Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Spring Garden Flowers

Here are some flowers from Dorothy and Bernie's garden taken on the First of September.

The "Flowering Quince" (Chaenomeles "Winter Cheer") is always an eye-catcher, despite its sharp thorns. I grew up with this plant. It was known to my Mother as "Japonica" - a preposterous name, suggesting that it was the only flower the Japanese grew. My mother loved to use it in her "japanese-style" flower arrangements - heavily trimmed, and stuck onto a pin block in an angular-shaped shallow black saucer.
The simple beauty of flowering Plum Blossom (from a so called "Common or Garden" fruiting Plum) is often overlooked. They are gorgeous in their simplicity. The flowers also have a beautiful sweet perfume, carrying on the warm breeze.
Here is a somewhat garish orange Calendula flower. Impossible to ignore, although orange is my least favourite colour. The flowers on the humble Hebe shrub makes a pretty image. The green leaves balance the deep magenta-purple flowers.The purplish flowers of the Perennial Wallflower (Cheiranthus mutabilis) flower for such a long time in the garden that it is a wonderfully reliable and productive garden flower. I last wrote about this plant in the dead of winter. Now the flowers have a fresh blush of colour - more pinkish than amber and bronze.Here is a stand-out image - a perfect bud of the pink form of Magnolia stellata. A lovely plant.

5 comments:

Gouldiae said...

G'day Denis,
What a deliciously coloured world you must live in as you wander your garden. All your own work?
Gouldiae

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Gouldiae
Not my flowers, although I do have most of those plants growing. These are from friends' garden in Bowral.
Glad you liked them.
You are an early riser, obviously.
Cheers
Denis

Junior Lepid said...

Morning Denis,

I have the pink variety of Flowering Quince and I've always called it a "Japonica" as well. :-)

Love Wallflowers! I've got the dark ones. Lovely perfume. Reminds me of Grandmother's talcum powder.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi JL
Another early riser, eh?
Those Grannies have a lot to answer for. I first started growing Peonies and Old Roses for the reason that their perfume reminded me of the Talcum Powder perfume in one of those crystal powder-puff bowls.
<
It is funny, I have never noticed that Wallflowers have that kind of perfume. Perhaps you have the annual varieties, which I have never had any success with.
<
Perfume is a powerful element of attractiveness in flowers. Obviously it has not evolved for our benefit, but the bees and other pollinator insects. But we can enjoy many of these scents.
Cheers
Denis

Gouldiae said...

G'day again Denis,
Yeah, I'm a 'fowl', not an 'Owl'. Always start reading about 5am. It's my cheaper download time too. Also, any golf course jobs are best done before the players arrive if possible.