Exotic looking plant

We were so surprised to see this last year as a year before  a kind friend gave us a piece of dangly cactus that had exotic- looking blooms at the end of it..... in a hot red: so why the pink.  

However, this year it flowered again

   Worth the wait, eh.

If anyone stumbling across this knows the name of it, I'd be glad of the information. 

March winds and storms

Cor, how things can change.    The place is a jungle again and I haven't been able to do a thing about it.   I went down with a cold/cough for the second time about 12 days ago and three days in of languishing in bed, I got the winter vomiting bug.    So, it's been bed-loo-bed and sips of water in between.

I am finally up and about feeling like a wet rag.   I will get out to it.....eventually and hope by then the sun will have returned.

Fabulous February

A dear friend gave us a tiny mimosa plant about 4 years ago:  it's now about 7-8 ft. tall, with stunning, fragrant blossom.

 

The temperature is wonderful today and I've done 3 hours digging this morning.   In wandering around there is so much beauty to see:-

The crimson abutilon

The peach tree already in blossom

A New Zealand bottle brush shrub which will soon pop its scarlet brushes

And a flowering money tree against a backdrop of flowering lavender

 

with a few of the yellow clover weed that gets in everywhere.  

There is much to do out there but on a day like today - the first after the disappearance of a cold North wind, it is a real pleasure to get stuck in.

DAMP DECEMBER

Another palm in the centre of the first pic fell victim to the palm weevil and we had the excellent David, Spanish tree surgeon, take it out.   We have two palms left, now 10 years old, and David has trimmed and smoothed the trunks. 

We bought two new ceramic pots, on a whim, and now they form the centrepiece of what will be a made-over area near the front double gates where the diseased palm once stood.  I have a couple of rose bushes and some clumps of lilies to go in and around the edge the beautiful sprawling portalaca succulents that flower most of the year.

Things are still growing and blooming  - the geraniums have not stopped this year - even though we had a vicious cold snap and lots of rain.    We're constantly hacking back and the pile grows.   We're allowed a bonfire on Tuesdays and Thursdays but the pile doesn't dry out enough to get  going.   What a conflagration we'll have in the Spring.    

Spanish Autumn

Two weeks into the wet season and everything needs a hack back.   We expected David, the Spanish tree surgeon, this week but he had to cancel due to the lashing rain.  This is the tangled mess of ngao trees, palms and false pepper tree that need sorting out

But would you look at this beautiful delicate cactus flower

We were given a cutting of one stalk last year from a fiery red hanging cactus plant.   What happened?  This is the most delicate shade of pink.  

A riot of colour

 What a fabulous red hibiscus, in honour of D's daughter, Helena.

 The result of another mad spending spree - two more hibiscus, plus zinnias, margharitas and osteospurnum in orange and red for the pine-chip bed.

Grown from seed and thriving in this shady bed next to the Dame de Noche.   I'm hoping that one of them  will be one in red from a neighbour's seeds.

Where has the month gone.... it's taken a month to see what survived the really cold snap and apart from a datura and cape gooseberry, everything has regenerated, even the hibiscus bed, slowly but surely.

New blooms

 The first of the clematis this year and an added bonus that the new variety we put in (close up below) in January is flowering this year.   The shade provides a beautiful contrast to the deep magenta of our original plant and the Greek blue next to it that flowers later.

 We fell in love with this New Zealand bottle brush tree, even though we had no idea where to put it.   Some very old osteospurnums had to go, and then we had room.    I think it looks fantastic.

 Yet another hibiscus as we couldn't resist its peachy colour, which doesn't show up so well in this picture.

And finally, the tiny rosebush that Mathilda gave me last year has turned into this - and the smell is heavenly. 

The garden is true medicine at the moment, as my saying at the end of each page says.