30 November, 2012

Wildflower Wednesday with ours and yours


The garden is quieter, and I am busier, so this Wildflower Wednesday instead of focusing only on South African wildflowers as I usually do – I bring you whatever is yelling ME ME in my garden. First our locals. The garden remains in a blue mood. Swathes of Plectranthus spires, on which the tiny flowers spiral around, keep on giving, defying the summer heat as it rolls in with warnings from the weatherman of Hot and Uncomfortable.

Plectranthus neochilus

Plectranthus neochilus

My signature blue sage begins to turn blue. Here the flowers come in a double hierarchy. First in neatly matched pairs, with the pairs borne on a trellis of branchlets up the main stem.

Blue sage

Christmas advances with Agapanthus in her arms. Altho these flowers will probably be faded and gone with ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas’. They do provide a cool welcome along the gratefully afternoon shaded path to our front door.

Agapanthus

Another Christmas promise is our pompom tree Dais cotonifolia. Gets a little flustered and thirsty in Porterville, as it comes from the summer rainfall East side of South Africa. ‘It has been cultivated in Europe since 1764’ – Keith Coates Palgrave’s Trees of Southern Africa. Those pink balls have a light fragrance, but the jasmine turns my head as I pass.

Dais cotonifolia

My Hypoxis rooperi was chosen and planted for the three ranks of long leaves. Starry yellow flowers are a generous bonus.

Hypoxis rooperi

Karoo Rose was just showing off, but pride comes before fall. November is running with extreme weather. Gale force Southeaster ripped off some roofs in Monte Bertha last night.

Karoo Rose

In a pot of bulbs from my neighbour Betty, I was surprised by this! Maltese cross or Jacobean lily, comes from Mexico, but the Latin name is Sprekelia formosissima (Formosa is an earlier name for Taiwan). Maltese Cross is for me, first the name of a rock formation in the Cederberg, near Driehoek and the Cape mountain leopards.

Maltese Cross

The edibles in our garden are all foreign. Granadilla (I will learn to spell that Spanish) means little pomegranate. Comes from South America.

Granadilla

While the garden has colour, I need to fill vases. On my to do list, once the wind drops. 

Pictures and words 
by 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.)

23 comments:

  1. the tour of your garden is like a breath of fresh air, its a blizzard here and so cold! Chocolat is so cute, thankyou for sharing your slice of heaven

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  2. I am so enjoying posts from where it is summer! Today here in Italy it was defiantely the first day of winter; an icy wind and rain, then even when the rain stopped. the cold remained. I like the lilly, a lovely pure colour and an interesting form. Christina

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  3. I have never seen that Maltese Cross or Jacobean lily before. Yours is sooo nice! There is a herbaceous perennial called Maltese Cross that I grow (not very well) that has the same colouring and the flowers are cross shaped.

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  4. Wonderful to see your beautiful summer flowers while we are freezing in a heavy frost! Love your maltese cross, what a beautiful flower, we will just have to enjoy all your flowers while our gardens are rather bare!

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  5. We have just entered winter here in London, it is bitterly cold and we are expecting frost tonight. Looking at the photos from your garden makes me smile and long for the summer. The Sprekelia formosissima was new to me, had to look it up. Looks like it won't survive most winters in my garden, shame, it's gorgeous, would have loved to have a few!

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  6. I love your pussycat, Diana, and I love the vibrancy of your garden, especially as I too face a summer ahead, and need to deal with rainfall and blazing sun issues.
    Can you really see the Elephant's Eye from your garden? It's amazing, an amazing piece of scenery.

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    1. We do see the Elephant's Eye as we sit on the verandah. But only in winter, does the low sun throw the shadow that opens the eye. Trees and houses obscure the lower slopes. My header picture is taken from the farm at the edge of town.

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  7. Agapanthus at Christmas! Great. I plant I want to use, but know I never can.

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  8. Aww, what a lovely photo of Chocolat.
    My agapanthus haven't flowered yet, the miniature ones are just starting to send up flower stalks.

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  9. V. jealous of your "lavender" sage with the mountain background.

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  10. I was imagining having agapanthus around Christmas time. What a wonderful thing that would be. I would fill loads of vases with them with red ribbons. That would be a fun tradition!

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  11. Crazy that spring is Christmas. I mean...I understand it....it's just so interesting to me:) Whenever a cat rolls around on the floor, I have a hard time resisting the cute factor:) That Pomegranate is quite different from ours here in Tucson. I'm curious about the flavor. Enjoy!

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    1. the granadilla will wrinkle and turn purply-brown as it ripens. Passionfruit? MUCH easier to spell.

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  12. So beautiful..and so nice to be reminded of gorgeous flowers at this time of year!

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  13. So lovely to see all your colorful blooms--my garden is now brown and gray:) Chocolat is a beauty!

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  14. Your Southeaster sounds like our Noreaster this time of year...roaring wind but wow yours is fierce...such lovely flowers and so hard to think of Christmas in a summer garden...I have always wanted to travel the world during Christmas to see how it is celebrated all over...hard to imagine it without snow.

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    1. My Swiss Ungardener agrees Christmas should have snow. Usually the Southeaster in Porterville is a gentle afternoon breeze.

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  15. It's nice to see your lovely Christmas bloomers! I have considered planting agapanthus here. There were some beautiful specimens in a local nursery earlier this year. I rejected them, thinking of the pitiful agapanthus in a friend's garden, wondering if they were doomed to look like that for me, too. But yours are are so beautiful. I must reconsider again next year.

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    1. pitiful Agapanthus? Guilty. Until I realised that they expect summer rainfall, so need watering now for those flowers.

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  16. The Aggies are looking fabulous this year, here in my garden too. Much taller than usual, wonderfully long stems. Love the Maltese Cross flower.

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  17. I also have Plectranthus neochilus in flower in the garden at the moment. I love them.

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  18. Trust a cat to find the most comfortable spot in the garden. At least it is a pile of hay and not a beautiful clump of living grass that ends up squashed flat over the summer as in my garden
    The Maltese Cross is very beautiful - I like spidery flowers. Such a contrast to the cool blue of the Agapanthus.

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  19. Hi Diana,
    Thank you for your many visits and your many kind comments.
    In my last post you ask about the baubles. They are vintage and I collected them over some years from flea markets in London and I bought some on Ebay.
    A couple of weeks ago you asked about the fabrics that I used in Autumn Colours. The fabrics are new bought from a shop in London called Beyond Fabrics. They specialise in patchwork and quilting. www.beyond-fabrics.co.uk
    All the best,
    Ingrid x

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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.


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