Nice to look at flowers for a change!

All the sand everywhere is starting to get me down, so I thought I would just post some new little plants that I have recently put in the ground.
Salvia love n wishes goes beautifully with the foliage of alternanthera little ruby.

on the other side I have a Gaura Belleza dark pink, gorgeous hot pink flowers & hopefully as drought tolerant as the big white one.

A couple of little succulents in my letter box planter, dont know names.

The new growth on my draecena marginata has gone ballistic, It got a little damaged when it was moved to Perth & I think that may have prompted it to send out new trunks, it is also getting a lot more attention than before

Any how back to pulling & cleaning pavers, yuk!!

A few pots

Just fiddling around with some little succulents

This is a planter for my mum that I have just redone & am nurturing until they grow a little before I give it to her.

Echeveria Perle Von Nuremburg

A couple of Aloe Fairy Pinks, aeonium, sedum & some unknowns

"It takes courage to grow up & become who you really are"

EE Cummings

I cant believe it was the spring  2013 I last posted!
I suppose what happened was that the internet in Northam was so appallingly slow I just couldn't be bothered anymore, also work got really busy & then we decided to shift (again!).
but anyhow Im back, along with another new garden, & heres hoping this is where I will stay.

I love my Northam garden, it was just starting to look good & we put sooooo much work into it, but shit happens & we decided to move once again.  I am more than happy in my new little house & the garden is going to be awesome!! These photos are from 2014 Northam garden, just to remind me of it.

Aloe garden in Northam

By the way the caption at the top is because I had a significant birthday this year & its a reminder to just be me!

Winter

My courtyard plantings of aeoniums are in full growth mode, I have planted various sorts, but cant remember which ones are which!

This one is black rose, but isnt black as its in full shade for the winter

same garden bed in full shade, think this one is sunburst.

Sassy succulents!

Echeveria Capri with one flower spike open & another soon to follow

This is in the courtyard area - Echeveria Fred Ives & Echeveria big red, along with a two smaller unknown echeverias (front right hand corner) also some sedums.

Echeveria pink frills (I think) is going mad with flower spikes, a small variagated kalanchoe grown from a cutting so not sure of its name, same with the plant above it, not even sure which family that ones from, bottom right hand corner is sedum kam...... something! and aeonium black rose at the back.  They are all getting far too much shade, but thats the trouble with my garden in autumn/winter - too much shade & then too much sun in summer!

This is a guess also - Echeveria white rose?

Echeveria frosty in the top corner. Both give me lots of offsets.

This little Echeveria is also an unknown, but in full sun it had a lovely apricot stripe around the leaf edges.

                                       Echeveria frosty with more cute babies!

Becoming rampant, sedum gold mound.

This is an unknown sedum, which is about to flower, I took this as a cutting & has grown very well.

New courtyard plantings

courtyard gardens are now planted out with succulents, in this photo there's two sedums, a kalanchoe & echeveria big red.

Echeveria pink frills about to flower, aeonium chocolate rose, kalanchoe, sedum variagated, and aeonium variagata up the back.A couple of aloes, echeveria black prince, echeveria mexican giant,  aeomium short black, sedeveria darley dale, some sedums & kalanchoesAloe striata coral, echeveria white rose, echeveria frosty, echeveria set oliver, unknown small echeveria, sedum gold mound & tall unknown kalanchoe.Echeveria perle von nuremburg, sedums & kalanchoe, most of which I dont know names as they were cuttings & babies I have accumulated, once they all grow & flower maybe I'll be able to figure out what they are.  I ended up reasonably full & now I just have to wait for them to fill in the spaces.

Echeveria flowering

Not much happening at the moment, just waiting for finance approval for the people buying our house, It is extremely hot in the west & thunderstorms are making it uncomfortable. A few succulents flowering, this little sempervivum, I thinks this one will die once it finishes, so I hope there will be a few babies to make new plants when this happens.

This is Echeveria frosty flower

and Echeveria set oliver flower, I purchased this little fellow from Fickle Prickles over the internet.

