What's Looking Good in December 2023

Following our long awaited rain last night, everything is so green and fresh.

Iochroma having been seriously cut back a month ago with fresh new leaves ...


Cycas settling in his new larger pot ...


Thevetia, Melaleuca, Jacaranda and Callistemon ...


My Kitty Kat Korner (you can't see him but Van is on the condenser behind the left hand trellis under the Bougainvilla) ......

 

My 'Bird of Paradise' has just started to open its very first ever flower today! I've been growing this in our kitchen for about 5 years. It came from some seeds my son brought me back from a holiday in Spain. There were only 3 or 4 seeds in the packet but only 2 germinated. One of those died a few weeks later. So this one has had to endure life with me all this time.

I repotted it in a big pot this year, in the spring, & even put it outside on the balcony for a couple of months. I had to bring it in again as the leaves being so big took up far too much space & I found it difficult getting around it.

When I sowed the seeds I knew they would take a long time to flower, if ever, so I thought of it more as a foliage plant than a flowering plant. So I was surprised a couple of months ago when I noticed a l-o-n-g, what I thought was a leaf, growing. As it began to curve sideways I hardly dared to hope it might be a flower stem! It's developed much quicker than I thought it would; I didn't expect it to open till well into January at the earliest! Well it's opened today - an early Christmas present!
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Looking even better this morning!

 

Pandorea jasminoides still has some blooms having lost most in the heavy rain and gusty wind on Thursday night ...


Cobea scandens with buds ...



Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi' turning an orange shade as it fades ...

 

Still got a rose or 2.
The wallflowers are doing well

 

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Pagoda opening one bud and has another coming ...


Hbiscus rosa-sinensis Red still budding ...


Cyclamen ...

 

I love your plants Victoria, it's like a magic, you can grow many that would be here houseplants, outside all year round.

I have gazania in flower. It came from reduced plants shelf. I have it in a pot and covered for frosty time. Sarcococc a got many black berries, picture doesn't justify it.

 

Thank you Alisa ... the benefit of living in a frost-free country (well Region as it does get cold, frosty and snowy up North).

Your Gazania is lovely.

 

Only looked out of the balcony door at the rain! Half the balcony is wet so I can't go out anyway. The pigeons' droppings are wet & that makes the floor very slippery.

I was interested in seeing how the Cyclamen had faired after 3 nights of below zero (0C) temps. I took some photos of them yesterday while they were still frozen & I see they look alright. I half expected to see them a gooey, slimy mess but no, they look like nothing had happened to them! At the time of taking the photos the leaves were blackened which is why I expected to see them dead today.

I've only had 1 Cyclamen on the balcony before & it was in a more sheltered place than the 10 on the balcony railings. That didn't survive the winter. So I wasn't at all sure if these would.

 

Here are some of the pictures I took yesterday showing the poor Cyclamen frozen on the balcony railings & the ice on the strings!:
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From inside the plants look to be alright again but it's too wet to go out & check on them.
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Can get hardy cyclamen, 2 types one that flowers in the autumn and one in spring.

 

The spring one shown is cyclamen coum. The autumn one is hederifolium. There are lots of others eg cilicium, intaminatum, graecum, but less robust

 

The first pic looks ok to me, those i think are cyclamen coum, flowers winter and spring.

 

Your welcome