The MGS Forum
Our gardens, a month-by-month pictorial diary of what's looking good now => Our Gardens => Topic started by: Janet Ibbotson on March 03, 2018, 07:15:27 PM
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My garden is on the North East coast of Skopelos at about 100 metres above sea level. Today was the first real day of spring and I promised I'd try to post some pictures. Most of the garden is not irrigated and has to survive on little attention in the summer months when we rent the house out to guests. Hence I try to focus on shape and foliage rather than flowers.
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Well done Janet - you have some lovely planting showing how variations in form and colour, even if mainly foliage, can make a very attractive garden. I particularly like the stepped path area where one of my favourite ' backbone' plants - Euphorbia- makes its mark and softens the hard landscaping. In the photograph it is in flower but even when not it continues to have an impact.
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Lovely pictures, Janet, and a lovely garden; thanks so much - keep them coming!
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February is said to be the coldest and wettest month of the year here in Cyprus, when old men put on their woolly hats to go to the coffee shop to play tavli. This year we are having sunshine and temperatures 20+ . I want to share some of the sunshine captured in one photo and the warmth of the garden with you that are still experiencing Cold.... Here are some photos taken early this morning. The Buddleja madagascariensis had to be pruned because last week's storm split some of its branches. The other photo is of Iris unguicularis and the Orchids which we think are Cyprepidium. The older plant was put out in the garden because it was refusing to flower and then suddenly it put up four stalk and it is flowering .
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Great
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I am posting some of our February flowers. We had lots of sunshine, then came two days of heavy downpours and now the 'the chill' has arrived. Nevertheless there is a lot of new growth. Starting with Aloe ferox Rosa damascena Russellia equisetiformis Limonium perezii Salvia eigii and new growth of eigii with cyclamens
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All looking good
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Friday morning offerings. Very long stemmed Australian rose, name unknown, Strelitzia reginae, Thunbergia alata, that is taking over the back fence and Ferula communis which is a common sight in Cyprus that decorates roadsides and hilly places.
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I have taken some photos today. Ferula comunis in flower, lots of Salvia eigii , Phlomis lunariifolia and a promising Salvia, name unknown. Seeds came from Diomedes garden. It is its second spring in the ground and it is growing steadily. It has such soft hairy leaves. If any one knows its name please let me know. Otherwise I will have to wait until it flowers to send it to Ioannis G for identification.
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Hi Charithea
Looking at the leaves of your Salvia, I immediately thought they were just like an arrow head. There is a salvia called the Arrow-Head Salvia - S. sagittata. I wonder if that is it? Just a guess as I have no knowledge of the plant. If it is, the flowers are a lovely blue. Oh dear, I feel another spending spree coming on. This could easily replace my Lepichinia hastata, which isn't doing so well.
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/salvia-sagittata/
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Hi David. Thank you for your suggestion and as we Cypriots say ' Από το στόμα σου στου θεού τα αυτιά ´ Rough translation 'from your mouth to God's ears'. The Salvia Sagittarius is amazing. To have one that might be this beautiful 'colour' is tantalising. We have cut a leaf and compared it to the photo and they look similar. The salvia is very near the Salvia candelabrum which is getting ready to flower.
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Hi everybody and a Happy Easter to those that are celebrating this event. Our grand children have gone round the garden egg hunting. John had placed the eggs in suitable places to avoid damage to the plants. Our Wisteria sinensis is in its glory.
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Spring has definitely arrived. We are in the 30s now. I am posting some of our flowers that are defying the heat.
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Just one photo of my now spreading Salvia 'Blue Note '. I am unable to take a reasonable photo of our Salvia 'Cherry Pie' which is also spreading near the Blue Note.
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Lovely deep colour Charithea- a somewhat strange habit with some long stems erect but mainly spreading.....
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You are correct about the colour. It is so strong. I am not sure why it is spreading. During the winter months it was shaded and perhaps it was stretching for the light. This is the first time that I managed to grow it. I will wait until I get some cuttings growing before I prune it into a round shape.
