Thursday, April 7, 2016

The Garden in April

Today has been a cloudy, overcast day.  We even had a bit of a drizzle in the afternoon!  How lovely!  It was the perfect day for a stroll around the garden.  Would you like to come with me?

In the side yard:


Cherry/Strawberry Guava Flowers

This is known as cherry guava (that's what I call it), strawberry guava, and Cattley guava, and apparently comes in both red and yellow fruited varieties.  What I have is the red fruited variety.  

Nearby, the feijoa, or pineapple guava, tree is also in bloom:




Feijoa/Pineapple Guava Flowers

I actually have three feijoa trees and all are in flower.  


Continuing along the side wall in the back garden, one of my star jasmine vines in full bloom:

Star Jasmine Vine

I had three such star jasmine vines, but one died from heat damage after the neighbor's garage caught fire (growing along the wall that separates our properties).  So now, I just have two.  Only one is flowering because the other one had to be pruned all the way to the ground and is just now starting to grow again.   But I noticed that it is having some buds forming, so it might bloom a bit later on!  It is half hidden by the self-seeded African daisies that are also growing in the same bed.


The Second Star Jasmine Plant




Star Jasmine Close-Up


 Since pictures of my garden have to include some of my roses:


Newly Bloomed Rose

Baby peaches forming on my little peach tree:



Baby Peaches

 More roses:



More Roses


 Along the back wall, the oleander shrubs:


Pink Oleander

I had several oleanders growing in the side yard and along the back wall.  The ones in the side yard had to be cut down and removed when I replaced the sewer.  The others died from a disease known as Oleander Leaf Scorch.  Now I just have two of these pink oleanders.



Oleander, Close Up

Along the other side wall, behind the shed, the lantana and plumbago hedge:




Lantana and Plumbago Hedge

Both types of plants are quite drought tolerant once established.



Lantana





Plumbago

One of the white iceberg rose bushes (plus a yellow flowered gazania and a self-seeded curry leaf plant in front):





 Behind the garage/in front of the shed, purple flowered geraniums:


Geranium


Before we leave the back garden, the bottle brush tree in bloom:


Bottle Brush Tree

It grew from a seed from my neighbor's tree, which fell into a planter my mother had kept on the low wall between our houses.  The hummingbirds love the nectar of these flowers.

Bottle Brush Flowers, Close Up




So named because the flowers resemble a bottle brush, of course.


Closer Up



And in the front garden, the pomegranate tree has flowers:



Pomegranate Flowers

Such pretty flowers:



Pomegranate Flowers
And that's a tour of the garden, in April.  Hope you enjoyed it.

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! I really felt like I took a garden walk with you! How lovely and calming it must be to be able to walk outside and see all the beauty of nature such as you have in your garden. Thank you for sharing these lovely pictures- this made my day! :)

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    1. Thank you, Dawn. So glad you enjoyed it. Spring is when my garden is at its best - later, it gets too hot and everything gets scorched.

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  2. So beautiful and colorful! All those years of drought you had yet everything has bounced back wonderfully!!!

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    1. Thank you, Carolyn. Those plants that survived are doing well.

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  3. So beautiful! I especially like the bottle brush tree, I've never seen one of those.

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  4. Thank you for your garden tour. I really enjoyed seeing all the plants and flowers that I grew up with and was fascinated with looking at when I was young. I still remember climbing the pomegranate and guava trees. They may have been bushes but that didn't stop me from climbing them as a little girl.I can still taste the fruit. Double Delight and Mon Cherie are my favorite roses. Had to leave them both in Delaware. 😕

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the garden tour and it brought back pleasant memories. So sorry you had to leave your favorite roses behind.

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  5. Oh Bless, everything is so gorgeous! I particularly enjoyed the guava flowers, I had never seen any before. And to think that you're getting fruit too! That is awesome.

    You are lucky (and I'm sure you put in a lot of work too!) to have so many beautiful and unusual flowers! I love those baby peaches too, so fuzzy. Several people here have the bottle brush tree and I almost bought one a couple of years ago but I couldn't decide of where to plant it so I didn't.

    Do you get the nasty caterpillars in your oleanders? I used to have oleanders planted in front of my first house, which was a big mistake as it attracted caterpillars which then made their nests under the ceiling on my front porch... black and long hair, and the nests looked nasty. I ended up pulling all the oleanders.

    Your jasmine is way further along than mine. I only have a few blooms on my one remaining vine. I had two that we cut back to the ground last year so Greg could paint the house and one came back but the other didn't. I grew a cutting that I need to plant in ground, probably where the missing one was.

    Thanks for sharing those with us, I enjoyed them very much.

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    1. Thank you, Nathalie. The guava trees were already here, when I bought the house. I've tried to plant mostly fruit trees, so they earn their keep!

      No caterpillars that I've noticed on the oleanders. What I have building nests under the eaves are wasps!

      I had a different type of jasmine vine that died due to lack of sufficient water. There might be a new plant from a stem that rooted itself, behind the shed - should go look for it. The area behind the shed is rather overgrown with weeds, etc.

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  6. Lovely to see all your beautiful plants and learn their names! I feel as if I have been round the garden with you, on a tour. I never tire of seeing flowers, I am an "old lady" who is easily pleased even just with a tour of a garden centre, and of course any botanical gardens around on our travels are a must on my list.

    The first time I ever saw oleanders I was 17 and on an exchange visit with a student whose parents had a holiday home in southern France.

    We can't grow exotic plants where we live, but zone- tolerant varieties like echinacea, poppies, bleeding hearts, black-eyed Susans and all the amazing wild flowers keep me happy!
    Bushlady

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    1. Bushlady, so glad you enjoyed seeing the garden. Poppies and black-eyed Susans are lovely. They add a lot of color. And wild flowers are the best. Hope your garden grows well after the snow melts.

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  7. I feel like I have had a glimpse into a different world - I am familiar with roses and geraniums but the other flowers are strange to me and so beautiful! Thank you for sharing. x

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    1. You are most welcome! Glad you enjoyed the garden tour. :)

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