Sunday Selections # 278

Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post

3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.

4. hop on over to Elephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

 

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week we're taking a look at my garden. Again.

everything has grown since the weather cooled down a bit, I'll need to turn this pot again so a different side grows towards the sun.

the dwarf blue chalk sticks has grown so much faster than the regular one down in the garden. If you look at just one of the stems here, that's the size it was when I planted it. Now it almost fills the pot. The one in the garden is supposed to spread to a two metre ground cover. I'll believe that when it happens.

red velvet and gold centred french marigolds. I've been breaking off the dried seed heads as they form and sprinkling them in other pots for hopefully a good show next spring.

this ruffled echeveria has developed two long flower stems similar to the giant variety out in the garden near the front fence of the grounds here. You may remember seeing photos that I took of it a few years ago. I had no idea this little ruffly thing I planted was the same in miniature.

I'm hoping to see the flowers once they open,

unless these are just seed pods without flowers. Each of these stems is about two feet long.

I don't remember what this one is called,

but I've got two of them, each now with six or seven heads where in the beginning they each had just one. They sat in their spots seemingly forever not growing at all, now they are about twenty centimetres from one end to the other.

this tiny little sedum is a groundcover, each tiny head no bigger than one centimetre, it's supposed to eventually spread and form a mound. It didn't. It disappeared altogether until just recently when these few heads popped up again. The label says hardy and fast growing, but I've come to realise the labels all refer to ideal conditions, which I certainly don't have here.

the northern birdbath, notice the empty spot in the front section? I keep putting cuttings of things there and they keep vanishing without a trace. 

this aeonium was about eight centimetres across when I planted it, now it's the size of a large dinner plate.

the jades have all put on a growth spurt since the cooler days and rains began; (rain!) this is the tallest one, 45 cm all summer, now 65cm and quite a bit wider than it was.  By this time next year, I hope the jades will have formed a nice protective hedge, so the things behind it won't get so badly dried out.

strappy, floppy Ixia stems, I can hardly wait for these pretties to flower again. This is their third year.

Sparaxis, although not as many as I hoped for.

a forest of Freesias, and there are more in three pots at the far end of the garden.

one lonely Ranunculus bulb is all I have left of them, maybe next year there will be two? Do they multiply as daffodils do?

have you been wondering about the rings of white stones? there are three of them and in each I have planted 9 apricot stones. We'll see what happens. I'd love to end up with three mini-groves of small apricot trees. There are two varieties within each circle, one the plain bright orange apricot, the other the red-blush apricot.

this Black Prince echeveria has faded to dark grey,

and developed a flower stem. I didn't know they did that.

some of the buds are showing pink, others are black and probably dead or dying. If the buds open into flowers I'll take another photo.

Anenomes are popping up around the base of the southern end birdbath, I'd forgotten just where they were when the birdbath got plonked into place, so probably the ones under it won't grow. It's way too heavy for me to be shifting it now.

these Aeoniums, two varieties, Black Rose with pinkish centres and short black with greenish centres were all single heads when planted. You can see I have some in pots and some in the ground.

now they all have multiple heads as you see here; as they develop, each head will grow a stem and the plants will become many branched as they grow. I'll have a forest of Aeoniums!

here is my baby fur seal wearing a Santa Hat. I don't know what he is made of, it looks like plaster, but is very lightweight like plastic.

the two Coprosmas have turned out to be very slow growing, this is the taller of the two and is only 50-60 cm high. The eventual height is supposed to be one and a half metres by a metre wide, at this rate it will be another six years before they reach their full potential.

the ivy geranium, rescued from P's front porch, is beginning to grow again; I'll have to get some sort of frame for it to climb on by springtime.

another rescue, this was a tiny, tiny, piece found on a footpath, now wider across than my hand from wrist to fingertip.

P's philodendron which almost died when she did, has made a lovely comeback, now has roots almost a metre long spiralling out from the bottom of its pot. I'll repot it in the spring. These grow really large, I had several in my previous home, in the carport, shaded from the sun.

my red sage looks dead, I'll wait and see if it comes good in spring.

the green sage is also not looking so good, I think they've had too much water, but if I move them out of the rain, they won't get any sun. Another wait and see one.

the mint is looking a bit scrappy too, it grew well after the last trimming, but now all new leaves are quite small. I'll cut it back after the winter and see what happens.

Overall, not doing too badly. There's been disappointments along with surprises and I've decided not to plant anything new for a couple of seasons. I'll wait and see what thrives, what just survives, before making further plans.