September in the garden

September is here and it is now officially spring. The weather is starting to warm up and even though I did move a couple of plants last weekend; I can now fully get back in the garden and get some work done.  We could very possibly still have some cold weather this month and maybe into next month but hopefully we don't get any jumps back into winter weather. 






























Hibiscus 'Sylvia Goodman'
This Hibiscus has been growing in a large pot since we bought it a few years ago.  We had to move the pot a couple of months ago and found it did not want to move - a large root had grown through the drainage hole straight into the ground below.  The root had to be cut off and the plant did not like that! It is about 1.5m high or more and it is now time to plant it into the ground and I am hoping that all goes well with the transplanting as it is not an easy Hibiscus to find.

Hibiscus 'Orange Lantern'
This Hibiscus has been growing in a pot for 2 years and it has now been transplanted into the garden.  This is another Hibiscus that is hard to find.


Alcantarea vinicolor
This is a brilliant red in colour now, the photo does not show this properly.  It does need the cobwebs to cleaned off and the old parent plant to be removed from the middle.  I am going to try to divide the pups on this one soon.

Flowering this month........

 

 

............in the Front Garden

Eranthemum pulchellum
I went for a walk around the front garden last weekend and found this one in flower for the first time - very exciting.  I love the white markings on the bracts and the flowers are gorgeous.  It does look like a cool growing cottage garden plant instead of a tropical plant.

Lobelia laxiflora
The first time flowering for this one. This is a small plant as I planted this about 6 months ago, it will end up around a metre high.

Abutilon thompsonii and Euphorbia 'Snowflake'

Abutilon thompsonii flowers

Calliandra haematocephala white flowered form

............in the Bottom Garden

 



Porphyrcoma pohliana
This plant comes in and out of flower throughout the year.  It does self seed but it hasn't been too bad here.  I just move the seedlings into other parts of the garden.
Sorry about the blurry bottom of this photo but there is a plinth and statue next to this plant on the left side of this photo and I couldn't get it in focus properly.

Peristrophe hyssopifolia aureo marginata 

 

 

Schaueria flavicoma 

 

 

 

...........in the Pavilion Garden

 

 A small flowered Cattleya

A large flowered Cattleya

 Three of my Dendrobium kingianum orchids in in flower

 

  

 

Dendrobium nobile in flower this morning

 Justicia brandegeeana Yellow Queen
This one is in flower all year.
 


Justicia brandegeeana variegated form
A gorgeous combination of flowers and variegated leaves. The leaves have been getting a lot more white on them over the last few months and I hope they continue like this through the warmer months.

 Ruellia macrantha
This is the first flower of the season.

One of my Spathiphyllums in flower

Pavonia x gledhillii
The flowers on this one are almost finished now, it has been in flower since June.  A very long lasting show of flowers and it will be back in flower in a few months 

.........in the Pool Garden

 

  



Vireya
An orange Vireya just starting to flower

Calliandra haematocephala
I have a few Calliandras in the garden and they grow well here.  This is the winter/spring flowering one.

Close up of flower 

 Russelia equisetiformis 'Coral Falls'
I have the Russelias growing around the waterfall behind the swimming pool.  I love the way the Russelias and the surrounding variegated Mondo Grass fall over, it reminds me of falling water. It does look good around the waterfall.  You can just see the red flowered one on the left hand side of the photo.

Russelia equisetiformis 'Lemon Falls'


Justicia brandegeeana
This one flowers all year.  I couldn't get far enough away from the flower to get a good photo as I would have ended up in the deep end of the pool - camera and all.

All the photos were taken in the late August or September except for the Hibiscus photos.

 Last weekend I went outside to get a few photos of some of the plants and when I went to open the top pool gate, I noticed that we had a couple of visitors in the pool.

New pool fencing

 Today the new glass pool fencing went in.  There was a lot of work to get to this stage, the arch over the old pool gate had to come down as it was in the way of new fence as we had to change the  angles a bit to accommodate the glass panels.  The arch is on the right side of the photo next to the pool filter box.  It had to be partially pulled apart to take the old posts of it.  The garden edging on both sides of the lawn had to be removed to make way for the glass fencing. 

