[Hilary]

A bouquet from a friend

A couple of days ago a friend of mine gave me a  bouquet of flowers from her garden, let me share it with you.

[Hilary]

Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, Purple Fountain Grass

This grass is growing in a container at a coffee shop near the sea here in Corinth. The poor plant suffers greatly with the wind and the very little attention it gets.
 I don't remember if it is left to its own devices over the winter.

[Hilary]

Opuntia, Prickly Pear

Many of the seasonal, beach side, coffee shops and restaurants have now closed for the winter leaving behind wooden platforms and some of the decorations. One shop had planters filled with Stipa grass and the big fleshy pads of the Prickly Pear plant. One of the pads must have put down roots and has produced a small new pad.

Other photos are of huge Prickly Pear plants near the end of the dry river bed

The last photo was taken Corfu in the autumn of 1965

Prickly Pear is mentioned in many issues of
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN  I chose to read
A GARDEN IN THE MAKING by Leonard Pearcy
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 18 Autumn 1999

[Hilary]

Pink Roses.

It is always profitable, flower photo wise, to take a different road back from the shops.

This beautiful pink rose bush is in front of a deserted house in Corinth. Adeimandou 68

I thought the article BEAT-THE -HEAT ROSES
By Helene Pizzi
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 17 Summer 1999
Would be interesting for those who would like to have roses in their gardens and which would survive the summer heat.

This rose in the garden of the deserted house does not get any watering but I have noticed a well somewhere in the garden so water must not be too far below.

[Hilary]

Scorpio and Scorpions
My sign of the Zodiac is Scorpio, Oct 23 to Nov 21
No way am I a Libra, I have no difficulty in making decisions, which taverna to go to and where to sit etc.
This is a tiny charm I had on a bracelet when charm bracelets were the fashion.

A stamp issued by Spain in 1979

Scorpions, Buthus europeus and other garden pests are referred to in
GARDENING IN SOUTH-WEST FRANCE
By C.R. Illingworth
 THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 7, Winter1996/97

Available as a free download
https://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/journal7.pdf

[Hilary]

Dahlia in a garden in Einbeck- Salzderhelden, Germany.

A nephew of mine sent me this photo so I thought I would  share it with you

[Hilary]

Dahlia in a garden in Waterloo, Canada.

A friend of mine sent me this photo so I thought I would share it with you.

[Hilary]

Phalaenopsis, Orchid

This year’s Orchid.

This time with useful information on the back of the label.

No wonder that two of the older Orchids died this summer when the recommended maximum temperature is 25C. and we had a heat wave.

[Hilary]

A Tamarix tree and an Olive tree

Next to the sea, here in Corinth, there is a pedestrian area lined on both sides with coffee shops, tavernas and eateries. The Tamarix trees were planted several years ago, suffer rigorous pruning sometime in the winter and become these lovely shaped trees in the summer. This year there has been a group of Gardeners pruning the offshoots of the trees and cutting the grass wherever it is.

The poor Olive tree in a pot was installed by one of the coffee shops which closes for the winter and the poor tree left to its own devices which means only getting any water if and when it rains

The first photo was taken in 2019, the tree in the pot had already been there for a couple of years
The next two photos were taken on the 5th October and 25th October 2023.

The Tamarix trees, near the coffee shops, were pruned as they were shedding their tiny seeds and covering the tables, a photo opportunity I lost.

[Hilary]

Antigonon leptopus, Coral Vine

Snapped in July 2007 at Rabat, Malta

[Hilary]

November 11th
Remembrance Day

[Hilary]

Cyclamen
Outside a friend’s gate a few years ago.

[Hilary]

Flowers from the garden of two of my friends.

Narcissus papyraceus and Lavandula dentata

The Paperwhite Narcissus are blooming now in December, the third photo was taken in late November several years ago when I had asked permission to enter the garden and take the photo.

The photos of the French Lavender were taken one April a few years ago in the same garden.

I had never really noticed the beautiful leaves of the Lavender plant until now when I was given the small posy

[Hilary]

For the next 26 days I will be posting one photo a day of a flower.  Going through the Alphabet starting with A and ending with Z.
There will be no blurb, just the first letter of the flower’s Latin name.
I hope you like the photos and maybe enjoy knowing or finding the names of the flowers.

A 

[Hilary]

B