...... to some of the magnificent gardens we visited yesterday at the Bundanoon Garden Ramble, I thought I should post a few photos from my own garden first as they will fade into insignificance when compared to the nine delightful gardens open for display in the beautiful little town of Bundanoon, in the Southern Highlands south of Sydney. I took 165 photos of those gardens, so you can imagine how impressed I was. Of course, Richard took nearly as many.
I admire these irises not only for their lovely flowers but also for their hardiness. I dug them up from another garden about four years ago, left them in a cardboard box for nine months, until they looked like withered up corks, then planted them as I wanted to get rid of the box! They all grew and began flowering the second year.
This birdbath was given to us by our son-in-law's Swiss parents one Christmas. Alas, it became rusty and continually discoloured the water. Richard painted it with special bronze paint and it looks very handsome now in the garden - even more so when visited by our very tame magpie, Rossini.
Wordsworth wrote about "a field of golden daffodils", but I don't know if anyone has waxed lyrical about "a garden of Californian poppy escapees"? But they are beautiful just the same.
The heady perfume of the lilac is matched by the glorious flowers. These are actually a deep mauve/purple with each petal edged in white.
Some of my Bearded Irises are flowering for the first time this year. The sunshine was a little too bright this morning but the lowest flower is fairly true to colour. It's called Tijara Blackjack.
A Western Australian native, Eremophyla Nivea, with velvety silver leaves and the prettiest lavender coloured flowers.
There they are again ... with a Crab Apple in the background.
Another Aussie native, Alagoyne (Native Hibiscus) with a Curry plant (Helichrysum italicum) behind.
Another first time flowerer - 'Zambezi'.
A clump of 'ordinary' yellow irises.
This was found by a neighbour on the roadside.
'Zambezi' again.