When the concrete around the posts has set, there is going to be a lot of work to do.  The garden edging brickwork has to go back in on one side and the brick wall has to be built under the pool fencing to get the clearance right underneath the fence.  Then the brickwork goes back in on the other side where the curve of the garden has to be changed so that it meets up with the step that will go in front of the gate. The yard slopes downwards on this section of the garden so we have to change the height of the garden edging on this side, then we will raise the lawn section up higher to hide some of the height of the brick wall that will have to go under the fencing.   Lots of top soil and more turf  and it will look good in the end. 

Why the glass fencing?  It was the only way we could keep the statue and plinth in the corner, the pool arch and the Golden Cane palm.  The statue had no where else to go and we kind of like the arch. We wanted to keep this Golden Cane as we have to remove some palms and still have a Golden Cane palm in the top section to remove and I have to move the Dalechampia to another part of the garden - hope it makes it.

Cordylines for year round colour

Cordyline fruticosa cultivars have been a favourite plant of mine for around 15 years now and they have been growing in the garden since then.  I did not know back then that my love of  these plants would change my garden forever, they were start of my garden becoming a tropical garden.
I grow my Cordylines are all growing in lightly shaded areas as the sun does bleach the colour out of the leaves here.

Bangkok Rainbow

 

 

Ua Pou

 

 

  Negra

 

 China Doll

 

 

 

Tanget

 

 King Arthur

Oahu

Dr. Brown

 

Maize (on the right) in the front garden 


 

 

I did have plant labels in the soil with all the cordylines but they disappeared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is just a few of them. 

 

Crotons for winter colour

Crotons have been growing in my garden for around 10 years now, they were first planted along the pathway from the house to the Pavilion.

 

 

 

I love the long narrow leaves on this Croton and the way they twist. A few years ago, a Bangalow Palm leaf fell down and broke off one side of this Croton; I was not happy about losing such a large section of this Croton.   This Croton is now around 1.5m (5') high.

 

 

Codiaeum Punctatum

This croton is around 1.8m (6') high; it is a strong and hardy grower. I am working out how to prune this one as it does hang over the path blocking the way.

 

This is an interrupted leaf variety, if you look carefully at the long leaf hanging down to the ground, on the left side of the photo. You will see that close to the top of the leaf there is a section with only the midvein, then the leaf starts again.  This is a smaller and slower growing Croton.




I gradually added more Crotons in other areas of the Pavilion Garden

Codiaem Captain Kid

 

Last September and October more Crotons were added to this area and the ones below were bought back from Darwin.  There is an amazing range of Crotons growing in Darwin and it is so tempting to buy more when we are there.

Codiaeum Turtle Shell

The photo above and below, show the different colours this Croton has during the year.

Codiaeum Turtle Shell

This one is a new release from Darwin.

 

Lower Garden 

Even though these are growing on the edge of the wall in the Pavilion Garden, they can only be seen from the Lower Garden.

 

Now having said that they can only be seen from the Lower Garden, this one is the exception as it is growing next to the steps leading up into the Pavilion Garden.





 

Is this 2 or 3 Crotons?

Just one showing the variation in leaf colour that can occur with Crotons.

 



 

The Crotons grow along the length of the wall, I have found this to be an ideal spot for them as it is well drained and it also has filtered sun for most of the day throughout the year.

It can be fascinating watching the Crotons grow. This one has a lot of yellow in the leaf at certain times of the year, while at other times it is mainly red in colour.

Pool Garden

I think these are all the same Codiaeum cultivar but they are growing in different parts of this garden. 

 

Front Garden

The Front Garden was a very open and cold area; this was not the best area to plant  Crotons but I couldn't resist, I planted two close to the house (first 2 photos below).  In late 2009, we renovated the Front Garden; retaining walls and pathways were built and a new central garden replaced the lawn.  More Crotons were then planted around the pathways. 

 

 

This is not a recent photo of this Croton as it is a spot in the garden where it gets full sun during winter which bleaches the colours out of the leaves, leaving them looking wishy washy.

 

 

This is the latest addition to the Front Garden and it is almost through its first winter and still looking great.