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I have mentioned that we have 200 plus pots in our garden. I am now going to explain how this came about. My sister gave us a mature Epiphyllum oxypetalum and a young friend of mine that has a wonderful garden full of pots of cactus and succulents suggested that I should try some hybrids of Epiphyllums. We started with Epiphyllum Elektra and Epiphyllum Desert Moon. They were easy to keep so we got some more varieties. We now have 28 pots. Some are hanging of tree branches and other in special wrought iron containers. Last year the two original plants got too heavy for their support and crushed down. Surprisingly the pots did not break because they were cushioned by the foliage, but the plants needed a hair cut. I gave some of the cuttings away and re potted the original parents. I planted the other cuttings and now have 15 of them in plastic pots. When our Epiphyllums are in flower passersby and friends ask for cuttings. This year I am prepared. I will give them the already growing ones and reduce the pots. Our biggest problem here is the relentless heat of the summer so I grow some special plants in pots so that I can move them about in the shade when needed. Finally my seedling will be hopefully planted in the ground and take the empty pots to the Nursey for their use. I will be saving time so I can repaint my pots as they fade during the year.
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I am posting the first Epiphyllum photo today. It is Epiphyllum Candy Crush It can be very untidy . It will look amazing when the rest of the buds open up.
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Spring has definitely arrived here as our visiting Golden Oriole has been enticing me out of bed at 5 with its calling. Wednesday I was outside our side gate in the road in my PJ's trying to espy the bird. It was sitting on my cousin's Morus alba 200 meters away from me. Thursday 6.30 it was 10 meters away from our kitchen window on the Carya illinoinensis. I crept towards the tree and it flew and perched itself on the Melia azedarach at the end of the garden. This morning it was on the melia again with its bright yellow feather shining in the early morning sunlight. I can not photograph it as I lack the expertise but I wanted to show how beautiful it looks so I downloaded the picture from the internet.
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I wish I had those in my garden. They do live in some of the larger parks towards the outskirts of Rome but they never pass this way. I can hear that the bee-eaters have returned, though. They fly around the fields behind my house and their calling is a real summer sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_bee-eater#/media/File:Guepier_d'europe_au_parc_national_Ichkeul.jpg
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I heard the bee-eaters here for the first time this week too, David. They pass through around this time of year and then again at the end of the summer. They circle and swoop around above our property and the surrounding area, but never really low enough to even try to get a photo of them.
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Early starts to the day have arrived for me too with birds sitting in the Persimmon tree just outside out bedroom window and singing their hearts out earlier and earlier. One night, when finding sleep elusive, I got up about 3am and went outside for a wander and was serenaded by a sole Blackbird - beautiful. After that I managed to get some sleep before the dawn chorus arrived.
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The last two days the bees have been humming in and out of the large Epiphyllum flowers. I made a short video with the bees and bird songs but I am not sure how to edit it and post it so I decided to take some photos instead.
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What a wonderful show!
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We have different varieties of Teucriums and they do well in our garden. This one was given to me by the young nurseryman to try it out in our garden a few years ago. I found that I liked its toughness and took cuttings and now it grows on different parts of our garden. I believe it is aTeucrium chamaedrys 'Prostratum' but if anyone thinks it is wrong please correct me. I am also posting a photo of a Gardenia jasminoides as this year is flowering profusely. Our other Gardenias were recommended to us by the same young man. They have an amazing display of them. New blood in the family business has improved the quality of their plants.
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I took some photos early this morning of some of our bushes that have finally come of age. They are finally producing flowers not just the odd one. The Tabernaemontana divericata , the first photo and theHibiscus syriacus second photo get some shade during the day and their leaves don't get sunburnt and the Lagerstromia indica likewise protected part of the day by the old grapefruit tree.
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A tale of two sites. I have planted Salvia leucantha in different locations, one site is shaded most of the day by an enormous avocado tree and also gets a bit more water when the vegetables get watered, the others are just outside the kitchen window because I wanted to see them when in flower first thing in the morning. They do well in early spring and in late autumn but as you can see in the photo they suffer during the hot months. All these Salvias were cut down in the end of winter.
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Salvia leucantha is normally an autumn/early winter flowerer for me. We must have had a very sharp frost one night during late winter as many plants were cut to the ground in February. One of them was S leucantha, Just next to it is a S leucantha 'Midnight' which wasn't affected. The new growth of the S leucantha is trying to flower just now whereas 'Midnight' isn't. Perhaps, flower-wise it is a species that benefits from being cut back in spring?
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The small 'midnight' you gave to me was cut back in the autumn and well protected through the winter it being a young plant . It survived well, still fleeced when the late frost struck. Now it is making good progress but this early extreme heat has slowed it down as is the case with many things I find. I am resorting to the odd bucket of water in some cases😕
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Here are some photos of some of our Clerodendrums. Our Clerodendrum trichotomum var. fargesii has not flowered yet .First is C. x speciosum, C. chinense and C. bungei starting to open up. Last year the latter did not do well.
