Friday, November 15, 2013

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Nov. 2013

It's the 15th of the month again and time to welcome you to my Algarve garden (hardiness zone 10). After some long-awaited rain a few weeks' ago and temperatures high enough for sunbathing at the beach, my flowering plants are very happy.
Announcing autumn
 Some bulbs have produced autumn colour, as expected,
Yellow lilies
These lilies are lovely but I'm actually quite pissed off disappointed with the seller at Espinho market. She sold me four different types of gorgeous lilies (I even wrote down their exotic names) but I  ended up with 1 unknown dead, 2 pink and 5 yellow instead!

Dominating the garden at the moment, I have the lavenders and the roses.
My first lavender
This is the bush I was considering taking out of the corner, where it fights for space with the red oleander. It was butchered cut back in August and look at it! I just haven't the heart to remove it now. I guess I'll have to cut the oleander so that they can share the space more peacefully.

Another lavender  
This young lavender is looking great.

Feathery lavender
And this, even younger, feathery-leafed lavender has finally adapted to its allotted space. I think it's so elegant! I've taken cuttings and, if I'm successful, next year I'll be planting one between each rose bush along the front wall.

And talking of roses, these are still in bloom:
Red roses

Pink'n white roses

Peachy rose

Yellow rose

I'm also pleased to report that there are lots of pale blue blooms on the creeping rosemary ...
Geranium, rosemary and lavender
 ... flowers on the yellow hibiscus, and on the red one, too ...
Yellow hibiscus
... and the cuttings of this ground covering plant, from a friend's garden, have taken, settled right in and rewarded me with pretty little pink blooms after just a few months.
Groundcover plant

You might have noticed that I haven't shown you any grass - well it's just grass, very green and needing mowing, which I can't do because I'm recovering from the flu.

Oh, remember this?
Lobster flower
It shares the enormous planter where my small lemon tree lives. A reader asked me what it was when I posted a picture in June. Well, it took a while, but I've discovered what it's called. It's Plectanthrus neochilus, also known as the lobster flower.

November has been good to my garden, so far. Temperatures are set to drop by about 10 degrees Celsius during the coming week, so next month may be more about foliage than blooms. See you then!

Have you visited May Dreams Gardens yet? That's where Carol hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.



4 comments:

  1. Sitting here on a chilly Saturday evening - I was warmed right through reading your post Mara. Lovely sunny pictures and looking very healthy thanks to the rain no doubt.
    I hope you feel better soon :)

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  2. Oh such gorgeous blooms and I can feel the heat there.

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  3. You have such a beautiful garden. I wish I could get a hibiscus to grow for me. Oh well, it just gives me more of a treat to see those other people grow. :-)

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  4. I am surprised that lavender does so well in your hot climate. The lobster flowers are beautiful.

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