Nodding Violet

Must be doing something right if this little beauty is blooming! Nodding Violet (Streptocarpus caulescens) from a nursery clearance table, pot from the Salvos. 

Kokedama part four

Forgot to ever photograph or post this one from at least a month ago. Baby Parlour Palm (scientific binomial forgotten) from Ikea in kokedama ball, blue glass dish also Ikea (finally found a use for it!). I think the palm might actually be growing! He gets watered (soaked) about once a week. Behind is a bargain plant I found a couple of weeks ago, whose name -common or otherwise - completely escapes me, brassy pot from the Salvos. 

This pair lives in my bathroom at the moment. 

Score!

Two dollar clearance rose standard #2 turns out to be pink, and a nice clear pink at that. Almost no scent at all though. Is it 'Bonica'?

And, in other news, my boy built me a big A-frame trellis out of old recycled timber we've had lying around since we started renovating this place years ago. It literally took him ten minutes, and already looks like it's been there for years. 

Broadly speaking, the round section of this bed features a 'Crimson Baby' nectarine, under planted (left to right) with Nepeta 'Walkers Low,' chocolate cosmos, common thyme, Salvia nemorosa 'Lubecca' and 'Tanzarin,' Pelargonium sidioides (?) and a dwarf buddleia. 

Along the shed, mostly invisible at this stage, is rose 'Red Pierre' (at front corner), a few French roses including Dan Poncet, Paule Bocuse (both Guillot), heritage roses Devoniensis, White Wings and Gruss an Aachen, and at the far back by the shed is the climbing rose 'Black Boy.' On the new trellis is a grape, but i forget which and it's not had fruit yet anyway. Also jammed in here are another dwarf buddleia, a couple of correas, Goodia medicagiana, native indigo (name escapes me), Salvia petrovskia being completely hopeless, sweet marjoram (pretty but I can't stand the smell), Aquiligia 'Black Barlow' and even a few black hollyhocks. Wow, that's kind of a lot!

THEN, by the water tank, raspberries which fruit prolifically (taken from MIL's garden so variety unknown), 'purple' raspberries, the purple flowered shrub is Alyogyne 'Double Delight,' and it's next to the local Bursaria spinosa. On the tank itself is a banana passionfruit, and the rose 'Summer Song' and just out of shot on the right is a dwarf peach, 'Golden Queen.'  

Pinkie

Soldiering on on the western wall is Pinkie, yet another clearance rose! She is a climber, though I do think she'll take a while to get to any significant height. 

I've tried a number of companion plants as neighbours here, all failed miserably, until I popped in my tried and tested Poa labilliaderi, which though lopsided, is otherwise doing well, especially since it was just a self seeded plant I dug up from the front garden. 

Four, five, six...

Happy phone-snaps with restless babe on my arm...

Yellow Charles Austin (David Austin, bargain buy).

Strawberry Hill (David Austin).

Can't remember, need to look it up! Yellow English beauty (possibly Moulineux, struck myself from a cutting from my mother-in-law's garden, I think. Why do I not record these things better?!)

Things are really hotting up out there, already the front garden has that dry, glazed, over-bright summer look. 

More bargains

Home, the buzz and zip of spring, and the lure of the clearance section of the local big box hardware store tempts me to some lovely bargains. Such hope! Such promise! Two x $1.99 standard roses (down from $24.95). What variety? No idea: no tags, but for that price I'll definitely take a risk (I'm hoping for a yellow or buff, but will be content with anything except bright orange). I also found a 'Valley Red' super dwarf peach ($15 at half price). Self-pollinating, and high chill, so it may or may not do well up here, fingers crossed it loves my yard.