SoS, 16 November 2022

Beautiful flowers at the Growers’ Market.

It’s a quick six from me this week. Unexpected and most welcome visitors have claimed some time: a very enjoyable visit to the local growers’ market was a lovely way to spend the morning. Locally grown olives and bottles of olive oil, wine for which the town and its environs are famous, delicious baked goods, bouquets of native flowers, handmade soaps, cordials, succulents, jams and relishes all featured in the stalls surrounding the rotunda in a green and leafy park. An especially sunny morning, so welcome after the wet, grey days spread happiness and sparkle over all.

The first of my six, below, features Bidens ‘Bee Happy Red’ which has just begun to bloom in amongst the Heucheras. I’m hoping it won’t be swamped: I didn’t realise how big the Heucheras would get.


Next, Penstemons are starting to flower. This one, from a mixed punnet has no name, but it does have a pretty cream throat.

Number three today is Erigeron ‘Sea Breeze’ which is forming a healthy clump and threatening to engulf some of the smaller garden members.

Callistemon viminalis ‘Dawson River Weeper’ (slightly past its best) is covered in flowers and providing nectar for local birds.

At number five, the fig tree. It’s full of very healthy figs. I dislike having to net it, because the netting isn’t an attractive feature in the garden, but I’ll have to do it soon. Those figs will be a temptation for birds and bats before too long.

Number six: Standing like a platoon of soldiers at attention, alliums are set to flower in the next week or so.

Those are my six for this week. Six on Saturday is linked to Jim at Garden Ruminations. If you would like to see what is happening in other gardens click on this link.

Weather today: Gloriously sunny. So welcome after a week when one morning temperature fell to 1 degree Celsius. 9 to 26 degrees C.

Happy gardening, everyone.

23 Comments Add yours

  1. fredgardener says:

    Nice Six with beautiful spring flowers. I had also tried to put a net for the figs but the leaves manage to pass through it and it damages the tree in addition to being ugly. The solution is to put my cat underneath 😂… if he wants! I’m still enjoying the second harvest right now.

    1. Jane says:

      Yes, netting the figs is a problem, and the net has to stay on for such a long time through two flushes of fruit. I have been looking at ways to preserve green figs and it is possible to do so; perhaps I will try that. We don’t have a cat, although I would very much like to have one. We have neighbour’s cats catching our lovely birds. 😟

      1. fredgardener says:

        Mine no longer hunts but stays in the garden to guard somehow.

  2. Heyjude says:

    Oh, those proteas in the first photo are so lovely. The growers market sounds like my sort of place to have a root around. The Penstemon is a lovely colour. I have one (Alice Hindley) flowering now, surprisingly late! You might want to cut back that erigeron, it can spread and root very easily.

    1. Jane says:

      The market flowers have quite stolen the show! The Erigeron is showing every sign of encroaching on other plants and is beginning to grow into my beloved species tulips, so as soon as it has finished flowering, I will be cutting it back. Thanks for the advice, Jude.

  3. Rosie Amber says:

    A lovely six with so much promising colour and plants.

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you, Rosie.

  4. Katharine says:

    What beautiful flowers at the grower’s market – I love those proteas. Your description of the alliums as soldiers is spot on and I’m sure you can’t wait for them to open. Hopefully you’ll share a photos of them soon.

    1. Jane says:

      It’s such a windy day today Katherine, I feel as though the alliums could be fallen soldiers by the end of the day. I’m hoping they’ll hang on though, and I’ll certpost a picture when they’re in flower.

  5. Jim Stephens says:

    Australian natives like the bottlebrush look exotic to us, you turn to South African proteas to get something a bit different. What do South Africans grow when they everything around them starts to look ordinary?

    1. Jane says:

      I’m sure South Africans could grow Australian natives very easily, but they have such a wonderful array of their own natives, they probably don’t feel it necessary.

    2. I love the Proteas, too. And everything else. I am intrigued by Bidens cultivars, I have never seen any here.

  6. Noelle says:

    It lifts the soul to see such profusion of blooms as those displayed in your market. Thanks for sharing thid.

    1. Jane says:

      My pleasure, Noelle. Their beauty was added to by the perfection of the day.

  7. A lovely Six. The Bidens is a great colour and wow to the Callistemon.

    1. Jane says:

      Bidens is proving to be a stalwart plant and grows so easily from a cutting too- added bonus. Callistemons are such reliable shrubs and seem manage in any kind of soil and weather. Plus, the birds love them.

  8. Kris P says:

    I nearly swooned over the market flowers in the first photo. I’ve been waiting for flowers on my Protea ‘Pink Ice’ seemingly forever. Maybe they’ll make an appearance next year when my Leucospermums bloom. Your rain, while perhaps heavier than you’d wish, is prompting a good show on the part of your garden. I can’t wait to see those Alliums in bloom!

    1. Jane says:

      They were certainly swoon-worthy, Kris. I wish I’d got a photo of the really huge eucalyptus flowers, which are also stunning. The little caps are just beginning to loosen on the alliums, but today (Sunday now) is so cold and windy I’m looking at them and wondering if they’ll be broken and bowed down before they get to flower. Such a change from yesterday.💨

  9. Beautiful as always. Better to net the figs than lose them all.

    1. Jane says:

      That is true, of course, and I certainly mustn’t leave it too long.

  10. Penstemons go on and on and are happy here too, as you saw. Number 4 is most unusual, I haven’t seen that before.

  11. Pauline says:

    Lovely to see all your summer flowers starting just as ours are closing down for the winter. You have so much to look forward to.

  12. What a colourful Six. I’ve not seen a weeping Callistemon before, it’s very striking.

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