Self care by growing a garden

[Adge]

I'm glad @Determined My garden & flowers makes me happy too - when I actually spend time out in it.

My neighbours are so noisy (screaming, loud music, banging things) - that I don't feel comfortable in my own backyard.

It's as if the neighbours have taken over my own private space (with constant noise).

I jus did a re-check - I do have one Mauve/Purple flowered Alstromeria (Princess Lilly) left.

It's spread out to cover about one metre wide.

It was the lovely Orange-flowered one that I lost.

Adge

[Adge]

My surviving Alstroemeria (Princess Lilly) looks like this...

[Adge]

These are doing well.

Strelitzia reginae - Bird of Paradise.

I grew it into a clump, from a tiny pot-plant.

[Adge]

This one I tried to germinate from seeds, but they never came up.

It's the Giant Bird of Paradise Flower (Strelitzia Nicolai).

[Determined]

we have a large out of control bird of pardice in one section of our garden @Adge 

I was ready to tear it out until it flowered. Thankfully darling knew what it was and asked me to leave it. my have a look at reducing it so it looks more manageable while I am on a study break.  

[Former-Member]

Love the Iceland poppies too @Smc did you grow them from seed? 

@Determined  @Adge  after having seen an out of control strelezia, I am not keen on having one at our place.  

Have you any heliconia plants @Shaz51 ?

Thinking of you today @Sheila  as my asparagus seeds have germinated 😀.

Have been working on our garden layout today.  Have not quite got the flow quite right so have taken a break from it hoping to get some inspiration over a cuppa.

[Adge]

Few plants get out of control here @Determined Unless you have a bore, & water like mad...

It's too hot & dry, especially for tropical plants - like Strelitzias.

Poinciana trees take about 20 years (from seedling), before they first flower - that's because it's so dry (& they're tropical).

My Strelitzias are in the Shade (so they don't get fried), & they took over 15 years to establish.

You can dig down, & remove some of the clump (if you want to) - although the roots are hard to get into.

You can also cut off many of the stems at the base, to reduce the size of the clump - the stems are very soft tissue (not woody).

Adge

[Shaz51]

My mum and mil has @Former-Member  xx

Hello @Adge , @Determined , @Smc 

[Smc]

@Former-Member, one picture is a purple poppy, Papaver segeritum, grown from seed, another is ranunculus grown from corms.... I do have a few Iceland Poppies scattered throught the garden, from a punnet. I'm hoping to collect seed from those to grow next year, but I've had patchy results with the Icelands for some reason.

My parents have an "out of control" Strelitzia. It's a patch about 3m across, right against the house. A couple of visits ago, I hacked back some of the stems so that a bit of light could get into the window of the room behind it. The flowers are beautiful, but...
I've got some in a large pot here. I haven't seen any really huge ones in this area, so I think the winters are cold enough to knock it back a bit.

@Adge, I've seen a white Strelitzia in a botanic garden. That is really gorgeous.

[Former-Member]

I did get poppy/ranunculi mixed up @Smc,  a neighbour has a fine display of the latter, hoping it means they are easy to grow here. 

Ended up tackling some more running bamboo as it became clear that we need to attend to it before we can complete garden layout.