Africanaussie

There I was, once again, admiring Bernie's  bloom day post when I thought - oh gosh I have some wonderful photos of my torch ginger ready to go and it is Friday so why don't I enter?  I have been a long time lurker viewing everyone else's wonderful flowers every Friday.  It is time I joined in the fun! I don't use fertilizer - just my own yummy compost and natural amendments like seaweed and comfrey juice, so I will flaunt without the fertilizing. The torch ginger has opened up even more  - the best thing about these flowers is that they hang around for so long - it has been in bloom for over a month now.  You can see more photos when it was  just opening  up.  Just look at the detail :) You can see a little ant off to the side if you look closely.  These are green ants (and can give you a nasty bite!) and  they make nests every now and then in our garden.  They are supposedly benefic...

I am so excited to have a torch ginger flower, and hope this is a sign of many more to come.  As you can see the flower comes out at the base of the long arching leaves.  They go right up into the lychee tree - about 15ft!   Look how little it looks right at the base of the huge leaves!  they normally do have a longer stem.  Just look at this gorgeous flower...  the petals are waxy and according to k ebunmalaykadazangirls can be used to added to laksa.  I wont be eating mine though - too busy admiring it. from every angle - so much so that I thought I might enter her in the Picture This contest at  Gardening gone wild .  the theme is to fill the frame, and that is what this little beauty does I think. the caladiums are popping up all over the garden too - they don't all disappear during the dry, but they are very happy once it get hot and humid and muggy. I thought this one had gone - I am pleased to see it back once aga...

After all the fretting and researching the amaryllis have finally come right.  Maybe it was just exactly the weather that they like - a fairly cold winter, and then a very dry spring.  About half of them have had two flower spikes, so I couldn't be happier....  The torch ginger flower is opening up - it is quite small, but it is my first flower, so hopefully things improve once the rains come too as it is a wet season plant.  Probably looking around and saying "I thought this was the wet season in the tropics - anyone got a drink for me?"  My chia have started to flower, and I found this very useful information for anyone interested in growing it.  I see you can make a tea from the leaves, so am going to try that.  I doubt I am ever going to grow enough to give me enough seeds to eat, but I will make tea from  the leaves, and maybe put a few flowers into my salads.  I think next dry sea...

I used to love to move the furniture around, but our little unit is so small and everything is just where it has to be, so I had to take the urge outside. :) After my lovely neighbor gave me a garden chair a couple of months ago I placed it snugly under the tree fern.  Nobody sat there, leaves fell all over it, and as the fern got bigger I wondered about where else the chair could go.....  (I put up these "bali" flags for my MIL's 80th birthday and quite like them there - they might stay).   Back to the point - that chair did look a little less than inviting didn't it? So.... after giving the ponytail palm a  bit of a haircut and moving it over to share its space I found the perfect spot for the chair.  It also means that the small heleconia plant can spread out a bit and be noticed - gosh you cant even see the space that the chair took up... While I was checking out the cha...