Underneath the roses.

One of the very first things I did after we bought our little house was plant a variety of ground covers and small plants underneath the roses in the front garden; prior to this there was nothing but pine bark mulch.  To give you a bit of the background of the roses, please see:
One of the original garden posts from last winter shows all the space beneath the roses;
This post from November last year probably has the best pictures of the rose garden in full bloom;
And this one shows you the first of some of the natives I planted under the roses.
One of my big, important garden plans for this winter is to move some of those roses from the front of that 'block' to the other garden bed (to be!) so that they extend in an arc across the entire front of the house rather than sitting just on one side of it, but in the meantime I have been busy planting more plants in there. Yesterday I planted 20 mini daffodils ("Tete a Tete"), 10 rain lillies (Zephranthes sp), and 24 freesias ("Old Fashioned/Granny's") but I was a bad blogger and forgot to take photos so you will have to wait until they flower in spring and hope I remember then!

Over the last few weeks, as well as adding to the plants under the roses, I have taken the opportunity to see how some my original plants are going, and have taken pictures of all of it. So, starting at the top...

The Iceberg roses continue to bloom madly away. They seem to have not noticed how cold it's gotten already. Funny creatures: all through spring and summer they are white, but when the weather cools down, and when it starts to rain they blush like young brides.

 

I planted one of my favourite indigenous shrubs, the sticky hop bush (Dodonea viscosa). The plant as a whole is not especially spectacular, but the seed pods have three wings and are wine-coloured and brilliant.

This plant, my clasping goodenia (Goodenia amplexans), another local, was bought a mere twig with a few shabby leaves. Now it's full and bushy, covered in flowers, and nearing my waist in a few short months!

Ditto my little fan flowers (Scaevola sp.), growing up so fast (awww), so cute!

 
 My grass 'tree' (Xanthorrea quadrangulata) looks about the same size as when I bought it. If I counted the leaves then and compared them to now I think they might be exactly the same. I suppose some small consolation is that it is not actually dead? I had a vision of it being seen from near the gate, kind of guarding the path, a sentinal of sorts. Hmmm. Maybe as a side-kick for some other, bigger plant at this rate!

 So there is just a brief snapshot of what's going on out in the front at the moment. I have decided I should concentrate my energies on this part of the garden for the time being, to help curb my impatience over wanting to leap in out the backyard wasteland and madly green it.