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Well done! We have no hope of growing those in our garden, Charithea! Too dry in summer and too cold in winter I think.
It's mid-winter here but there are already bulbs coming into flower:
1) white hoop-petticoat Narcissus
2) deep yellow hoops
3) Acis tingitana, the Moroccan Snowflake
4) Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' (the badly named "Summer Snowflake"!)
5) Galanthus elwesii
6 & 7) four-petalled Galanthus elwesii
cheers
fermi
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Fermi, you definitely bring back cooler days with your flowers. We forgot what it is to have cool weather. Regarding the Clerodedrum. It took a long time to acquire the Clerodendrum chinense. The Nurseries did not stock it any more. It was in gardens in Cyprus in the late fifties. I knew I would be able to grow it here because I remember visiting a garden in my childhood and what impressed me the most was its perfume. Lucky for us the Forum was around and when I lamented about it Mike Hardman brought us two sticks in a pot. They apparently were available in his area. The sticks prospered but always suffered badly in the summer with the flowers browning quickly. We replanted the original in different areas in the garden until we found the right spot. Under our trees which have matured and provide more shade. The two Clerodendrum x speciosum were given to me by a friendly Nursery owner a few years ago as a pacifier. He promised to find me a Clerodendrum ugandense now called Rotheca myricoides but was unsuccessful. Once more the Forum played its role. David Dickinson got me one from Italy. It takes a lot of my time keeping it alive but I am happy to report that it will soon re-flower. Thank you Mike and David.
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Thanks, Charithea,
cold and wet here today so we are missing the warm weather!
It's good to know that the Forum helps in finding and sourcing plants, something that seems to be becoming harder rather than easier.
Here are a few more flowers in our garden:
1) The very common Narcissus tazetta hybrid known locally as "Straws"
2) This is a seedling Grevillea which appeared a few years ago. It is similar to G. rosmarinifolia but not as prickly
3 & 4) A yellow Bidens which is flowering even better in the winter
5) a more colourful hybrid Bidens
cheers
fermi
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A few more from our winter garden:
1) Muscari inconstrictum
2) Lonicera fragrantissima
3) Jasminum nudiflorum
4) "Double Roman" Narcissus, another old tazetta hybrid
cheers
fermi
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Hope you are enjoying the wonderful perfume from the Lonicera.
In his latest blog ( The Gardenist) Michael McCoy thinks the shrub is 'ugly as sin' but 'Heavenly scented' and whilst I must agree it is not perhaps the most beautiful of subjects during the summer months I can forgive it once the flowers appear and make winter work in the garden a pleasure. It is very tolerant of pruning and so can be kept to a pleasing shape without loss of flowers I have found. In a big garden just let it grow and be rewarded with even more scent
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I decided to post some photos of our yellow and orange flowers that keep the garden looking alive this time of the year. They are Sulphur cosmos original seeds from Rome, and another hybrid given to me by nephew and the Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifolia 'torch' , thank you David for the seeds and of course Cassia fistula . They keep up my spirits as I have lost most of my young plants to the heat and also 4 two year old Salvias.
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Hope you are enjoying the wonderful perfume from the Lonicera.
In his latest blog ( The Gardenist) Michael McCoy thinks the shrub is 'ugly as sin' but 'Heavenly scented' and whilst I must agree it is not perhaps the most beautiful of subjects during the summer months I can forgive it once the flowers appear and make winter work in the garden a pleasure. It is very tolerant of pruning and so can be kept to a pleasing shape without loss of flowers I have found. In a big garden just let it grow and be rewarded with even more scent
Yes, the scent is the main reason to grow this shrub!
Here are a few of the bulbs coming into flower:
1) Romulea tetragona
2) a yellow trumpet daffodil whose label is hidden somewhere!
3) the brilliant Romulea sabulosa
4) Anemone coronaria cerise - from "Seeds of Peace" a few years ago
5) Gagea fibrosa
cheers
fermi
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1) Gladiolus gracilis
2) Geissorhiza inequalis
3) Narcissus KB-M-20-03 - a "micro-mini" daff from Keira Bulbs in Canberra
4) Hesperantha latifolia
5) Anemone heldreichii - being photo-bombed by a Babiana odorata seedling
cheers
fermi
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Lovely spring flowers
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Hope you are enjoying the wonderful perfume from the Lonicera.
