Hello everyone (fellow gardeners and black thumbs equally welcome).

For those that follow Mr Propagator’s Six on Saturday you know what’s coming….

For those who have yet to meet Mr P, check out his blog here and join the SOS crew (because we’re awesome).

Righto… Into the garden.

1. Jacaranda season begins ❤.

Blue skies. Weather is heating up. Single days of 35°c but not week long heat just yet. It’s coming. Purple blossoms everywhere you look. Nothing says Christmas is coming like seeing the pop of purple in every fourth yard.

2. Gailardia ‘Goblin’

I’ve never grown blanket flowers before. This one was in the shade of an Acacia and is liking it’s “hot but not baking” spot. Such a happy flower. I will grow more.

3. Honeycomb from hive one of two.

Hubby added another box to the bee hive and cleaned out a little honeycomb for the kids to suck the honey out of.

It is amazing to see the bees break these down and reclaim the wax rather than produce more from scratch.

4. Irish Strawberry Tree.

Mislead by the common name hubby dearest decided to buy this Arbutus unedo for me. I’m curious to see if the fruit is as bad as others say. Nevermind. Look at the gorgeous new growth! Worth growing anyway because it makes me happy.

5. Mulch! Tis the season to be mulching.

Given summer here means weeks of 35°c we use layers of cardboard and paper scraps from home. Then a thin layer of pea straw held down with some mushroom compost. It seems to keep most plants alive. Fingers crossed.

Carob in it’s new coat.
Flower bed in progress. Ready for the heat. Love the portaloo in the background hehe.

6. Bauhinia (orchid tree).

Flowers from our neighbor’s bauhinia tree. Seed pods over the fence are fair game once they ripen 😊. I’ve got seedlings potted on from last year’s seed ready for our block in Autumn.

Well that’s me for this week. It may be hot but the sun does good things for my mood mostly. Maybe in 3 months when I’m over Summer I’ll feel different but for now I’m enjoying the colour.

Hope to share in your gardens too.

❤ Nat

33 thoughts on “Six on Saturday… December 1st. In for a scorching summer!”

  1. What a pleasure to see sunny and flowery photos… About Arbutus unedo, the fruit is not bad but rather tasteless … I keep them for the birds for now.
    Beautiful Bauhinia flowers and I especially enjoyed seeing the jacaranda in bloom. I have been growing one for 4 years and as it’s still young and potted I can’t see the wonderful bloom as I did when I was in Barcelona a few years ago (I brought back seeds from there) Thank you for sharing

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    1. Thanks Fred. Glad you enjoyed vicarious sunshine. Plenty of it here to share this time of year.

      It’s good to know about the strawberry tree fruit. I could probably add the fruit to a jam or something or perhaps the chickens will eat them.

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  2. Great to see blue skies, sunshine, colourful flowers, neat mulching and well constructed bee hives. I’ve never seen Jacaranda before. It’s beautiful.

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    1. Thank you. Wow I’m stunned! You’ve never seen a Jacaranda! Far out. I’ll have to go for a walk and take more photos. They look so gorgeous planted as a street tree. Rows of purple ❤❤

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      1. I’ve led a sheltered life! I’ve never been to IKEA either. Just been Googling Jacaranda. They’re really impressive trees.

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  3. Will we ever really know about the fruit of the strawberry tree? Some ‘sort of’ like it. Others are not impressed. I am told that it is a matter of timing. They all ripen at different times anyway. I don’t want to go looking for those that are at that perfect ripeness. At least it is tough.
    Orchid trees are not grown here. I sort of miss them from Beverly Hills (in the Los Angeles region). White ones flanked one of the main roads that I drove through town. As much as I typically prefer white, is till think that white was not the best color for them. Many years ago, we studied a low and shrubby Bauhinia punctata, with small terracotta red flowers. I have not seen it since the late 1980s.

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    1. Arrrgh. Google (and you) have given me another tree to search for! The red! It is so gorgeous! I’m not keen on the white Bauhinia either. Lots of purpley pinks and some white here but I’ve never seen the one you mentioned.

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      1. Gorgeous? I think it is interesting, but not as pretty as orchid tree. The flowers are rather small, and not very bright red. They are like the color of bricks. Interesting, but no substitute.

