Flower June Days: Observation Note 107

Observation Note 107: More flowers. Some of the ground flowers I have are clivias, daisies and a barely surviving, rarely flowering banksia rose which I planted twenty years ago. Instead of a flowering vine, lush with leaves and yellow flowers, the banksia rose just hangs in there, limp and boring. On the other hand, my geranium initially was growing in our gutter, right next to all the electrical wires. It was flourishing and cool, up on our roofline for a good long year. I guess a bird must have dropped a seed in the gutter, leaves having gotten caught and blocking access to the downpipe. We were too scared to get up and remove it ourselves and frankly it was lockdown. Sure, we could have called someone in to do it but we could barely take care of ourselves in 2020 let alone a rusty gutter with a plant lushly growing out of it. In 2021, we finally got motivated and hired someone to put in new gutters. Instead of throwing the plant out, the labourer saved it for us and we repotted it and have ignored it ever since and it continues to flourish. 

Close up of bright orange clivias
Two daisies with yellow pollen at the centre.
Close up of a daisy.
The front of my house with trees and a view of the gutter.
Limp and boring banksia rose clinging to the front verandah.

Green June days: Observation Note 106

Observation Note 106: When green appeals. I do know the names of the flowers in my backyard. I have a grevillea that is visited by rainbow lorikeets (Photo 1 is like a Magic Eye pic, squint and you’ll see it) and noisy miners. I have a lilly pilly (also loved by the lorikeets), a peach tree and about eleven tea trees that frame my small (medium for the Inner West) yard. The seats are mostly used by the dogs. It tends to be a green splendour all year round. With the exception of the peach and lilly pilly trees, the rest are all evergreens. Perfect if you are drawn to green.

Photographs of various trees in green splendour.

And so June begins: Observation Note 105

Observation Note 105: Flowers. I have taken part in Blog June a few times over the last decade. I will do it again this year but for today’s post, I present you with photographs from a micro-meadow in Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens. I’m saddened that I don’t know the names of most flowers beyond the obvious daisies, tulips and roses. But I do enjoy their prettiness.