Catching Up From My Downunder Garden

It's nice to have those temperatures. I wish it was warmer here. It's summer but still cold :(
I love your bromeliads. I remember my gran bought me one many years ago. Your photos have made me want another one lol :o)
And I've never seen an Iresine in flower ! I've been growing them for many years. How interesting to see this.

how lush your tropical garden is , and its winter at 20 degrees.. Lovely pictures of your gorgeous plants

great pictures of your beautiful plants

Hywel ... I think I'll be getting a few more of these Broms as they definitely seem to love the shady spots out in the courtyard and there are certainly lots of shady spots out there. My Iresine is just covered in little flowers and it's only been in the ground now for just over a year. It came through all the awful summer conditions easily.

Madabout ... yes winter here in northern Oz is very very mild. We shouldn't really be allowed to call is winter!!! Of course in other parts of Australia, it's freezing right now.

Anndavies ... I'm glad you enjoyed a look at what's bloooming here right now.

Berniah, I just love your garden and plants, Pic 3 took my breath away, just simply amazing, is this your patio? I remember the trees with the white bark and there's a gorgeous seating area, or am i dreaming :))))

Hi Youngdaisydee. Pic 3 does indeed show my courtyard or patio area which sits at the back of my house ... actually the house itself wraps around this space and yes, we have a big ole wooden table and chairs out there. This particular spot is at the far end of the courtyard near the pond area.

The pond area needs lots of work, so I try to hide it at the moment ... hence the collection of potted plants. Not only that but there's a pergola over that whole area. You can see the lattice side of the pergola to the left of the photo. The pergola is rather large and covers the pond, a garden bed and a stairway, but unfortunately the whole thing was shifted a little to the right during Cyclone Yasi earlier this year.

I can see it Berniah, the Pergola, it all blends in and looks perfect, an area of your garden I could only dream about.. Sorry to hear about the damage Yasi caused, did you also loose trees in your front garden? or am i thinking of someone else..

Youngdaisydee, yes we lost the tops and loads of branches off most of the trees on our property. Mother Nature did a great job of thinning out the canopy in sections of our place. We didn't actually lost trees but quite a few had drastic haircuts and will take quite a while to reach their previous heights. We also had a lot of shrubs flattened and they're still pretty much stumps. Thankfully there wasn't much damage to the house itself and the courtyard and shadehouse gardens closest to the house came through very well.

Well thats good to hear Berniah, Australia had a lot to contend with this year, I felt for you, we moan about our weather but its nothing compared to yours, you can't fight nature! I will look at your links later, im going to work soon..
PS. Welcome back to GOY..

Thanks Youndaisydee. I think there's quite a few places around the world that would prefer to have started 2011 in a very different way! Have a good day. It's been great popping in here today. It's like visiting with the family you only get to see from time to time.

Oh,just fabulous Bernie..I love every one of your beautiful plants,so can't possibly pick one out.Such a variety..and the colours..to die for ! .Thank you for sharing themwith us,and 'the Family' are glad to have you visit,whenever you want ! :o)))

So pleased to see you again bernieh and so enjoyed my stroll as ever in your beautiful garden .

Thanks Bloomer and Scotkat! I appreciate your kind comments.

Your garden is very beautiful, so many amazing plants and shrubs I love that Euphorbia and the foilage on the Iresine just sings out!! could do with a little of that sunshine and temperatures, its been very wet here these two months. Thanks for sharing ;0))

Brilliant blog as usual Bernieh, and your garden is as gorgeous as ever. Love the mixture of plants and colours. Lovely to see you here. :o)

your winter is just right Bernieh, should be like that here for our summer but seems it to much to ask, not a good summer up to now, your garden looks fab as always, lovely pictures, lovely to see you :o)

Pansy, after the horrible start to the year, I'm revelling in this glorious weather. There are huge areas around the place wehre the cyclone damage is still visible, but at least everything is in recovery mode now.

Lindalooloo, thanks for you lovely comment. It's been great popping in to visit after such a big break and I've enjoyed catching up. My blog takes up quite a bit of my time now and I so enjoy getting to trip around the gardening blogworld visiting so many terrific gardens.

Sanbaz, yes I have to agree with you. For a so-called winter, ours is not too shabby! I wish I could share some of this great stuff with you. I know after the summer/early autumn we had, it's a relief not to have to put up with the torrential downpours anymore. We get the occasional light shower, but that's just refreshing.

Your garden is beautiful :-) Im so jealous :-D x

Smilerjane, you're very kind. My place has a lot of challenges when it comes to gardening, so the garden areas themselves are not all that flash, hence no vista views! But I am a hopeless plant lover and have loads and loads of potted plants to add colour and interest to these spots.

Hi Bernieh & welcome back to GoY! It's so lovely to see all the plants you have in your garden! One that particularly caught my eye was the Impatians with dark foliage & lovely pink/lilac flowers! Do you know what it is called? Is it one of the New Guinea hybrids?

Your "winter" temps sound like the ideal temp we could do with having here!

Hi Balcony. Yes that is a New Guinea hybrid. It's from the 'Celebrette' series and they are supposed to be not only heat tolerant but cold tolerant as well.

They have been bred specifically to have large blooms on compact plants without the need to prune or remove faded flowers.

Over here this particular one is sold as Impatiens hawkeri 'Celebrette Orchid Star'.

Our wonderful winter weather continues. We're expecting slightly chillier night-time temps next weekend ... it's expected to drop below 10 deg C overnight! We've got the doona ready, lol!

"Our wonderful winter weather continues. We're expecting slightly chillier night-time temps next weekend ... it's expected to drop below 10 deg C overnight! We've got the doona ready, lol!"

Lucky you! Our night temps are similar but our max day temps hardly reach 20ºC! What, may I ask, is a "doona"?

I've seen the Impatiens Guinea hybrids over here. I even had one once in Spain but I don't recall what happened to it & I don't think I have any pictures of it either but I'm pretty sure I had one. I haven't bought one during the 10 years we have been back but I did buy an Impatiens a couple of weeks ago. It has variegated leaves & rosebud-like buds. The flowers open double & are a nice shade of pink. As the first flower has only opened this weekend I don't have any pictures of it yet. It had become so dry in the shop that when I got it home & gave it a good soaking, expecting it to recover, all the buds & open flowers fell off! As I've grown Impatiens for around 50 years I wasn't at all worried expecting it to recover & continue flowering all summer & possibly into the winter. I must get myself a Guinea hybrid one sometime.

Wow! Have just been drooling over your photos ... you have managed to create a beautiful & interesting garden, in spite of the heat & dryness where you are. I wouldn't mind some of that warmth over the winter! We're lucky in the North Island of NZ, that we do see blue sky & sunshine mostly throughout the winter, & it is relatively mild, especially compared to the lower parts of the South Island, but the cold can still creep into my (getting older) bones & joints! As with you, spring is almost upon us ... just one more week & it will be official. Lots of people now once again venturing enthusiastically out into their gardens, including me .... & my husband is suddenly taking a very keen interest! I think it is because we are having to build the garden virtually from scratch, rather than inheriting someone else's hard work. I have a head full of ideas & visions of how it will all look in a few year's time ..... & have gathered more inspiration from your lovely garden.