‘Spring is showery, flowery, bowery’….the words of the old rhyme don’t always apply to spring in these parts, but this year, they’re particularly apt. More rain fell during the week and the back lawn is even spongier than ever. It has been cold as well, and cloudy, but that hasn’t stopped a massive growth spurt – from weeds too. My forensic examination each morning includes a few large handfuls of weeds to be added to the council green waste. Flowers are opening all over the garden in joyous appreciation of the season, even though it seems less sunny than usual.
I’m joining in with the Six on Saturday crowd again. SoS is an ever-expanding group of gardeners from all over, who showcase what is happening in their gardens each week. To see what other gardeners have going on, do follow this link to our leader, the Propagator’s page.
Number one, above, is a section of the front garden where Leptospermum consorts with Ceonothus, Weigela and Heliochrysum petiolare to create a pleasing pastiche of colour. The Leptospermum, whose name I’ve misplaced, is so gorgeous I’m adding a closeup of it below.
Two: I moaned last time I posted about the lack of blue irises, and as if to ridicule me, this one appeared by the mirror. I’m very glad to see its glorious colour.
Three: Rosa rugosa, grown from a rootlet from a friend’s garden, pulled up in the direst of circumstances during the drought, is enjoying the clement weather and glowing with health.
Four: A group of back garden inhabitants. Scilla peruviana hughii has proven to be quite a thug, surprisingly. It’s getting ready to drop even more seeds. I’m going to have to do some serious culling in this area, but for the time being I’m quite enjoying the mass planting that has established itself here.
Five: This is the first time the artichokes have reached such great heights as in the past the weather has been far too hot. They are in the flower garden, but that’s ok as I like their sculptural shapes, and their leaves contrast beautifully with the leaves of the Prunus blireana which rather dramatically dropped all its leaves overnight last autumn. It has returned better than ever, thankfully.
Six: More irises. These came from the same garden and in the same circumstances as the Rosa rugosa, and they haven’t missed a beat.
Those are my six for this week. Don’t forget you can enjoy reading other sixes on the Propagator’s blog.
Weather today: Cloudy and cool. 7 – 16 C . Happy gardening, everyone. 🌱
What a lovely selection.
Thank you, Rosie.
So good to see all your spring flowers just as ours are winding down. Love your last Iris, do you know its name?
I’m afraid I don’t know its name, Pauline. I tried to identify it online, but there are so many. The words ‘needle’ and ‘haystack’ come to mind!
So pretty! Fabulous iris, I love those blue ones in particular.
Yes, I’m thrilled with the blue and will spread it around the garden.
I love your front garden display, Jane. I definitely would be sneaking photos as i wandered by if i lived in the area. That Leptospermum sp. Is such a show off. The bearded iris of all shades look great too and hooray for the successful transplantation of the Rosa. It is lovely.
Thank you, Tracy. Show off is a good way to describe the Leptospermums. They give us a lot of pleasure, and last for ages. Really good value.
I always get my leptospermums mixed up with my eremophilas! I will remember that beauty of yours though. 😄
Eremophilas are beautiful too!
Jane your garden is looking very pretty. There are some healthy and happy plants this Spring.
It’s been perfect weather for spring gardens, Chris. I’m enjoying it while we have it.
You have a wonderful way of pairing plants with great contrast, colour and form.
Thank you, Noelle. To be truthful, the placement of the plants is a happy accident!
The plants all look lovely together. Will they keep their colours as the year goes on? There doesn’t look room to put different shrubs in.
All of these plants have spring blooms. Granny, but once they’re over, the salvias will kick in, so there’s colour for a long time.
I’ll have to look up Leptospermum later. It’s lovely, as is the blue iris (and its reflection).
Thank you, One Man. Leptospermums are tough and uncomplaining and should be ok in your garden.
The word ‘bowery’ stopped me. When I hear the word, I think first of the lower East Side of New York City: not to mention the phrase ‘bowery bums.’ Etymology to the rescue! It seems that “Bowery” is an anglicization of the Dutch bouwerie, derived from an antiquated Dutch word for “farm.” In the 17th century that area of NYC contained many large farms.
WordPress kept wanting to have bowery with a capital letter, so I knew its default position was ‘The Bowery’, but I believe the rhyme refers to a bower as in a pleasant shady place to sit under climbing roses or small trees and the ‘y’ has been added to match with showery and flowery. Your explanation is an interesting one also. Thank you.
That’s true — ‘bower’ is the noun, ‘bowery’ the adjective. Then, once it was applied to a specific place, it became “the Bowery.” There’s a famous Civil War era song that uses ‘bower’ in the way you mentioned. What a great word!
I found a link to the song’s history, and learned a few things myself!
You have a good eye for planting combinations. That’s a lovely display at the front and I love all your irises.
That’s nice of you to say so, Jude, but my combinations are really accidental. It seems to me nature herself has a way of making plants look good together no matter what, though I’m sure some are better than others. To be truthful, I pretty much planted things and hoped for the best, thinking about whether there’d be room more than anything else. When you’re an ‘I have to have one of everything’ type of gardener it seems to come down to a matter of where you can squeeze something else in.😉
Haha… same can be said for me, but I am learning that some plants just do not like my soil and my conditions no matter how much I like them!
Gorgeous front bed. And I love blue iris, too. I keep wondering if I can grow Leptospermum here.