Not sure what this is, but various people seem to think its an aeomium, Im not convinced as I thought Aeomiums went into domancy over the summer.

Only 10 days left until S4 heads off to boarding school, am a little apprehensive, but we will just wait and see how he goes and how his dog goes without him!

Flowering cactus

My poor epiphyllum had been banished since birth to the far back corner of the garden.
I struck two different ones from Dads, approx 18mths ago & shoved both pieces together in a terracotta pot & popped it out of site not to be glanced upon since, such a glorious suprise yesterday when a flash of red caught my eye.

Pitty about the rest of the plant!

I think its trying to tell me something -

Even if you totally ignore me & let snails & slugs run rampant all over me I can still show you the love!

adding to succulent collection

 Four new succulents to add to my collection, which is fast becoming an obsession.  Im a little nervous that if we dont hurry up and get to our rural property my backyard is going to become choc a block with little pots of these things.

If anyone with succulent knowledge is looking at this post, I would love some feedback as to what they are.  The place I bought them only had succulent written on the label, thought I would be satisfied with that, but unfortunately I am finding myself trawling the internet with my little "succulent" on my lap searching for answers.

Echeveria?

 Aeonium domestica variagata

 Echeveria?

 Aloe dorian black?

Dad's orchid - was repotted last year, this year very dissapointing, only produced one miserly flower and I had to get under the plant to take the shot, hence the roof in the background.  When it eventually does decide to flower it will be beautiful as its such a pretty colour.

Cunderdin

Yesterday we set off for a day trip to Cunderdin to the Agricultural College open day, our youngest son is to go their for years 11 & 12.  It is a residential college that teaches mainstream maths and English & then the students can choose between 3 different pathways, Trade, Agriculture and university.  We had already signed him up for the trade pathway, but after yesterday is now more keen on the ag pathway, he's such an animal lover & he got to see the cows and pigs.  Access was limited to a few pigs of various ages, & we had to wipe our shoes in a disinfectant bath before going near them due to the risk of disease.

While we were there we stopped off at our hangar at the airfield, a plane was parked directly in front of it, so it was lucky we didn't want to get ours out as it wouldn't have been possible.  Apparently the minister for education had been flown up in it to address the school at the open day, (they can park anywhere due to the importance factor!)

Kingair

This old aloe plant (not sure which one it is) is growing next to one of the old world war 2 huts out at the airfield, it looks as though it might have been planted back when the huts were built.  The huts & hangar were built to train pilots for the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) early in world war 2.  Towards the end of the war the airfield was used as a base for heavy bombers in connection with the campaign against the Japanese.

I took a piece to strike amid various scathing remarks from son & husband, "why would you want a piece of that?, its so ugly" and "now we have to share the car with a triffid!"  I think it has its own beauty an with a bit of TLC will be a plant worthy of any garden.

Cactus

I have had these two cactus forever, they were purchase some 20 odd years ago as little novelty plants with glasses and hats on. I have replanted them a couple of times, but mainly they have been neglected for long periods of time, rediscovered & nutured for a few years & then lost & forgotten for a few more.

I am making a concerted effort now to be much more considerate & loving towards them, lets see if it makes any difference.  Have no idea of their names.

new little succulents

I have 3 different Haworthia's planted in the one pot, the first two which I think are H Fasciata & H attentuata, I took a couple of plantlets from a house my parents were housesitting, they were very old and overgrown, have been in the pot for 1 year now & done nothing!  Today I purchased a H tesselata to go with them, doesnt look much like its picture, looks very grim & almost dead, hopefully being transplanted it will show some life now.  Apparently they are very slow growers, so will take some time to fill this pot.

I also bought what I think looks like an Agave, which one Im not sure, as the only label it came with was "succulent" which of course is no help at all.
The other two photo's are an echeveria black prince & aeonium chocolate rose, all of these I will grow in pots until we move & then they will find their home in my dry succulent garden.