Flower Flaunt Time ... In Our Last Winter Month

So, August is the last month of our extremely mild and glorious wintertime.  The weather has been absolutely fabulous with lots of comfy, coolish, clear-sky days and slightly cooler nights.  The days are starting the get longer thank goodness, so the nights are no longer drawing in around 5.30 in the afternoon.

Finally I have something new to share this week.  I've noticed some stunning white blooms on a pass-along plant that I think might be Eucharis grandiflora, otherwise known as the Eucharist Lily.  I'm sure someone out there will tell me if I'm on the right track with the I.D.

The flowers are absolutely gorgeous.  Of course many of you will know just how much I love white in the garden, so I'm over the moon with these wonderful flowers. I'll be adding this plant to one of the new garden beds as soon as they're finished.

There are more and more flowers appearing on the rhizomatous Begonias at the moment,

like Begonia 'Tiger Paw',

and this unknown.

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

Nix for Floral Friday Fotos

Today's Flowers

Floral Love

Cottage Garden Party

Weekend Flowers

Flower Flaunt ... A Little Late, But Here It Is.

I'm becoming very slack with my blog posts of late.  I think we all go through periods of blogging block, and that seems to be the case with me lately.  I'm just too pooped when I get home from work, and I'm finding it hard to find something to blog about.  I feel like I'm just showing the same old boring stuff every week.

Yep ... nothing new around here ... I hear him say!   Ah well ... I thought I would make the effort anyway.

It's our mid-Winter month, and boy has it been a very mild winter of late.  We've had daytime temps that have been climbing to the higher 20s ... 26 and 27 deg C  (78 - 80 F), and even our night-time temps have been up between 16 to 19 deg C  (60 - 66 F).  The jumpers and winter PJs have remained in the cupboard and drawers, and we were even tempted to put the fans on last night!   Not that I'm complaining, as it's been quite comfortable and enjoyable weather.

We woken up to some overcast days lately, and have had some very, very light showers in the last week or so.  Unfortunately none of it has actually penetrated the soil here, but it's freshened things up a little.

Out in the courtyard garden, the same old things are blooming.

Clerodendrum ugandense

Pelargoniums

Petunia 'Bumblebee'

Rosebud Pelargonium and Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'

dwarf Azaleas

Angelonia augustifolia and Salvia splendens

double white Impatiens walleriana

Crossandra infundibuliformis

double Petunias

Out in the shadehouse garden, the Impatiens walleriana are always on show.

Out in the driveway garden beds you will see ...

Turnera subulata

and Turnera ulmifolia.

The more recent additions to the blooming parade have been ...

Tabebuia impetiginosa

Bougainvillea

dwarf pink Euphoriba pulcherrima

and Begonia 'Tiger Paws'



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

 

Denise for Today's Flowers

and Nix for Floral Friday Fotos 

It's Flower Flaunt Time ... As Our First Winter Month Comes To An End

This coming weekend is the last weekend of our first winter month.  Here in the northern tropics, our winter weather has so far been absolutely glorious, as usual.   During this past week, our overnight temps. have dropped a little though.  We're now having around 11 deg C (51 F) at night, and we turn on the electric blanket for a little bit just before bedtime.  That's chilly for us!

Let's see what's blooming around the place at the moment.

There are finally some blooms appearing on my newly planted Pelargoniums.

There are still just a couple of pretty pink flowers bursting forth on the dwarf Azalea in the front garden bed.

My other Schlumbergera is about to start blooming.  I love the apricot colour of its flowers.

The two potted Azaleas out in the courtyard are getting ready for a late Winter show.

My Angelonias bloom pretty much all year round, but look far better during our winter months.

The hanging pots of Streptocarpus also bloom pretty much all year round.  They're looking great at the moment.

The Impatiens walleriana that grows in the shelter and protection of my shadehouse are showing their sweet faces.  They are another all-year-round bloomer here.

The spikes of the Celosia argentea look fantastic.

The first colourful bracts and tiny flowers are appearing on my dwarf pink Euphorbia pulcherrima or Poinsettia at long last.  They're a little later than usual, but most welcome.  They are a bright spot in winter gardens up here.

I always marvel at the colours of the newly opened bracts and the size of those tiny flowers in the middle.

The two Adenium obesum or Desert Roses have also started another blooming cycle for the year.

For some strange reason, there is still a flower spray opening on the winter deciduous Plumeria rubra.  I'm not used to seeing flowers on this tree when it's dropped almost all of its leaves and looking rather naked.

Hmmm, I've just noticed how much pink and purple is about during the wintertime here.  I'm detecting a bit of a theme.



Anyway, I'm just a day late but I'm joining Tootsie for her meme Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers

I'm also joining Today's Flowers

Flower Flaunt on this last Autumn Friday.

We've been seeing some magnificent sunrises over the last week from our verandah.  These last few days of Autumn have been simply wonderful, with very pleasant daytime temps. and some cooler nights.  

We've also had a few showers of rain during the week, with most of the light rain falling overnight.  It seems that our long dry season is not quite ready to begin yet, and Mother Nature has decided to bless our gardens with some lovely liquid sunshine.  We're not used to getting rain at the end of May, and certainly not in the last official week of Autumn.

Fri Chance of Rain Low: 19° High: 27°

Sat Chance of Rain Low: 18° High: 27°

Sun Partly Cloudy Low: 19° High: 27°

Mon Partly Cloudy Low: 16° High: 26°

Tomorrow is officially the first day of our Winter, and the forecast is for a very pleasant start to our chilly season!  Just look at our fabulous tropical end-of-Autumn / beginning-of-Winter temps.  I simply love this time of year!

The first snow-white bracts and tiny flowers have appeared on my Euphorbia leucocephala or Snowflake Bush.  It's one of the few winter blooming shrubs in my garden. 

My two potted Sclumbergeras or Zygocactus our in my courtyard garden are starting to show some buds.  This plant is known as the Christmas Cactus in the northern hemisphere, but of course this winter-bloomer doesn't show its flowers during our Christmas.  Christmas for us is during our Summer, hence we refer to this plant as Zygocactus, and not Christmas Cactus.

There's actually already one bloom on the Zygocactus baby that's growing out in my shadehouse garden.  A piece of one of the courtyard Sclumbergeras broke off last year, and I stuck the little piece in a pot out in my shadehouse.  Now it's trying to upstage its parent by blooming first!

Elsewhere in my shadehouse garden ...

the Aeschynanthus lobbianus is hanging onto its last blooms of this blooming cycle,

there are always Impatiens walleriana blooms to be found somewhere,

and the Dorstenia bahiensis or Mattress Button Plant is still blooming.

Back in the courtyard garden there's a bit of colour on show from the annuals that have begun blooming.

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

Nix for Floral Friday Fotos

 

and Tina's Weekend Flowers