Late Spring Garden 2011
27 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in 4. Seasonal Garden Notes Tags: Images, My garden, Spring 2011
Now it is kind of moody morning. Sky is dull grey and everything is still wet from yesterday’s rain. It rained all day yesterday and continued all night. Our backyard was completely flooded. The water covered the floor of the carport and barbeque area.
Most of the cymbidium orchids have finsihed flowering and soon I have to repot and divide some of them. The latest two cymbidiums that I bought this year are grown in coconut husk chips. I noticed that coconut husk can hold water longer than wood chips and it last longer as it will not disintegrate as easy as wood. I remember the fact that coconuts can float in the sea and drifted for a long time. The fibrous husk that covers the fruit makes it float and protects the fruit from rotting. They can even germinate in sea water. So…. I will try to use coconut husk for repotting my orchid.
All the orchid cacti have also finished flowering. Epiphyllums have beautiful flowers, but unfortunately they don’t last long and only bloom once a year. Some one said to me that she did not like the look of orchid cactus’ stems but I don’t mind the look of them. Yes, I can put up with their very long period of non-flowering time.
Oh, the sun is starting to shine now. I have to clean up the flood debris in the backyard. The water only covered my toes, but enough to make a bit of mess. I am going to insert more photos from out garden. The Christmas lilies – Lilium longiflorum are flowering nicely now, but I haven’t made any photos yet. I love their sweet fragrance………… Soon all the oriental lilies will flower too. While the chrysanthemums and the tuberoses have started to grow the make them ready to flower early next year.
28/11/2011:
The small feijoa tree is flowering profusely. Last year it had less flowers and they failed to develop into fruits. I read that human intervention is needed to make the tree produces fruits. It is easy to do by just gently rubbing the top of the flowers that contains pollens with my fingers, or can also use a small clean paint brush. By helping pollination, the flowers will have more chance to fruit. I have done this so far and just have to wait and see if it is going to work. Fingers cross!
Garden Early Summer 2010
11 Dec 2010 1 Comment
in 4. Seasonal Garden Notes Tags: Images, My garden, Seasonal Notes
The heavy rainfalls recently have made a big puddle on the lawn. Today is sunny but windy and cool around 20 deg. C. My heart goes out for those who are experiencing flood in some parts of Victoria. The extreme weathers that we are living now… either it is a long drought or excessive rains.
We have a real big surprise! The goldfish have tiny babies. So far I only notice 5 of them, but maybe more. It is hard to see and count them as they like to hide inside the elodea plants. It is even harder trying to take photos of them, but I manage to have a quite reasonable picture of 3 of them.
While the gold fishes are doing well, it is not so with the pink water lilies. In early spring it grew well with many leaves and some flower buds, but now most of the leaves are rotten and the blackened flower buds are stunted. I am not so sure what have happened. I just cut most of the brown leaves off and save few that are still green. There are few leaf buds under water, but it seems that they are not growing as fast as they are supposed to. Hopefully it was just the result of recent extreme weathers where too many rains have wetted and damaged the leaves, while unsettled temperature has stunted its growth. The yellow water lily in the back yard is doing well and it is under the shade of the veranda away from heavy rainfall and the recent fluctuation of temperature. The Alisma plantago-aquatica is luscious and green with its towering flowers. The elodeas (anacharis) are trailing all over the place so I have to prune them and I put the cut-offs in a bucket of water.
Still about lilies! The Christmas lilies are doing very well. The sweet perfume feels the air and it is even stronger at night. The yellow and pink Asiatic lilies are also flowering.
The hydrangeas (my husband’s favourite plant) are also growing very well this year. One bush has many flowers that have different colour shades. They are quite unusual and very pretty.
Oh yes, I saw a fat caterpillar eating one of the few hibiscus flowers that just start to bloom. I didn’t kill it as it was the only one that I could see. I hope it will become a pretty butterfly.
To go to the previous notes about my garden:
http://kiyanti2008.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/spring-garden-2010/
September Garden Images
29 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in 4. Seasonal Garden Notes Tags: Flowers, Images, My garden, September 2010, Spring
In the last few days Melbourne was back to cold and wet again. I don’t really mind the rains at all but plueese…. not cold again! Yesterday I started to spread some mulch on the garden bed, but I had to stop because of the rain.
Today is still cold but the sun is shining brightly, so after lunch I plan to finish doing the mulching. Hopefully, the weather will not change suddenly. You can expect this here in Melbourne… four seasons in a day. Ha….
Spring flowers have started to bloom, but I noticed many plants are still not in flower. I think they are a bit confused and think that it is still winter. I took some photos of the flowers this morning:o)
It is midday now and soon after posting this, I am going to make lunch and in the afternoon I will be busy in the garden. Glad that I have mowed the grass few days ago when it was reasonably dry. Weeds grow like crazy on drenched spring days, so I have to be quick to get rid of them for good.
