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.
I usually go with a
theme for my Sunday Selections and this week we're wandering around the complex seeing what's blooming.
the Daphne...oh the Daphne, so pretty, so sweet smelling
and so large! easily three metres by three metres, possibly a bit more, so it's been here quite a while.
Here it is stretching even higher.
my new hens have found a comfortable spot just behind the other two.
Someone's hydrangea is doing very well, perhaps I'll ask for a cutting when I ask for cuttings of pelargoniums.
Hydrangea flower buds,
Hydrangea flowers, many tiny flowers to make one flower head and the bush gets covered in these.
Ivy geranium, at first I thought it was white, but a closer look shows me it is tinged with palest pink. I had a cutting of this one, but it didn't survive.
buttercups? I have no idea. there is a small sea of these about a metre and a half and about 75cm wide, the flowers are very small, less than one inch across.
a few of my new solar lights, these are colour changing ones, first blue, then red, then green and back to blue
deep red pelargoniums
almost black pelargoniums, I'm definitely getting cuttings of these two, I'll speak to P tomorrow
this is the 'black' one without me holding it up to the light.
purple? deep pink? I want one :)
pink and coral with a white centre on each flower
and a lighter version.
I rounded a corner of the path and surprised this young blue-tongue lizard sunning himself, this is the time of year they come out to get warm after the winter. Too many of them sun themselves on the road and a couple have almost been run over. This young one obligingly stopped still while I took his photo, then scampered away under the leaves of the agapanthus.
the white cedar tree, whose pollen has caused me much sniffly sneezing grief the last couple of weeks. The bees love it and I can hear them humming every morning.
these (whatever they are, I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go and look for the labels) are getting too big for the bird baths,
look at the size of this one! I'll leave them for the summer, but move them to a pot of their own in the late autumn.
the Daphne...oh the Daphne, so pretty, so sweet smelling
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So pretty, as always.
ReplyDeleteGrace; it's a pretty area that I live in, most people here develop the patch nearest their flat and we all benefit.
DeleteLove that lizard :)
ReplyDeleteAuthor R. Mac Wheeler; we have several colonies of blue-tongues living in the gardens here. I have one living in the drain space surrounding the downpipe beside my front porch and saw him for the first time this season just two days ago.
DeleteWhat lovely pictures! I can practically smell that Daphne. The deep red-almost black flower is breathtaking, and the lighter version of pink flower reminds me of a geranium, especially the leaves. And that lizard? Yowza! We went to the Atlanta zoo yesterday, and saw some lizards that looked just like that. I get all excited when I see a tiny skink or anole running around in our yard, so I'd be over the moon if I saw one as big and handsome as yours.
ReplyDeleteSusan; I've since learned that what I thought was Daphne isn't, although S doesn't know exactly what it is. She did say it is too big to be a Daphne and the flowers too small. The red-black and the lighter pink are pelargoniums, they are members of the geranium family which is why they look similar. These are the ones I got cuttings from a few days ago. We have many of these lizards here, our complex of 106 flats and surrounding gardens has about a dozen colonies of them. There are geckos too, but rarely seen.
DeleteThat pink & purple flower is gorgeous!!
ReplyDeletefishducky; isn't it just! and I now have six seven cuttings potted which I hope will all grow.
Deleteoh dear, mistake there, it's seven cuttings, from two long spindly branches.
DeleteSure looks different then we have here. Most of trees don't have any leaves left.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
peppylady (Dora); isn't it nice to be able to see spring and summer from here when you have autumn and winter there!
DeleteI have never seen a daphne that large. Want.
ReplyDeleteLoved the blue-tongue too. We had one which lived in our garage. I haven't seen it for a while.
Elephant's Child; I've discovered it isn't a Daphne after all. A fellow gardener, whose pretty sitting area will be seen here next week, tells me it is too big and the flowers too small to be a Daphne. but I took a couple of cuttings from it anyway and if it grows I will keep it in a pot so it doesn't get too large.
