual mid-Winter and dry season experiences ... bright sunny, blue-sky days.  Today is definitely one of those glorious mid-Winter days, with the mercury up at around 25 deg C (77 F) right now, just before midday, and only a low of 14 deg C (57 F) expected tonight.  Ah, winter!  There really is nothing quite like a tropical winter!

There's nothing different on show today, compared to last week or the week before, or the week before that.  Well, you get the idea!

The huge frilly, showy Petunia 'Giant Victorious' and 'Double Whites' really cheer me up when I come home form a long day's work and step onto the courtyard.

The brilliant double white Impatiens walleriana looks wonderful as a backdrop to all the colour of the Petunias.

I don't know what I'd do without Impatiens around the place.  They are such a fabulous plant for the tropics.  I really adore the blooms of the New Guinea Impatiens, Impatiens hawkeri 'Celebrette',

and I love the way the old-fashioned single-bloom Impatiens walleriana just pops up around the place ...  in pots out in the shadehouse,

or in the potted Asiatic and Oriental Lilies when they have died back.  I don't mind these volunteers at all.

I'm also loving the usual wintertime display from my potted Azaleas out on the courtyard,

and my dwarf Azalea out in the front garden bed.

One of my favourite sights is this Salvia splendens hybrid in bloom out in the courtyard.  This is Salvia 'Dusky Hues' and I just love the range of beautiful reds, pinks, apricots and purples.

I think they look fabulous even when the blooming cycle is coming to an end.

They are firm favourites with the resident Yellow-Bellied Sunbirds, who are feasting on the nectar of these flowers every day at the moment.  The photo above shows a female enjoying here early morning sip!

She also enjoyed snacking on the blooms of my Schlumbergera.

Here's the male, with his fantastic metallic blue patch, also enjoying the Salvia blooms.

My reliable Begonia semperflorens or Wax Begonias are doing their thing, as usual,

and my Begonia 'Tiger Paws' has started its blooming cycle once more.   I do so love seeing these tall flower spikes appear.

The dwarf pink Euphorbia pulcherrima is showing its first bracts and blooms.  Unfortunately I lost both my red and my white Poinsettias during the cyclone last year.  I'm missing their wintertime display very much this year. 

One sight I haven't seen in a couple of years is the bloom spike on one of my Dracaena fragrans, commonly known as the Happy Plant here in Oz or the Corn Plant in the U.S.  I can't wait for the blooms to open and I can once again catch a whiff on its wonderful perfume gently wafting around the courtyard.

I'm joining Tootsie for her Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers  meme

I'm joining Nix for Floral Friday Fotos

I'm joining Tina for Weekend Flowers

and I'm joining Alicia for Open Garden