This morning I took a trip around my neighbourhood to look see what's in flower. Surprisingly there isn't a great deal as many gardens look a trifle tired after the extreme heat and dryness of summer, but Autumn is a very good time to see glorious natives in flower, so I've added some of them to my six this week.
As well, you can zip over to The Propagator's site to see more of what's happening in other people's gardens.
1. Eucalyptus erythrocorys 'Red Cap Gum'. The red parts top the flowers before they emerge. What a colour contrast!
2. Corymbia ficifolia. These eucalypts are grafted, so they grow very well SE Australia. The bees love them as you can see, and when I turned one corymb towards me to take a photo, nectar poured out, so it's easy to understand why birds love them too.
3. Eucalyptus Leucoxylon var. macrocarpa: This eucalyptus is common in the Central Tablelands area, is easy to grow and flowers prolifically.
I wrote about this oleander in my post The Humble Oleander. At the time I was trying to grow my oleander as a tree rather than a shrub, because I want the sun to be able to shine into the garden. It's been a battle! The oleander is quite determined to be a shrub: it sends out shoots around its trunk and I remove them. But it's now about twice the size that it was when I wrote the post, and is developing into a pleasing shape.
6. Eucalyptus Caesia. A bit of relief from so much pink and red! This WA eucalyptus is rather hard to grow on the eastern side of Australia. Its flowers were finished, but the silvery gumnuts are very beautiful too.
Corymbia ficifolia is spectacular! The bees just add to the intrigue! Thank you for sharing your corner of the world. 🙂
Hi Jo, it’s wonderful to see one of these trees in full bloom.
You envied my snow .. I would love to have sun like you with all these wonderful eucalyptus flowers…!! Your country makes me want to go there and I thank you for sharing your photos
You’ll have to make sure you visit sometime, Fred.
The first three are like wonderfully lithe pompoms. So beautiful. Good luck w/your oleander. Hope it behaves. Those gumnuts are great looking. What happens to them next?
Glad you like the photos, Lora. The gum nuts gradually lose their silveryness and wither and drop off the tree. Or of course, you can pick them and put them in a vase where they will keep for months.
I love the colours and shapes in your garden – they seem so exotic from a chilly British Spring.
I’m afraid I cheated a little bit as some of these are not exactly in my garden….I’ll do better next time! But they were so lovely I couldn’t resist.
Jane, the Eucalyptus blooms are really beautiful! there are many Eucalyptus trees in my town but they are so big that all flowers are too high up to be seen in detail. Wish a wonderful Sunday!
Thank you, Marcelo. The grafted trees tend to be a much more manageable size. Happy Sunday to you too!
The eucalyptus flowers are so pretty. Lovely to see all those bees on them!
There are beehives very close by, Kristah, and the bees certainly were enjoying those flowers.
The gumnuts are cool!
The Red Cap Gum is amazing. I’ve never seen it before, but Eucalyptus Leucoxylon var. macrocarpa is very common and there is a lovely one behind my apartment building.
The double Oleander is a beauty too.
Many people don’t like oleanders because they’re poisonous, but I think they’re a wonderful and very hardy addition to the garden, as long as they can be controlled.
Really lovely, Jane. Those eucalypt flowers are spectacular.
The big tree in our garden flowered prolifically this year. The flowers were too high up to photograph. But we knew the flowers were there because of the constant hum from the bees.
It’s always a good feeling to know those bees are up there, isn’t it, Tracy.
I enjoy reading your blogs Jane and viewing the pics
Thanks Chris, I’m glad you’re enjoying them.
Wonderful flowers. I have never seen a gum nut. They are beautiful !
Just for the record, I have no idea who the pretty blonde woman is who’s picture appears next to my messages on your website. She certainly isn’t me and it is mystery where she has appeared from!!
Haha! Who can understand completely the ways of the World Wide Web, Cathy!
Yes, and those ones are very big. Others are much smaller and not nearly so interesting.
I love the brilliant colors on those Eucalyptus flowers! They grow in my region, but there doesn’t seem to be a wide variety available here nowadays… not sure why!
So nice to find your blog!
Hi Amy, I read about how you set up your garden and felt as though my tag line should not be anything about a harsh climate when compared with yours! It was a really interesting read and I look forward to reading more about what you’re doing there.
Thank you, Jane! I really must finish that ‘about’ page sometime… 😉
That Corymbia is amazing, and a great photograph. Wish I had popped over to see you before, my heart is warmed!
I’m glad you enjoyed the photos, Gill. Thanks for visiting.
What lovely colours for autumn. It’s good to see the blue sky and sunshine in your photos too!
A lovely selection of natives bees and the honey eater birds love them too.. I’m thinking of putting a dwarf gum tree in my garden. Thank you for putting a recent follow on my gypsylife blog, I do not use that blog now, my current blog is retiredfromgypsylife.wordpress.com
Your Eucalypts are so much more glorious that the ones we commonly see here, Jane. We inherited one tree with plain cream-colored blooms but, when a neighbor protested that it interfered with her view and we discovered that it was also infected with a fungus that would eventually make it unstable, we reluctantly agreed to remove it. (“View conservation” is dictated here under a local ordinance here and the neighbor in question proved to be quite pushy on the subject about not only that tree but others. Thankfully, she moved last year.)
I’m surprised you can’t buy others where you are, Kris. The corymbia ficifolia is quite a small tree and manageable in a garden situation. Perhaps they’ll be available in the future. I’m glad your pushy neighbour moved on!
Lovely to see your colourful images. My poor Oleanders were hit very badly by the freezing wind we had, I’m not even sure they will recover. I think they may have to be cut right back to the ground.
The frost bothers them here a bit and they always come out of winter looking a bit tatty. They soon recover though…..I hope yours do.
I am fascinated by all these eucalypts, I never realised they came with such pretty flowers.
Yes, they do, Chloris. The corymbia ficifolia comes in palest pink, orange and various shades of red!
I love flowering eucalypts and am trying to convince my husband to plant some in our garden. We saw so many beautiful ones on our trip to WA.
Hi Carol, those corymbia go really well almost everywhere as they are grafted, although they’re a bit susceptible to frost when young. They don’t grow too big so are really suitable in the garden.