DeleteI hadn't seen my resident blue-tongue for a while either and was worried the cats had got him, but then he popped up out of the drain two days ago and skittered back down when I brought him a dish of water.
That is a daphne? Hydrangeas and pelargoniums are not fashionable, yet they are great plants. The blue tongue looks like it has had a good feed.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; no it is not, i thought it was so that's what I've been calling it, but a reliable source (her mother has one) tells me it isn't. She doesn't know what it is though. I don't care for what's fashionable in the plants world, I just like stuff that is hardy and grows well, preferably with flowers.
DeleteThat particular blue tongue lives under the biggest agapanthus patch so gets a good feed of snails which also live in there in the hundreds.
There must be several 'gardeners' who enjoy gardening in your complex River. You always seem to find plenty to show us that is blooming in the neighbourhood
ReplyDeleteOh and Echiveria is the word you are looking for. Lots of different sorts out there. Mt G will tell you more :)
Cathy; yes, plenty of keen gardeners and many just like me who plant and hope. The flats are spread out in quite a large area, blocks of four: two down, two up, or blocks of eight which are really two blocks of four with no separation between and each is surrounded by gardens or driveway or both. Many tenants have been here a long time some for forty years, their gardens have full grown trees and bushes. I knew it was echeveria, I have several different varieties, just couldn't be bothered getting the label to see which one it is.
DeletePretty, pretty! Are those hens giving you some china eggs? Hard-baked!! They're so cute. :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great week, River...cuddles to Angel. :)
Lee; no hard boiled eggs here :( I have to do that myself with eggs from the fridge. cuddles to Remy and Shama.
DeletePretty flowers in your area. That Daphne is so sweet looking! I like you lizard ;)
ReplyDeleteS.J.Qualls; I've discovered it isn't a Daphne, but have no idea what it is.
DeleteLovely lovely flowers.
ReplyDeleteI do love to see a blue tongue sunning in a safe position.
Merle......
Merle; thank you, I like seeing them sunning and they drink from the many dishes of water people put out for them too.
DeleteWonderful to see the garden flowers.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, love that smell.
Margaret-whiteangel; not a Daphne :( any idea what it actually is?
Delete.. Hi River... lovely post... great flowers.... I really like the hydrangea... it has pointy petals and I haven't seen one like that before .... I love the almost black pelargonium ...beautiful..
ReplyDeleteIf everything strikes for you your garden will be more beautiful than it already is .... Barb xxxxx
Barbara; I thought all hydrangeas had pointy petals. This is the first hydrangea I've seen since living in Sydney though, so maybe I've forgotten.
DeleteIf everything strikes for me, I'll have plenty to share with others a few years from now.
Beautiful flowers. We call that last one "hens and chicks". I don't know why. The lizard was not pretty but definitely interesting. I would not like to have encountered him/her.
ReplyDeleteGranny Annie; yep, hen and chicks, called that because the parent plant has the new baby plants hiding under her "skirts" just like a real hen with her baby chicks when they all settle in the nest for the night.
ReplyDeleteA lot of similar plants do the same and are all known as hen and chicks.
AMAZING bright colours. The reddish black looked like cut beets even, there was so much colour.
ReplyDeleteHappy Elf Christine; in real life the red black looks velvety soft, so does the purple with pink edges. I can hardly wait for my cuttings to take off.
DeleteI just love your garden! It's especially fun to see all the blooms as everything here is going dormant for the winter. All things are devoid of color for the most part. We are even past the colorful leaves as they are laying in heaps on the ground.
ReplyDeleteCheryl; I'm glad to bring you a bit of spring/summer colour.
DeleteWhat a wonderful selection you've brought us this week. I didn't think that would be a daphne as they are usually difficult to grow and usually stay quite small. I have lots of geraniums but no pelargoniums now..would love to get some but you seldom see them in stores or in gardens here.
ReplyDeleteI thought it a bobtail lizard but no, it has a tail so a different species to those we see over here.
Love your hens.