It has been a cool and wet spring and the flowers in our yard are a little slow in appearing and are not quite so abundant as usual. Just ten minutes back inland from us the temperatures can be 5 to 10 degrees warmer and the coastal gloom replaced with sunshine.
The bouganvillia rarely lets us down and we have two sprawling and thick vines at each end of the yard.
The nasturtiums are courtesy of our neighbor, whose plants crept under the fence and give us a bright splash of yellow/orange.
Here is the bouganvillia at the other end of the yard. The patio and the bird feeding area are between these two.
On the patio we have plants in pots, mostly begonias and impatiens. I really like the begonias that have bronze or copper colored leaves.
There are two potato vines on either side of the patio. Such pretty flowers for such a mundane name.
We bought several pots of a deep red geraniums. Somehow the color red does not reproduce well on my computer -- or maybe it's my camera. The color is really deep, deep blood red. Quite spectacular when clumped together. They have several heads of blooms on each plant.
Even the butterfly bush is finding it hard to burst into its usual bush full of blooms. Just not enough sunshine.
More begonias with their brightly polished copper leaves.
We trimmed back the hibiscus bushes that are located against the fence. A couple of months ago they were full of blooms. They are pretty old bushes and were here and growing well when we moved in 38 years ago. There are two of them and when in bloom the flowers are Chinese pink. The one above is how they should both look right now, however....
...the second bush looks like this. I caught a squirrel having a fine feast on the leaves of this one and look at this! It has been denuded! We have a family of at least four squirrels and evidently they don't just eat the extra bird seed!
In the front of the house, my poor jacaranda tree is having a hard time putting forth a few blooms. By the way, the green stones in the front yard, is our 'lawn' in a desert climate. After the cool summer we had last year and the cool wet spring just past, we are really looking forward to some warm sunshiny days, which they say are coming next week. But then they said that last week!
10 comments:
Is that a GEOD Rock that I see next to your pretty Begonias? Not sure if I had spell the name right for that cut rock there.
All of my Nasturtiums had finally died off, what a mess it was to clean up. Pretty flowers though, I will miss tasting the sweet nectar from them.
Everything is growing more slowly this time of year, perhaps reason why we seem to have more slugs and snails than any thing else right now. Normally the tomatoes are ripen up and rip rearing to go right into the salads, nope not this time, they still so green.
Enjoy looking at your garden, thanks for sharing.
What lovely images, Chris. We had a hot Spring and now we're getting a cool, wet Summer. Still, Wimbledon starts tomorrow so what can you expect!
Your environment looks so exotic compared with ours!
Jane x
Gorgeous yard/garden, Chris! Your house is lovely too! I remember laughing at the green rocks and sand that made up many of the houses in Tucson when we lived there. I'd never seen such a thing! Still, a unique idea and no mowing!
I've noticed that your temps are even lower than ours, for a change! But we too are lamenting the short life of our spring flowers and the slow-blooming of our summer ones. But your backyard flowers look beautiful, and we are wishing our lawn looked like your front one - so much less work, especially in light of all the rain we are having! DOTH is mowing sometimes twice a week!
Lovely blooms despite the weather. Your front garden looks positively tropical!
Chris, I so enjoyed the tour around your house....my it's just lovely, and all the plants and colors...and YOU know all their names??? I'm so impressed.
How exotic to be able to grow a bouganvillea in your garden! The bright colours must cheer you on a grey day.
It is pouring with rain again here. The roses are being saturated. I`m glad I went for a walk on the heath before the downpour began.
That looks really colourful, but thosee squirrels need a good talking to.
By the way I am relatively close to you today, at a rather hot dry place with not many flowers and a long long road with some very large hotels all olong it. We are in one shaped like a pyramid. Bet you can't guess where.
Snafu; Would it be Las Vegas? If so, you've done more than me. I've never been to Vegas. It's a very long day's drive from us.
Rosy: Yes, that is half of a pair of geodes which had been polished and turned into a pair of book ends. They were part of the school where I was principal. Unfortunately some student or students tried to pry out pieces out of the center of them so I rescued them when the school closed and now they grace our patio where their defects are not very noticeable.
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