Blooms and Bluebottles

Ah, before and after photos! First, my garden in Springfield, just before I left, obviously also before the deepfreeze weather moved in. The next photo is our neighbor's lovely little front garden, brimming with delightful blooming plants, groundcovers and splashing fountain.

I have found a great garden book which is helping me as I am putting Tracy's garden to rights. It was sadly neglected for more than a season, and there are some things I just can't figure out. For one, if the environment is marine (the house is on a peninsula, within minutes of the open ocean or a bay), the soil is by nature sandy and alkaline, the sun pounds down without mercy for at least six months of the year and water is rationed, why would any gardener with a bit of common sense plant 10 camelias, 15 azaleas and 15 roses? For another, if you put succulents in big pots, facing the scorching setting sun, why would you choose white rock for a mulch, a nice, reflective, heat-retaining white mulch? The azaleas look beyond pathetic and the camelias seem to be in various states of near death. If Tracy qne Dan weren't renting, I'd dispatch every one of the bedraggled items and replace with proper drought-tolerant, tough natives. Hmph.

One really nice native is the bottlebrush, Callistemon, which comes in many colors and sizes. It's tough as can be, can be pruned and requires very little water. Is there one in this garden? Nope.

Another dandy native is Kangaroo Paws, whose blooms do indeed look like little furry kangaroo paws. There must have been one in this garden once because I found a nursery tag buried deep in the mulch out back.

Water is a serious issue as Australia suffers from drought; the rules are three-minute showers, collect gray water for plant watering, and trap rainwater runoff in big tanks. I've tried hard to drain our tank as I water, but it rains just often enough the tank refills. Whew.

I really do love a colorful garden, however, so the plants

which are better adapted to our garden microclimate are welcome additions. We have several lovely gardenias, lots of hydrangeas, jasmines and mandevillas.

The deep orange bloom of the clivia is new to me, especially because it blooms strongly in deep dry shade, making a stunning comment at dusk when the color jumps out of a corner of the garden.

New Guinea Impatiens are blooming up a storm right now; some of the older plants have stems about an inch across!

When it rains hard, I'm amazed that most of the plants don't seem to suffer, even our passion vine.

And, to the Bluebottles part of my offering for the day: Bluebottles are one of the jellyfish found in the water and on the beaches between November and April. They pack a nasty sting, but swimmers are pretty nonchalant, even the nippers. The lifeguards have hot water ready to pour over the sting site, and within 30 minutes, the pain is gone, and the swimmer is right back in the water.

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