Lots of flowers? Must be spring!

"Hey, come and have a look at this," said Pammy, ever the eagle-eyed spotter of all things newsworthy in our garden. We had to get down on our hands and knees, and be up very close, but there it was — the complex, gorgeous mini bloom of our potted succulent. I think it's a graptoveria, but as a succulent amateur I am at all times willing to be corrected on these things. Doesn't matter really, it's the wonderful mini other-worldliness of tiny blooms that had us both captivated.

It's a bit orchidy, this succulent flower, with its red-wine flecks on pearlescent petals.


Even I could spot the next of our spring awakenings — a huge spray of not-quite-yet-open yellow dendrobium orchids.


This spring show has been a few years in the making, as this plant has never flowered before. Over the last few years I have tried my hardest to be nice to it, but without any success. It has always lived with all the other orchids, which manage to flower their heads off like clockwork. But the dendrobium? Nah, sorry. Once all the flowers open fully, I will no doubt do another posting.


This next pink one, a climbing pelargonium, is one of the success stories of my "recovery ward". I bought three plants, put them in a hanging basket in a sunny spot, where they then proceeded to do very little, then started to die off. While I can accept that the fault is all mine, what bugs me is that I didn't have a clue what I was doing wrong.

So I rescued the final, barely surviving plant, repotted it into a smaller, normal pot and it has been keeping my orchids company in a more sheltered spot for the last year or so. And now it's looking happy again. Should I attempt to move it back to the hanging basket? Well, that is why I bought it ... but I am beginning to see that as the "hanging basket of doom" and I can't quite work up the bravery to try it yet.




Next in the spring slideshow is good old, never-fail, grow-them-every-year poppies. Pam loves them. Pam cuts them for vases in our house. And this year we have yellow, white and orange poppies. Lovely.



It's nice to be appreciated. The deal is, if I am nice to my lemon tree and scatter lots of chicken poo under the tree and water it well, the lemon tree produces lots of flowers, and a few months later, lots of fruit. So far it's all going according to plan. 


Even though evergreen Sydney springs aren't quite as spectacular as they are in colder climates, they're still a delightful time to be a gardener. As well as the flowers I have posted here, yellow clivias and vivid orange scadoxus aren't far off blooming, and the native orchid flower buds are all jostling for a good spot ... but I'll call a temporary halt at this stage. Lots to look forward to!

At home in the flowers

It's that time of year when all the insect pests like to have a munch on our citrus trees, and the brightly coloured bronze orange bugs were my target this morning. While knocking a few of the big galoots out of the foliage, onto the ground, I disturbed this little spidery person, who I had never seen before.

Say hello to the Flower Spider, Diaea evanida to those in the
know. In one sense I really should have come across this spider
decades ago, as it's a common enough Australian spider,
but that camouflage job is pretty cool. Green on green, with
a white bummy bit that looks like a flower bud.

Once I'd taken the photos it only took me the first few seconds
of Google searching to find out its formal name, at this
Spiders of Australia website. Then another quick Googling 
deposited me on this handy website which is the 
"fan page" devoted to Diaea evanida.

I'm sure our garden wildlife see me as a pest. I never harm
any of them, but they do resent my intrusion with the camera,
so for what it's worth I always say "sorry" after I have taken
my photos and departed for my study to download them.

If you're a bit squeamish about visiting spidery websites (you probably haven't made it this far down the page, come to think of it) the short story about our little flower spider friend is that he and she live amongst all sorts of flowers, taking advantage of their excellent camouflage to eat small insects. There are plenty of photos on the spidery websites showing them making a meal of flies and other little insects, but I think a big, hulking bronze orange bug is just too big an assignment for them. 

Oh well, even if they don't do my work for me in the citrus trees, it's nice to finally meet them and know yet another fascinating little person with whom we share our garden.