A friend gave me a cutting of this fuchsia. I tucked it well away from the gales we have been experiencing here all spring, watered it regularly and fed it intermittently.
My efforts have been well rewarded. It is simply stunning. Enjoy some beauty as the week comes to an end.
I noticed that around my garden right now there are many different shades of russet, purple and red as autumn begins to really show its beauty. Perhaps the sudden warm snap we have been experiencing in the past fortnight has caused these hues?
Here are some photos from today, taken in warm, sunny weather with blue sky overhead and the occasional fluffy cloud or two. We ate lunch outside and have pottered around in the garden a bit too. Later in the day we wandered along by the local beach with lots of people, children and dogs also enjoying the day.
I’ve checked the dictionary and “tenacious” can mean “persisting in existence” and this fuchsia cutting certainly has tenacity in truckloads.
When we shifted to this house in the late 1980’s there was a woody, gnarly old fuchsia bush which was the parent of this cutting. In 1998 we did extensive outdoor landscaping which meant the old bush had to be removed.
At the time of removal I took a cutting and popped it into a small plastic pot, silently promising it that if it survived I would find a place for it somewhere in the modified garden.
It is hard to believe that this cutting somehow survived in its little pot for 14 years, despite dry spells, wet conditions, frost, snow and harsh winds. But it did and after removing some unwanted plants in the early new year I honoured my promise and planted it back near the site of its parent.
In keeping with its determined life force it is doing very well, flowering and putting on new leaves. I am watering it regularly and the mulch around it should help ensure it survives the summer. I am looking forward to it flourishing and offering a splash of colour in that spot in the garden. It is a symbol of keeping a firm hold on life and hope.
As summer progresses I see in my garden that there are two pest plants busy flowering.
The first is Montbretia, an escapee from over the fence and into this Choysa Ternata in my garden. Every year I pull out as many of the bulbs as I can but Montbretia is tenacious. I see on a website that comes out of Auckland that this plant is a pest plant. It certainly wants to colonise my garden and I would be happier to see it growing elsewhere despite its bright orange colour that seems to match the glaring light today.
It can be useful in some remote places for helping to hold sand dunes together.
The other plant that is marching every onward in my garden are the agapanthus. These are beyond my resources as they not only seed off these luxuriant heads but spread by suckering roots from the mat of roots they establish.
I like to see a massed display of these flowers on long farm driveways or along stretches of motorway rather than the dominating feature in parts of my backyard.
Here are two plants which are bringing me great pleasure in the garden today:-)
Feverfew or Pyrethrum daisy
You may remember my post about allowing my brain to get to work on the crochet flower pattern while I went out into the garden. Well here is the result. A small crocheted flower, made out of embroidery thread, for a wee knitted tunic.
I have since made a second crocheted flower as “neurons that fire together wire together” meaning that the more we practice a skill, the stronger the connections in our brains and the easier (in theory) things become. My second one is a little different to the first one so I have not polished my skills on this pattern yet.
The other small flower is on the Fuchsia procumbens, a native plant to New Zealand. I have this low growing pretty plant growing in a mass under the Melia tree.
The flowers came out in December and are delicate red and yellow. In autumn large pink/red berries form on the plant. It is an evergreen with pretty round green leaves.
The people who owned this house before us were very keen gardeners and planted some unusual specimens. I think this is one of those.
ordinarygoodness 