For those who also plan to spend some time in the garden, I wish all of you:
Happy Gardening!!
Early August Orchids
08 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in 3. Orchids Tags: Claude Pepper x Sensation, Cymbidium Orchids, Images, My garden, Sarah Jean 'Ice Cascade'
Today has been a nice change weatherwise, it is quite warm and sunny. A little bit windy, but I can’t complain more. Two of my cymbidium orchids have started to bloom, so this morning I took some pictures. The results are not too bad……………………..
Oh yes, beside the excitement of my blooming orchids, there is another surprise! Guess what?
Collingwood Magpies won last night playing againts Geelong the Cats! About the time!!
Go Magpies Go!!!
You can do it this year!!!!
Monday August 09, 2010: Today the next day the Claude Pepper ‘Sensation’ orchid is fully open:
Lily – Images, Poem and Song
27 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in Music and Songs Tags: A Song, Blake's Poem, Images, Lilium-Lily, My garden
The Lily (written by William Blake)
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright……….
A Strange Cloud over Melbourne
10 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Life Tags: Australia, Images, Melbourne, Strange Clouds
A strange formation of cloud was seen over Melbourne, Friday July 9, 2010 in the afternoon between 16.00 PM to 17.00 PM. Sky was clear and there was no wind.
Quick Snapshots from the Garden
05 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in 4. Seasonal Garden Notes Tags: Images, My garden, Quick Snapshots, Winter 2010
I am planning to prune the rest of the plants this week and I noticed things that were perfect for quick snapshots. I haven’t pruned one standard rose as it still bears few good flowers. So before I prune it I took some pictures of the deep red bloom this morning.
The pods of fairy iris (Dietes grandiflora) made an interesting photo before I cut them off. While some of the succulents in a chilly morning looked so fresh and inviting.
The fibrant colours of the Kniphofia were also too good to miss.
Winter Garden 2010
28 Jun 2010 6 Comments
in 4. Seasonal Garden Notes Tags: Flowering Plants, Images, My garden, Winter Time
I don’t really like gardens in winter as I am a flower loving person. There are only few flowers in this cold weather. As you see, my garden is rather dull and overgrown at the moment. It is crying for a good trimming. I have pruned the roses but many plants also need a good trim to make the garden look tidy. Few pink and red geraniums dare to battle frosty condition to show their flowers, but some other plants are really blooming.
The winter flowering Grampians Heath Myrtle (Thryptomene calycina) is in full bloom. It is a small to medium shrub with tiny dark green leaves and small whitish pink blooms cover the whole plant.
The other plant that is in full bloom is Jade. This lucky money plant is fully covered in tiny star shape pinkish white flowers. The camellia japonica has started to have flower buds, while the camellia sasanqua has come to the end of flowering season. This image below is the Grampians Heath Myrtle:
Most of the zygocactus are still flowering and some of the orchids have started to have flower spikes. I have a mini anthurium and it is also flowering now. It has creamy flowers with tiny red spots. Meanwhile, the New Guinea Impatiens (Impatient hawkery) are still showing off their last batch of flowers before they go dormant in cold weather. The images below are the comical Flamingo flowers (Anthurium) :
Melbourne was grey, cold and windy in the last two days and today is windy and drizzly. The first month of the winter is not even over yet, but here I am…. dreaming about springtime already 
* Note: I am now adding one more picture. You can see our Genista racemosa and the next door’s Loquat tree on the background. Hopefully the recovering Genista after caterpillars’ attact will flower again in Spring.
Previous notes about my garden:
http://kiyanti2008.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/autumn-garden-2010/
Photos Before and Now
27 Jun 2010 7 Comments
in About Me Tags: A Teenager, An Adult and Now, As a Child, Images
Buat semua teman teman dan famili yang sudah luama banget tak ketemu saya, ini lah photo photo saya zaman dulu mulai dari masih kecil dan mini sampai sekarang tua dan maxi!!! Ha, ha, ha……
Stunning Stamens
16 Jun 2010 6 Comments
in 6. Wonderful Plants Tags: Beatuiful, Flowers, Images, Stamen
Mostly, we judge the beauty of flowers by only looking at the petals. They come in many different shapes and colours, but there are smaller parts of flowers that can be stunning. It is the stamen of a flower. Stamens consist of anthers and filaments.
- Stamen: The male part of the flower. It is made up of the filament and anther, it is the pollen producing part of the plant. The number of stamen is usually the same as the number of petals.
- Anther: This is the part of the stamen that produces and contains pollen. It is usually on top of a long stalk that looks like a fine hair.
- Filament: The fine hair-like stalk that the anther sits on top of.
To enjoy the beauty of this male part of a flower, we have to look more closely. These are few photos from around our garden.
