Winter Wednesday #10

Something good about today? Well, while I was stuck on the side of the road waiting for the RAA (road assistance), it was over 20 degrees, sunny and warm, and I had a book to read while I sat there! And then, what better way to cheer myself up after the depressing news of needing a new alternator, and possibly a new regulator as well, than to go into work and have a bit of retail therapy at staff discount prices?

So, what did I get?

Yet more Lomandras for the other half of my Lomandra border up to the front door (Chewton Grey again, and chosen for looking like I could divide them up to get lots of plants easily).


In tube stock I got Lechenaltia biloba (left black tube), a very little shrub and apparently one of 'WA's best known plants' although until I started working at the nursery I'd never heard of it; there's Kennedia retrorsa with it's fabulously overblown round leaves (right black tube); and Myoporum parvifolium, the fine leafed purple form which I must admit is the only Myoporum I like (green tube). [There's a good set of photos showing some of the many different forms of Myoporum here.]


Then I splashed out and bought a few beauties in bigger pots: On the left, Lechenaultia formosa "Scarlett O' Hara" because I've fallen in love with it's sparkling red flower gems on the fine and wiry stems; at the back is my latest favourite Hardenbergia "Free and Easy," which has flowers which are not quite white and just touched with mauve; and on the right is one of our local lovelies, the everlasting daisy, Chrysocephalum baxteri.


And last but not least, one of those little perks of working in a nursery: chuck outs! In other words, plants that are considered unsaleable which I can take home for a 'donation' and see if they'll grow if given a bit of love and care. Not quite free but close enough!

Far left top and bottom pots are both Kunzea pomifera (little edible Muntries) to add to the one I have already in the front garden, which has been growing quite well and looks lovely and healthy but has never yet had flowers. Top middle pot is some sort of Poa, and apparently a bit of a Nodosa is mixed in there as well, but as a newbie nursery worker they all look the same to me and I've just had to take a co-worker's word for that! Top right is a Doryanthes palmeri, or Spear Lily, and if that thrives and grows to be more than two inches tall it's going to be fabulous, there is no other word for it. And then, the two sad looking plants at the bottom right are purple-flowered Ajuga australis (Austral bugle).


Aaaanndd... not from today, but the first opportunity I've had to take a photo of my front garden in daylight since I finished the first path the other day! If you read regularly you might remember that the pavers are actually chunks of the old green concrete patio we removed for our extension out the back. I've still got a few extra pavers to take away to tidy things up properly, but I'm still questioning whether or not to add an extra part to the path to make a 'Y' shape through the garden. At the moment the path is just an 'S' shape from the front gate to over by the driveway. Almost all the plants - other than the roses - in this part of the garden are groundcovers (and the Hardenbergias were supposed to be groundcovers but it seems they don't know this and love to stand upright and have been mistaken twice already for trees!), and it's my hope that in time the path will get a little bit lost in the planting. By using broken bits of 50 year old concrete, it already looks a bit like it's been there for a long time which I love.


So all in all, not such a bad day despite the broken car (boo!). Pop on over to Hazel's to see what other people are blogging about Winter every Wednesday.