700. Flowers from my garden

Today is the 700th story on the 700th day (plus 13 poems and 49 pieces of music). For 700 days I have wandered your wondrous gardens of bloggeration (or is it bloggery or blogification?) There have been weeds and flowers, vegetables and fruit, shrubs and trees, well-worn tracks and hidden paths… each an adventure; each a moment for admiration. The wonder of each creative blog I follow!

Today then, I celebrate in the simplest way: here are flowers for you from my own garden; picked over time; not always the most-ever beautiful. They are presented with gratitude.

Thank you!

This dahlia (whose name escapes me – have subsequently found the label in a drawer and it is called “Rebecca’s World”) is among my favourites. It looks a little like a water lily. Each flower begins it’s life either deep red or pure white. As it unfolds the red flowers become white and the whites become red.

This dahlia (whose name escapes me) is too brazen, too bold, too messy, too loud. (It’s not so subtle in the real). After one season I dug it out and gave it away. It was a show-off; a smarty-pants. Let’s hope it enjoys doing its thing in its new ostensacious setting.

This dahlia (whose name escapes me) I call “My Shirley Dahlia”. Shirley used to help me in the school library. One day I brought a bunch of these flowers for the library. She wanted a tuber. Next winter I gave her some. The next spring, mine never grew; they had rotted in the ground. The following winter, Shirley gave me some of the tubers that had multiplied in her garden. The next day she was killed in a farm bike accident.

This dahlia (whose name escapes me) I plant amidst the white. Come Christmas (which in New Zealand is summer) the white and red bloom together in a brilliant yuletide show!

This dahlia (whose name escapes me) is perhaps as near to a sunrise as I can get; or maybe it’s a sunset. Here you see it flowering among the berries of a karaka (New Zealand laurel). The karaka berries are poisonous but the kererū (wood pigeons) love them!

Here are two flowers of the banana passionfruit. And the fruit is delicious to eat. But don’t tell the Government Department for the Environment: the plants are classified as a noxious weed.

Among the first flowers of the spring is this New Zealand native, the kowhai (pronounced Coe-fie). Golden sunshine on the ground in the daffodils; golden sunshine in the trees. Winter must be over!

My favourite tree in the garden; the pepper tree. Some years it flowers prolifically; some years hardly at all. But all year, every year, it hangs and weeps. My kind of tree…

 I think this is some variety of virgilia. Blue sky, green leaves, peach-coloured blossom.

If you love wisteria (as I do) you must avoid planting it near the house. This one is currently destroying my side fence with its testosteronic growth – a true teenage boy is the wisteria.

The Jerusalem artichoke! Tall. Playful. Like giants chatting away at a convention. Lots of bees. Lots of butterflies. Lots of tubers to eat in winter.

The globe artichoke! The stately grandfather of the garden flowers and garden vegetables.

The annual national orchid show was held just twenty minutes from where I lived. Each year I would buy a new orchid. I had quite a collection and they were spectacular! When I left the area there was no room in the removal vehicle, so I gave the orchids to a neighbour.

This is my Christmas lily (known as such because in New Zealand it flowers at Christmas). I have only the one variety of Christmas lily. It grows about 7 feet high before it flowers!

I often use weeds and grasses with flowers if they’re brought inside. It saves on garden flowers and they look great anyway!

My favourite roses are wild ones. I like it when they grow berserck over a background fence. I’m not a great rose fan so avoid them. They scratch!

Here are flowers of the feijoa. It’s one of my favourite fruits; a large green perfumed fruit of the guava family.

Sunflowers galore in summer! All kinds and shades! This one is called “Teddy Bear”. It’s the cuddliest flower in the garden.

Dark blue is my favourite colour in the garden. I have lots of irises, but if I move this one comes with me!

I don’t know the name of this flower. I call it Christmas Bells because it rings in Christmas! And let it ring out the 700th story! Thanks for walking with me for all or part of these 700 days! (See note below from mattb325 – it’s Dierama pulcherrimum: the fairy’s fishing rod or angel’s fishing rod!)