Spring is a lovely time of year for flowers. Everywhere I go, I see lots of plants flowering like crazy. Unfortunately, I can’t always stop to get photos, but I should hopefully get more over the weekend on my travels over the weekend. For today, here are the flowers I’ve been able to get over the week so far.
I have to include nasturtium’Ladybird’. This has to be my favourite flower of the week, although there are a couple of contenders. Nasturtium flowers are always pretty, but the colours of this variety are great.
These flowers belong to the giant bird of paradise, or Strelitzia nicolai. While not as bright as the orange and blue flowers of other members of the genus, I enjoy seeing the flower form as well as the more muted colours.
Two varieties of clivia, two different colours. Bright orange and yellow, both in the same garden bed. They do look so good together or nearby, especially with this shade of orange.
These yellow clivias were the other contender for the flower of the week. They aren’t very common around Sydney, so it’s nice when I do see them.
The smell from this wisteria is absolutely amazing as I have been walking past. Everywhere I go, wisteria is flowering, which is always lovely. It is usually blue flowering versions that I see, so it’s nice to see another colour around too.
Pigface (Carpobrotus spp.) is a wonderful little native ground cover here in Australia. I do love the flowers of this succulent little plant, they are so colourful and cheery! While I was looking around at these flowers, there were a couple of little bees flying around, which was good to see.
Whether you call it statice or sea lavander, it is a really nice plant in the landscape. With the large wavy leaves and these lovely little flowers, it is one of those plants that always looks good. It’s also quite tough, which is always good when I have a lot going at work in the summer!
Completely different are the white flowers of spider lily (Crinum asiaticum). What is a rather bland and boring plant for most of the year, when it flowers, it looks a lot more interesting! You also need a decent amount of space for these plants, as they are massive! Tough too-they cope with the summer heat in Sydney quite well.
The Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) trees are now beginning to flower. They are very delicate little flowers and remind me of English spring and summer days as a kid. It’s nice to have these ornamental pears around as they do really well here in Sydney.
Granted, there is no flower in the next photo, but I love how the new leaves appear on sago palms. The new leaves do look very prehistoric like this. By the end of summer, the leaves can look really tatty when they are sat in full sun-try and plant them where they can have some afternoon shade!
Finally for today is Indian hawthorn at its best. When left to flower, instead of being hedged into nobody’s business, they look fantastic! They can be tidied up once flowering has finished. Even better is when they are allowed to grow into the large shrub/small tree that they naturally want to be-this mass of flowers looks even better then!
For me, this week has been spring at its best. Lots of flowers with lots of different shapes and colours. It reminds me of why I do like working in horticulture!