Thank you, Amelia. Leptospermums are tough. Give it a try!
What lovely iris! I haven’t had luck with mine this year.
That’s a shame. They have such beautiful delicate flowers.
If the ground is spongy, I imagine you’re getting tired of the rain but I can’t help being envious. We received 1/10th if an inch last week and the forecast for our short rainy season isn’t good. La Nina conditions, which brings a bounty of rain in Australia, bodes ill here in Southern California. But back to your garden, I admire that floriferous Leptospermum but I LOVE all those Iris blooms, especially that beautiful blue one. Like you, I have a Scilla peruviana I should divide but I don’t know if that’ll make it to the top of my very long to-do list this fall.
Indeed, Kris we’ve had a lot of rain, but I’m not complaining. In our climate, just as in yours, one never knows when the tides will turn: the clouds burn up and all turns to constant sunshine and heat. I’m really thrilled with the irises this year as last year they were so disappointing for reasons best known to themselves.
The Leptospermum looks very like my L. karo ‘Spectro Bay’, except that yours is far more compact and floriferous than mine. Thuggish Scilla peruviana sounds like a problem I wouldn’t mind having, I have one that’s been in for years but never flowers.
I found the leptospermum label…it’s ‘Daydream’. I was given the Scilla as a replacement for a bulb that wasn’t available. I had never heard of them before that. I believe there’s one that’s a very strong blue. It would be nice to find one of those!
Beautiful as always, Jane. Great to hear you’ve had plenty of rain. We got some, about 50mm in total and we’re hoping for more this week. Your leptospermum is gorgeous.
We had about the same amount of rain. The Leptospermum is a beauty, and faithfully flowers like that each spring. You’ll be having a wonderful show of roses up your way before too long!
My roses are just coming into bloom but the ones at the State Rose Garden here in Toowoomba are looking stunning.
Lovely Jane! I’m wondering if the Leptospermum is ‘Tickled Pink’. I have two photos of it, 2nd photo + last photo, in this old post. (Note I was using a v.basic cellphone at the time and not photo-editing, but the last photo shows how pink it can look). Link: https://exploringcolour.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/leptospermum-flowers-at-dunedin-botanic-garden-nz/
Thank you Liz. I have now found the label from that plant and it’s called ‘Daydream’. Thank you for the link to your very lovely leptospermum.
Beautiful display of colours. Weigela looks fab and the Irises are pretty.
Thank you Magdarae. The Weigela is undersung, I think: wonderful blossom for a couple of weeks and then nothing….
What a pretty Six! Love your irises. Had to laugh at your Scilla peruviana hughii being a thug, when I have to cosset mine in the greenhouse 😉
Thank you! I’m surprised about your hughii not being allowed out as we have heavy frosts at times, and certainly a hot summer and like all my bulbs, hughii doesn’t seem to mind.
As we slip into autumn it is lovely to see your bowery floweryness. I love your irises and that Scilla peruviana is most unusual, I’ve never seen one that colour before, it looks fabulous with the irises. And the Leptospermum is gorgeous.
Thank you Chloris. The Scilla was given to me as a replacement for a bulb that wasn’t available. I think I would have preferred the intense blue one, but you’re right, hughii does look good with that iris. Leptospermums get an airing on SoS each spring because of their gorgeousness!
It’s all looking very lovely in your garden. The iris are beautiful and the Rosa Rugosa has such gorgeous pink papery petals.
Thank you HB. I’m really appreciating all the colour in the garden at the moment.
The top picture of the border looks brilliant – a great range of colour and shapes. I very much like the Iris mixed in with the Scilla. The Scilla might be a thug, but the combination works all the same!
Thank you. Somehow combinations of plants seem to work, no matter what colour you choose, even if you simply shove them in anywhere, which is the modus operandi for me! Nature is wonderful isn’t she.
Wow Jane, your garden is looking lovely. As for the Leptospermun, it is spectacular! I’m glad you showed us the details of the flowers. Really pretty! I envy you all the bearded iris flowering. They don’t seem to favour our climate here, and although the plants look healthy they rarely flower. The other iris do however flower, so I am looking forward to their very brief appearance in the garden.
Thank you Megan. The Leptospermums get a mention each year! I really love irises and have a number in the garden. They are all flowering this year after a disappointing showing last year. Perhaps your bearded iris don’t get enough sun? They are much tougher plants than their soft flowers indicate. Hope you received some of the recent rain. We have been very lucky!
The iris are in a spot that gets morning sun only, so that might just be the problem. Thanks for the suggestion. I will move them to a new spot in the garden and see how they do. We had some really lovely rain, and our tanks are full, thank goodness. Glad you have had lovely rain too!
I’m astonished at your Scilla peruviana, which I didn’t know could actually reach such proportions in the garden! I wonder how it would do here…
Your irises are lovely. I’m glad they’re cooperating for you this year. I did manage to bring my irises along with me; they’re the only plants that survived the move stuffed in the back of a pickup driving through 43 C temps in the desert. Tough little fellows, bless them! It’s wonderful you were able to salvage the rooted rose. It’s a beauty. 🙂
I’m sure Scilla would do well in your garden, they seem to be remarkably undemanding. Yes, irises. Such toughness under their seemingly delicate facade. Definitely worth having in any garden, and bringing a great deal of pleasure this spring.