In his latest blog ( The Gardenist) Michael McCoy thinks the shrub is 'ugly as sin' but 'Heavenly scented' and whilst I must agree it is not perhaps the most beautiful of subjects during the summer months I can forgive it once the flowers appear and make winter work in the garden a pleasure. It is very tolerant of pruning and so can be kept to a pleasing shape without loss of flowers I have found. In a big garden just let it grow and be rewarded with even more scent
Yes, Carole,
this shrub is nondescript for the rest of the year but from late autumn to early spring it delights with its perfume. It's now at full throttle and quite glorious.
It also offers a bit of protection to a winter flowering Kniphofia which is usually ruined by frost,
cheers
fermi
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Gosh - which Kniphofia is that Fermi? I love them and think they are very underrated- never heard of a winter flowering one.... perhaps just in your half of the world?
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I think it's one that is called 'Winter Cheer' - which it is unless it gets frosted off! We got it from a friend in the Dandenongs which doesn't get as hard a frost as we do (down to -7oC, but even -5 will damage it)
Another winter flowering one is Kniphofia sarmentosa which is a bit smaller. It's grown a lot in Kyneton (25 km south of us) even in central road roundabouts! But I haven't tried it here yet.
cheers
fermi
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Thanks Fermi - don't suppose it will be readily available here 🙄but always interesting to learn about different plants😊
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It's spring! Here are some blooms from our garden:
1) Babiana cedarbergensis
2) Oxalis obtusa 'Peaches & Cream'
3) Narcissus nivalis - which has had flowers from May!
4) Lewisia cotyledon - from a friend back in February and it has survived the winter!
5) Trillium chloropetalum - not the easiest in our conditions but it has survived for over 12 years - but took 10 years for it's first flower!
cheers
fermi
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Beautiful
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Thanks, Hilary, hard not to find something beautiful at this time of year here!
Some Australian native plants in the garden
1 & 2) Phebalium sp. just starting to flower
3 & 4) Isopogon cuneatus
5 & 6) Pomaderris obcordata 'Mallee Princess'
cheers
fermi
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Every one is beautiful and desirable. I tried some seeds about 2 or 3 years ago that my nephew sent me from Sydney but nothing germinated. Anyway it is lovely seeing yours.
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Our beautifully shaped Melia azadarach that normally hosts the Golden Oriole Birds in the Spring has been maimed together with the Jacaranda mimosifolia because the neighbours on the the left side of our garden ( two sister that I have known since their infancy) don't like the leaves and flowers of the trees falling on their private road and their garden because its makes the place look UNTIDY. I always go round and sweep the flowers and we always prune the branches that overhang the wall but this year the demand was that we should cut them down and replace them with pine trees or cut them to the height of our wall level so the breeze will not carry the leaves and flowers in their road. It made my heart hurt , and my sister, 9 years older then me, hopping mad. I had to restrain her from starting a war. I called my pruning man and we butchered the trees. As to replacing them NEVER!!
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What a shame
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This oncocyclus iris hybrid was raised by Pat Toolan in South Australia.
She shared it with Marcus Harvey in Tasmania and I got it from him several years ago. I planted it in a sand-bed which I thought it would like but it has taken a few years to finally produce a couple of flower stems,
cheers
fermi
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I have taken some photos of some of our flowers this morning. Excuse my poor photography. They are Buddleja, Thumbergia grandiflora Salvia 'Anthony Parker' and Ipomoea carnosa.
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Hi Charithea,
I love the blue Thunbergia but sadly it's not something that will grow here :'(
Here are some things in flower now:
1) Gladiolus melisculus
2) Babiana stricta hybrid
3) Tulipa hageri 'Splendens' - only flowers if we get a cool, wet spring
4 & 5) Dutch iris hybrid, maybe 'Apollo'
cheers
fermi
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1) Some of the tall bearded iris in flower now
2) Triteleia bridgesii
3) white Lewisia coteledon
4) Puya clilensis
5) pale forms of Moraea lurida
cheers
fermi
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1) a informal double "tea" rose which a friend has suggested it might be 'Iced Parfait'
2) Calochorthus luteus - from seed from a friend in California
3) 'Matucana' sweetpea
4) Lobelia erinus is a common annual used in bedding especially as an edging - last summer a punnet I bought never got to be planted before it died but obviously not before seeding itself into some pots!
5) One of the crabapples already in fruit has decided to throw out a few new flowers!
cheers
fermi