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  5. I Googled Bauhinia out of curiosity and came across Australianseed.com. A cursory glance suggests it’s a discovery that might cost me. I saw all the Australian bees I ever want to see on Bribie Island off the Queensland coast last year. That’s a serious looking hive you have there, and all my attention is on the Xanthorrhoeas behind it. Your commonplace is our wildly unattainable exotic.

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    1. Hehe seed companies and I have a love/hate thing going on too. I like this one best. They’re based in the south of West Australia and my germination success rate has been good with them (sorry in advance 😂)… https://www.nindethana.net.au.
      I’ve taken a photo of the flower spike of one of the many grasstrees on our block. Will do a post soon to show you. They are curious things. Our block is covered and yet the block directly below us doesn’t have a single one.

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  6. Yes, hot weather is upon us. I like your Gaillardia and planted one myself recently. I fear its common name ‘blanket flower’ is telling me it will be a thug, but time will tell. Check out Gaillardia ‘Fanfare’ . I’d love to get hold of it, but it doesn’t seem to be available here. Yet. On a recent trip to Sydney, we loved seeing the Jacarandas in bloom, trees that let you know summer is here, with their blue canopies ballooning above houses and other trees. Wonderful. With the cardboard you use as mulch, do you tear it up or just lay it in slabs and then put the pea mulch over it? I’d like to try using it as lucerne hay is in short supply here, and expensive because of the drought.

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    1. Ooooh ok now I must have ‘fanfare’ too. I found the grower “Touch of Class Plants” grows Gaillardia fanfare ‘Citronella’ which our local nurseries can order here in WA. Maybe this one might be available for you too?
      Bloody drought 😢 how are you holding up?

      I am lazy so tearing the cardboard box to lie flat is about all I do. We use whatever we can get. Even boxes of toothpaste get squashed flat and layered. The trades people building the house think I’m nuts but the plants are alive so who cares about weird looks ☺. Just keep well clear of the stems and remove any stickytape. That’s about it.

      If the pea straw is out of range in our budget (sad but two kids and mostly one income is hard) we just use cardboard and then a thin layer of soil on top. Anything to hold moisture and keep the roots cool helps on our block.

      Would love to hear how it goes for you.

      ❤ Nat

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      1. Thanks for all that info, Nat. It sounds as though cardboard would be a good way of cutting down the cost of hay or straw.
        Yes, the drought. We had some rain last week, but then it was horribly windy and the garden again looked dried out and even the hardy plants were drooping. We’re not on water restriction yet, but I wonder how much longer it will be.
        I checked out the website for’Touch of Class’. Will give it a go.

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  9. I laughed when I saw your jacaranda tree, compared to my poor little chap! So beautiful, mine can but dream ….. Your hive is very handsome, how lovely for your children to have that experience, something they will remember for ever. We have arbutus here, they are wonderful trees/shrubs, I have tried a fruit, it was dull rather than horrid. As for the bauhinia *swoon* 🙂

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    1. Thank you. What a lovely reply to read 😊. The bee hive I must admit I don’t have much to do with except finding the bees for hubby when they swarm. Jacarandas are curious trees… One decided it would drop dead from the slightest frost. Another carked it at the heat of summer. And others are doing fabulously. Maybe your tree is just not in the perfect spot?

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    1. Hehe when I read about caring for plants over winter it is such an alien thing for me. One day I’d love to see snow. We get a mild frost and that’s about it. Tomorrow and the rest of the week is meant to be 36°c or higher so stifling heat is more my scene 😊.

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  11. Love the summer colour! Blanket flowers are wonderful additions to the garden. How different that you have to keep yours in a little bit of shade whereas here, I have to make sure mine gets enough sun. And the mulching that you’re doing to keep the flowerbeds going. So wonderful to see how things are done in a different climate. Simply love that jacanrandra

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  12. I bet those jacaranda are quite a sight when out en masse. Not something we see over here. Your last item is a beauty too. Lovely to see different plants and flowers from down under.

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    1. Thank you. I love taking photos of plants and it is surprising how much I enjoy others liking them too. I am looking forward to reading your blog. Definately my area of interest.

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