How is your garden looking today?

how big is it?

Tiny plant/huge fragrance. My little one is only about 10 inches high. Quite delicate.

oh, it's supposed to smell something like fresia. Nice. Maybe I should order some. 15ml for AUD6.10 plus shipping.....

Fascinating. So, after these blooms fade, it's on to lavender..... sounds like a nice garden.

Apparently they are not so easy to grow from seed, littlek. Don't know why, but that's the common wisdom. Fresia is (to me) sweeter ... Boronia is a fraction spicer, a little more complex, maybe?

I was thinking of the oils when I said I wanted to order some. I would be nervous trying to grow a plant from down there unless I knew it to be safe. I don't think it'd like this little lot anyway - maybe my mom's yard.

I'm dying to smell the thing! So, the boronia 'absolute' is outrageously expensive. Like the rose attar. But, the essential oils aren't so bad.

I've had (English) Lavender flowering for months now, littlek. The more delicate (French) ones are hybernating. Roses will be the next big thing! (BTW I found my first aphids on some of the new leaves just now! )
My (front yard) Bird of Paradise is about to fully open 2 whopper blooms. (the first for this particular plant, which has lived an unfortunate life in a pot for years. It LOVES the liberation of roots in garden soil! ) But it's quite a small front yard, though. The back is bigger (not huge!) & has hardier plants, being more exposed to sun & wind. Anyway this all keeps me busy & enchanted. AND the challenge of starting pretty much from scratch.

Oh, I see ... essential oils.

wow. wasn't it just winter there? We don't get lavender blooms until july (I think) after 2-3 months of spring and a month of summer. I still have a hard time remembering that winters are not the same everywhere.

Oh (before I go) I forgot to meantion that the little magnolia bush I planted around a week ago is still having a good time! Five little flowers now!

yay! enjoy it all.... g'night.

this is how the maple tree out back looked this morning. It's always the last tree on the block to change color, whereas the other trees and bushes in the neighborhood are ablaze.

Next week I'll replace this photo with one showing our tree in its autumn glory.

So.... it must be a Norway Maple...?

monkshood buds


magenta toad lily


tail end of white toad lily

We just had our first rainstorm of the season and the summer garden is dying. Next up is lemons, oranges, tangerines, and weeds.

It"s pretty much over. We haven't had much rain in the last month and I haven't been watering.

Here's a glimpse into the crown as of this afternoon; for all I know this may be its best,since a sudden cold snap can send all the leaves to the ground.

It's a sugar maple, littlek--- a norway maple next door is now a bright yellow. This tree is usually a deep yellow (gold) to a bright orange. Maybe in a couple of days yet.

Wet!

Today's view of the sugar maple out back. A good year for fall color this season; elsewhere, foliage colors are at peak, particularly further away from the lake. The colors on this tree seem luminescent on an overcast day, when viewed upward into the crown from its base.

neko - our sugar maples are past their peak right now. They were the stars this autumn. The leaves turned a beautiful scarlet through peachy yellow. Our red maples turned a vaguely vibrant warm yellow. So, maybe I have my maples species mixed up......