Flower Flaunt on Friday.

Our fabulous Winter has begun!  The nights are getting cool and the mornings are quite crisp!  We've even had a couple of overnight temps. that got down to 12 deg C (53 deg F).  It's a great time for gardening as I can get out into the garden at almost any hour of the day, if I possibly can!  No longer have to wait for the sun to dip behind the hills in the late afternoon ... or get up early to garden before the sun climbs too high in the sky!

So let's have a look at what's flowering this week in my garden.  The beautiful Mussaenda philippica is almost covered in blooms....

 My Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - is now showing quite a few more flowers.

 My two favourite Ixoras are in full bloom.

 My new Poinsettia is just now showing its lovely red bracts .... and my new red Salvia is also blooming.

I just love the splash of hot colour these Zinnias are adding to the Courtyard Garden.

I also really love this combination of Jacobinia and Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' ... it provides a dash of brilliant white out in the Courtyard Garden.

 My lovely purple Anthurium is showing its bloom.

Meanwhile the Calliandra Haematocephala(Red Powder Puff) is covered in its raspberry-like buds which open up to reveal the dramatic red powder puff flowers.

My oldest and dearest Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is showing its magnificent flowers again ...

and one of the features I love the most is the back view of the flowers ... with it's white patches!

I've almost finished the pots for the Courtyard Garden ... I'm so looking forward to the annuals' display this year!

Now to finish ... while they're not flowering in my garden, there are still Acacias in full bloom dotted throughout the bushland surrounding my property.  Here's one that caught the late afternoon sun's rays and lit up like a lamp!!!

 For many more great Flower Flaunt posts, make sure you visit Tootsie at Fertiliser Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers

My Wilful Younger Child!

I look upon my garden areas rather like a parent looks upon their children.

First, there's the older kids ... the adult children who've left home and you have almost no control over their lives any more.  While you drop in to visit every now and then, you really can't do much other than watch over them as they mature ... that's my outdoor garden beds which include the Front Garden Beds,

the Driveway Garden Beds,

 the Pergola Garden Area,

the Back of the Courtyard Garden Area,

and the Hill Garden Area.

These are well-established beds that don't need me any more ... well, maybe only for an occasional watering or general tidy-up.

Then there are the young teenagers ... the ones that are trying to find their own identity but still rely on you for the essentials like food, shelter, money for clothes and you still have a say in who they can play with!  That's my Shadehouse/Greenhouse garden ...

and my Courtyard Garden.

I work almost daily keeping them watered, fed, free from pests and just generally behaving!  They each have their own character ... which I have a hand in forming.  So I can do things like change the colour scheme of the plants out there and choose new plants to add to the collections.  These are the places where I spend most of my time gardening.

Finally, there's that rather obnoxious, wilful and prone-to-temper-tantrums toddler.  You really love them, but they just won't do what they're supposed to ... and it's exhausting!!!  Well, that's my new outdoor garden bed.

The relationship started off really well when it was a baby ... hubbie built these new garden beds in a spot that was ugly and unsightly.

I was so excited and planned out just what these beds would look like ... I chose a different colour for each section.  I was looking forward to seeing my 'rainbow' garden develop ... and for a while, things were just great!

I spent money and filled it with lots of lovely plants ... Scaevola, Pelargonium, Gazanias, Bracteantha, Daisies ... the list goes on and on!   Mmmm ... well ...  'rainbow garden' has turned out to be more like a wilful toddler who's screaming for attention and all you want to do is ... give it to someone else until it's grown!!!

The long 'wet' season wreaked havoc with lots of my carefully chosen plants and there's no resurrecting them ... just like a toddler that won't wear something because it's yellow!!!!   It's just not going to happen!

All I can do now is look lovingly over the photos and reminisce about how this darling used to be!!

So, I've been very busy lately ... hence the relatively few blog posts.  After spending a couple of weeks getting my favourites into shape ... the Shadehouse/Greenhouse Garden and Courtyard Garden ... I just couldn't keep on avoiding the new garden bed anymore.

I've now removed all the dead plants with tears in my eyes ... the lovely Calibrachoas, Buddleia, Celosia spicata, Gomphrena leontopodioides and Kalanchoe pumila.  Why, oh why???

I've checked over the critically ill ...and trimmed them (hoping they come back) .... the Osteospurmums, Plectranthus and Saliva farinacea.  I'm keeping fingers crossed and hoping I'll see the return of the Sprekelia formosissima and the Gladiolus callianthus too.

I've removed all the invaders ... that Giant Sword Fern has a lot to answer for!!! I've added fertiliser and compost to the soil.  I've tried digging over all sections  ... but parts are now totally root-bound from something and I haven't quite figured out what it is yet!

Finally, today, I did a stocktake.  The Daylilies survived ... the Poinsettias survived ... the Angelonias survived ... the Gerberas still there ... the Turnea Ulmifolia is still thriving ... and the Mesembryanthemum 'Pig face' is still hanging in there!

So, while there's some good out of all this, I'm now left with the next job ... trying to decide on what I should try now!!!  This bed is proving to be the proverbial pain in the ####!!!!  Now that the day is drawing to an end, this is how the toddler looks ... rather grotty, with a grumpy look on its face and looking decidedly unloved!  Mum needs a sleep!

Monthly Garden Bouquet ... for the month of May.

What can you do with the leggy stems of Dragon Wing Begonias that you've just spent a hour trimming?  Well, this is what I do.  

They make a great arrangement with some Giant Sword Fern and maybe a Yellow Walking Iris.

Now I know it's not fancy ... I don't have the beautiful tulips, primroses or muscari growing in my garden ... but I think it looks great in my kitchen.  This bouquet will last for quite a few days.  It's amazing just how long these stems last before they begin wilting!!!

So ... even though I'm a bit late (sorry Noelle! ... but I only did the trimming today!), I thought I'd include it in the MGB meme.

To view other beautiful floral arrangements, make sure you visit Noelle's meme May's MGB ... Monthly Garden Bouquet!

Flower Flaunt on Friday - late Autumn in north-east Oz.

Autumn is drawing to a close and the usual Autumn weather has now kicked in!  The daytime temperatures have finally dipped below 30 deg C (86 deg F) ... some days we're getting down to 27 deg C!  The humidity has dropped waaayyy down ... around 50% these days!  The sun is out nearly all day, every day and the number of cloudy days are dropping. 

Let's have a look at what's blooming out in the garden today.

Senetti 'Magenta Biclolour' on the left and 'Baby Blue' on the right.

This is an unknown Orchid that I was given by a dear old lady who had no idea what this was ... the flowers are tiny - smaller than my thumb nail .... and I just love those tiny freckles!

 My gorgeous Cleome spinosa hybrid 'Senorita Rosalita' ... it just keeps on blooming.

Pelargoniums and Federation Daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens 'Sunray').

Scutellaria suffrutescens (Pink Texas Skullcap) and Passiflora.

This is one of my favourite hanging basket plants .... Nematanthus glabra  (Gold Fish Plant).

Finally, I thought I would just pay homage to the rather forgotten and unnoticed little blooms on my Coleus plants.  I rather love these little beauties ....

For many more great posts where bloggers are flaunting their flowers on a Friday, please make sure you visit Tootsie at Ferlitizer Friday/Flaunt Your Flowers