18 May, 2013

Almost colours for Wildflower Wednesday

Shimmering by moonlight in my mind, with Lighten our darkness, were the contemplative almost coloured flowers in my garden.

The Ungardener's moon rising


Plumbago auriculata glimmers in an unequivocal whiteout. Dandelion seed head spangled with fragile stars anchored on a deep bronze heart. Once when I was a child I gathered various leaves with sprigs of Abelia from my mother’s garden to fill a vase for the living room. Tiny barely pink trumpets – one of the first plants whose names I learnt. Wild jasmine leans to lime green. Plectranthus madagascariensis spires of pure white flowers on a burgundy spike.

Wild jasmine, Plumbago
Abelia
, dandelion seedhead, Plectranthus madagascariensis

Tecoma lutea bringing memories of Cornish clotted cream, an edible buttery yellow. Daisies in lemon bietou and egg yolk Euryops pectinatus. Spiralling in mahogany with the olifantsriet flowers.

Euryops pectinatus
Euryops pectinatus, Tecoma capensis
olifantsriet, bietou

My white pelargonium from my mother, often shows blush pink. Jade plant Crassula ovata is known as Pink Joy. I have a pink Barleria; usually April Violets is in muted lavender. Pearl of Bedfordview is coming into her autumn flush. Dimorphotheca jucunda covers each petal in white to purple via shell and shriek pink.

Crassula ovata, Pearl of Bedfordview
Barleria, pelargonium

Forgotten from April, is Tradescantia. It appeared uninvited and I weed it back. In the planters under the ash tree the Tradescantia is happy, and those flowers are a magic blue. Plumbago in a hazy sky blue. Mauve and white wild sage, my signature plant for this garden. Lemon verbena was one of my mother’s favourites. I've planted a bank of fragrant plants near the washing lines, and the South American lemon verbena flowers waft a delectable scent my way with the washing. My heart sings with Felicia amelloides, kingfisher daisy, felicity the colour of happiness!

Felicia amelloides

Tradescantia, lemon verbena
lavender, Plumbago, blue sage

There are three layers to our garden. The hardscape - Ungardening Pond, Karoo Koppie, formal Paradise and Roses, with brick lined gravel paths. With the green, and blond and dark, and silvery grey, even blue and red, bones of foliage. Today I sought the quiet understated moonlit colours – the third layer. But the second layer shouts in your face! I have deep velvety fragrant red roses. Black Prince, Anna’s Red, Alec’s Red and Papa Meilland. The Darling buds of May Cotyledon orbiculata is singing in terracotta. Pelargoniums in Schiaparelli pink and coral. Phyllis van Heerden is having a good year across the garden. Halleria dangles slender clear red trumpets.

Halleria, Port St John's creeper
Phyllis van Heerden, Dimorphotheca jucunda

Cotyledon orbiculata
with pelargoniums

Black Prince, Papa Meilland
Anna's Red, Alec's Red

For Wildflower Wednesday, as reflected in my garden, most flowers are South African. Today’s exotics are Abelia from Mexico, more roses from the North, Tradescantia from the Americas, South American lemon verbena, and Mediterranean lavender.

Pictures by Diana and Jurg Studer,
text by Diana Studer
AKA Diana of Elephant's Eye
- wildlife gardening in Porterville,
near Cape Town in South Africa
(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink. Those are my links)

13 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, what beautiful blooms you have there in your gardens. Just wonderful. They make me want to work in my gardens more.

    Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady

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  2. such beautiful images, nothing , absolutely nothing like this here,I enjoy coming here so much,

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  3. Lovely, lovely, lovely! All those red Roses are spectacular!

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  4. Voted - I'm still using Blotanical even though it's been almost a year since we heard anything.

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  5. It's interesting that Africa has so many wildflowers that are just simple daisies. And I'm very fond of daisies! I don't know why I would expect all the native blooms to look different and exotic.

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    Replies
    1. this is from PlantZAfrica -
      the largest family of flowering plants, with more than 25 000 species world-wide. In southern Africa it is also one of the biggest families of flowering plants with about 246 genera and 2 300 species.

      and these are in my garden
      http://elephantseyegarden.blogspot.com/2010/08/august-daisy-chain-walk.html#more

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  6. Diana, Your images are amazing! I voted. P. x

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  7. Hello Diana,
    so you also have dandelion!
    Lemon verbena is a wonderful plant, unfortunately not frost hardy.
    Have a nice day!
    Elke

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  8. I'm amazed how many flowering plants you have in your garden at the moment.

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  9. So many beautiful blooms! I especially love the blush pink ones, though it is always impossible to pick a favorite! I am still on Blotanical somewhat (I'm back now pretty much from my blogging hiatus). It is such a shame it never got fixed!

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  10. Diana that moon shot is just amazing....I love all the flowers and while you are drawn to the subtle colors, I am drawn to the reds and corals....beautiful...I still am stunned at all the blooms in your fall garden as my late spring garden is still struggling to bloom...the weather is too extreme. Hot, cold, hot, cold....

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  11. hi diana, 2300 species of daisies is quite mind boggling. i like the way you've grouped the flowers by colour. I've seen white plumbago, but because I'm used to blue, it always looks a bit pale to me.

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Photographs and Copyright

Photographs are from Diana Studer or Jurg Studer.
My Canon PowerShot A490

If I use your images or information, it will be clearly acknowledged with either a link to the website, or details of the book. If you use my images or words, I expect you to acknowledge them in turn.


Midnight in Darkest Africa

Midnight in Darkest Africa
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