grevillea

  • Kangaroo Pause

    So much is going on at the moment, it’s been hard to take the time to stop and smell the roses, or at least some kind of flower, but I’ve been able to take a bit of a pause this morning. It seems almost certain that my current career path is over, but where it leads to remains a mystery. Prospects are not exactly hot, but who knows what fate has in store? There’s plenty to love about life at the moment as the glorious weather continues in the ominous lead-up to the rainy season. This morning’s ride was clockwise in a loop I normally ride counter-clockwise, and I thoroughly…

  • Whetted for Wet

    Rain is falling pretty steadily and though the rainy season in Japan gets me down, on the verge of its start, the precipitation has whetted the garden’s appetite for the wet; at least for the onset of the season, which could go on for months, or not happen at all, as was the case last year. Snow in the summer is starting to bloom, greeting our large lounge room window with a view of dainty white flowers. Proteas, which had started with a bang in March then appeared to go dormant, have started to show signs of blooming, which would be bloomin’ marvelous, indeed, if they were to do so….

  • Just Flowers

    It’s a sodden day with rain punctuated by drizzle, but the flowers in Kangaeroo Corner are brightening an otherwise bleak day. The grevillea are simply gorgeous and our star tree is filling with flowers that I have to learn to deadhead so that we get even more. Snow in the summer made its first appearance for the year. More white came from the willow bottlebrush. And the linear-leaf grevillea, which has now been blooming for months. Perhaps an unsung star of Kangaeroo Corner is the coastal rosemary, which has also been consistently in bloom since pretty much the start of the spring. Although the flowers are a delight, not all…

  • Get Your ‘Thinking’ Paws From Me, A Damned, Dirty Mate!

    One of my great delights over the past few years has become gardening, and unaccustomedly I’ve taken on numerous challenges, including growing plants from seeds, and the kangaroo paws I wanted to bloom and flourish more than any other plant have started to flower. I picked up dozens of different types of seeds when I last visited Australia in September-October 2022. I started growing them in February 2023. I’ve now got about half-a-dozen blooming in the garden, either in pots or planted in the ground. All but one is orange. Many of the seeds germinated and propagated, but of the seedlings on the kangaroo paw, hardenbergia and dwarf wattle reached…

  • Feast of Flowers

    There’s much to love about Tokyo in May–long, warm days with little rain (for the most part), lots of greenery and things settle down after the hectic early months of spring when much of the country starts and ends the business year. Little, though, can beat the delight that the month’s flowers bring. For me, at least. Of course, the real stars of the Japanese spring flora are the cherry blossoms, wisteria and azaleas as the main players, but they’re usually gone by the time May hits its straps in the middle of the month (and there are plenty of other flowers that bloom beautifully, too, I’ve got to note)….

  • Fantastic Flora

    Slowly but surely the flowers in Kangaeroo Corner are putting on an increasingly delightful show. It was a sodden start to what is likely to be a demanding week or so as the company’s sole native English speaker in the office and the busy season well underway. But the flowers made a beautiful start as our bottlebrush continued to thrive and the grevillea starting to move into full bloom. Kangaroo paw buds are also evident, but the full flower is still some time away. And the other plants are enjoying the growing season by reaching skyward and looking great. I really want one of our banksia to flower this summer…

  • Brush With Death

    I got to have a brush with death this morning. Nothing serious, of course, as I’m referring to a log-awaited photo opportunity with our bottlebrush in full bloom and the Death Machine as we refer to the rickety old recumbent bike which seems to offer the opportunity of terminating life every time it is mounted. As a pun lover, I’ve been waiting for the chance to use this headline for a while, but preparing the Death Machine for a ride takes time as I have to uncover it, set up the lights and flagpole to make sure drivers can see me and not just run me down, and then invariably…

  • Brush Aside

    It’s a sodden May morning, so rather than risk my luck and hoping I’ll be able to brake properly, I’ve spent the morning enjoying the blooming bottlebrush flowers in our garden and being played with by my dinosaur. It used to be my habit to wake and immediately set off on a bicycle ride pretty much every morning of every day unless it was snowing or the roads were icy. Weather barely came into play, but over the past year, rheumatoid arthritis has played an increasingly dominating role in deciding when I can or can’t go out. Because it has such an effect on my braking, wet weather in particular…

  • Just A Bit Longer!

    The hand-wringing wait for spring blooms is slowly starting to draw to a close as more and more sections of the Kangaeroo Corner garden burst into flower. Our callistemon is literally packed with buds that are bursting into blossom in what is actually quick succession, but feels to be interminably long. The yearned-for kangaroo paw are also showing tremendous progress, as are the banksia and grevillea. Another week or two and the garden will be at its peak! Sadly, the cute little bugs that were enjoying our garden through to this morning appear to have met their demise, judging by the Japanese tit that landed on their pot with an…

  • So Close…

    Mid May, now basically, has become a tantalizing time of the year for me, with most of the spectacular blooming of the gorgeous Japanese flowers like cherry blossom, wisteria and azaleas (to name a few) having ended, but the Aussie plants in my garden not quite ready to spring forth. Plants are budding and growing, but flowers are few and far between now. Our garden superstar, the grevillea, has finally started to show a bit of flower growth with lots apparently still to come. I need to learn about deadheading to make the bloom a bountiful one. Kangaroo paw are budding in pot after pot (including the neighbor’s wonderful specimen)…