Pansies, Nemisia, Violets - My favorites

We are well and truly in the thick of winter now with 0 and 2 degree nights, even though the days have been quite sunny. Dry as a bone though. Pretty normal stuff for us here near the Blue Mountains - inland from Sydney. Always rains along the coast but we don't get a drop inland.

 

The garden is semi-asleep now and I`ve begun the laborious task of cutting things back to the ground so they can put new lush growth on for spring. All we need is Rain to get things going. The lawns suffer from early morning frost and lack of water and look yellow and sad. Dosn`t help that I weed- sprayed the lawn for bindii prickles and weeds, to add to the look of general `winterness`.

 

Soldier Boys - `Lachenalia` are a bright winter flowering bulb

 

 

These little fragrant violets always remind me of my Nans garden

 

 

All the trees have lost their leaves, the wisteria is asleep and the Roses are all bare stems and thorns that soon need their big annual prune. This is usually a massive task undertaken over the whole month of August. Shrub roses, pillar roses, climbing roses, groundcover roses - oh boy

 

 

Even so, there are plenty of flowers here and there to make a garden walkabout enjoyable still. My
orchids are flowering and the Camellia Japonica `Mine-no-yuki`. But the pansies - my absolute favourite garden flower, are all watching me with their little faces. I work in a plant nursery and bring home the prettiest ones I can find - along with heaps of other goodies. These are some of my favorites.

 

 

 It`s the time when lots of Daffodils emerge around deciduous trees and throughout the garden loads of pretty Nemesia and Linnaria self sow all over the place. I spend a great deal of time moving them about the garden late in the afternoons so they wont wilt. Being particular about the colours when they self sow, I pull out all the yuckie purple and yellow ones. It`s a hideous mix on the one flower so I yank em out when they first start to flower and only keep all the soft pastel colours. Yes, I`m that fussy with colours - they`ve gotta all blend just so.

 

These little guys don't look much, but they grow into the prettiest small plants full of tiny soft pastel flowers that last for months. And so it`s a bit of a dull time in the garden just now but I know that all my efforts will pay off when it warms up.

 

Thanks for visiting today. Hope you loved the pansies too. I enjoy hearing from you, so leave a comment if you like.