On the Streets: End of Winter

Today I’m going to show you a few flowering highlights from my meanderings in the neighbourhood

starting with this superb camellia.

An almond tree struggles on in a vacant lot

Coral trees (I think) in flower in the street

and Geraldton wax is in flower

What Are You Doing in My Swamp?!!!

In today’s post I’m going to give you a look at my local swamp.

I love the way it looks in winter when the weeds and nasturtiums have grown and it’s all greened up.

The swamp is right next to where I park my car for work so I walk past it every day.

Here’s a native wisteria climbing a dead tree

with its beautiful pea flowers.

And there’s a flock of around 10 chickens that happily wander around in here everyday

with their head rooster for protection.

I sometimes think they must live the almost natural chicken life (they belong to one of the houses that backs onto the wetlands)

First Signs of Spring

 

It looks like spring is on its way – there is some blossom starting to appear, caterpillars are appearing and the birds are chasing each other and whistling happily. I think they’re in lo-o-o-ve.

These photos are of my newly planted dwarf ‘Sunset’ nectarine which has just bloomed. It’s eventual height is around 1 – 1.5 metres according to the breeder’s website. This is just a baby.

The beauty of this variety is that it’s very low chill - the breeder says it can be grown in Sydney and Queensland, and it’s an early fruiting variety (November in warmer areas) which extends the availability of backyard fruit by months. Yum!

New growth is a burgundy-red colour which gradually changes to green.

The Amazing Duchesse de Brabant

Let me introduce you to this old tea rose Duchesse de Brabant. It has a reputation for flowering 360 days a year and here they are in full bloom at the end of winter.

Rounded and bushy with lovely pink ball shaped flowers, it could be the perfect rose… except for two things. It has no fragrance and I can never work out when I should prune it.

 

I first saw these roses (or so I thought) in the rose gardens in the Adelaide botanic gardens (along with Sharifa Asma). It was love at first sight for both and I remember stalking back and forth between the two of them trying to choose one or the other. I ended up with both.

I have had these plants for around 3 years now I think. Because they really don’t have a dormant season in Perth they grow quite quickly to around waist high.

There is also a climbing version which my gardening neighbour has growing in his front yard. As it turns out, I must have spotted them before seeing them in the botanic gardens after all. I was researching the climber earlier this year, deciding on whether to try growing one over my shed (I decided yes). The climber is a sport of the shrub form which was discovered in Australia (I am suddenly filled with the urge to punch the air in a show of national pride, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie…). It also goes by the name of Comtesse de Labarthe.