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What's Flowering Now - November

12/11/2016

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This month's round up of what's currently flowering in my garden. My garden is humming with bees of all kinds - honeybees, bumblebees, wool carder bees, and various natives, as well as other beneficial insects and pollinators. I'm slowly weeding and planting, and have just put in some flowering annuals, but most of what's currently flowering is still perennials or self-sown plants, or those that I planted last season. Let's take a look at what's flowering now (and a few that flowered since my October round up, but have now just finished).....
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Leptospermum "Outrageous" - I brought this gorgeous plant last season but have only just planted it. One day it will be a big, beautiful screen hiding my feed and rubbish bins.
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Foxglove - self sown and the first one I've seen on my property. I plan to cut and bin the flowering stems before they set seed and spread everywhere, but meanwhile the bumblebees are loving them.
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Lemon-scented geranium
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Borage - self sown. Bees love them and the flowers are pretty on a salad. Good companion to strawberries, but watch out - they tend to take over!
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Phacelia - self sown. Bees LOVE this stuff!
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Osteospermum - grown from a cutting given to me by a local gardener. Spreads to form a low-growing thicket. Hardy and shade tolerant.
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Common thyme
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A bed full of broad beans, a self-sown radish, and some other flowers surrounding - closeups below
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Broadbeans
Right: corn cockle. Once upon a time, found wild in cornfields but thanks to modern agriculture is now extinct in the wild. I love them!
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Self-sown radish. I'm waiting for the seed pods, which if picked young are tender edibles.
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Coxes Orange apple tree - the last of my apples still blooming
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Pink geranium. I have red ones flowering too
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Chives - I have at least 4 patches of chives around the garden. Bees love the flowers, and I love this herb in just about everything!
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The first of the Granny's Bonnets I planted last year have started flowering amidst the lavendar which is still going strong (and positively BUZZING!)
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Tiny pink Soapwort flowers; it will flower all summer
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First of the tea roses (above) and carpet roses (right)
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Blooming buttercup. 'nuf said!
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Strawberries - home grown always tastes better!
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Spring onion - bees love all onion family flowers, especially bumble bees
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The short lives but lovely azalea blossoms are already starting to fade.
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First flowers on self-sown nasturtiums. I'm planning to pull all self sown ones this year as I want to have the clumping variety instead of these trailing (takeover everything) ones. I've grown clumping nasturtium before, but it turns out when it cross pollinates with the trailling ones, all future offspring are trailing.
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White clover
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Boysenberries
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Self-sown pansies and violas have popped up here and there. When things naturally grow, it's a good indication of the right time to plant similar or related plants.
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Blackcurrants are flowering - the red currants have already set fruit as they come on earlier.
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Dandelion
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English daisies are popping up in the lawn. Daisy chain, anyone?
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Common sage - determinedly popping up in the midst of an overgrown tangle of couch!
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Red clover
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Raspberries
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Self-sown Calendula in all colours is around my garden. Going to grow lots more on purpose this year - we use it a lot to make wonderful healing salves.
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Polyanthus in various colours
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Capeweed. Bees love it, spreads easily. Easy to pull out.
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Fumitory - weed. One of two wild herbs my neighbour used to cure himself of a lingering Giardia infection
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My lemon, lime and orange trees are all putting forth buds that are about to burst into blossom!
That's it for this month's flower round up. What's flowering in YOUR garden?
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What's Flowering Now - October

4/10/2016

2 Comments

 
A quick whip-round with the camera to see what's flowering in my garden at the moment. Flowering plants are not only pretty, but essential for attracting and feeding bees and other beneficial insects.
Last month was bee awareness month, with people counting bees, being encouraged to plant wildflowers and so on. Bees and other pollinators are very important for good production; some crops will not produce without them. My garden has been very neglected for most of this year, due to a multitude of things going on, I'm just starting to work on it once again.

So, anything that is flowering now is either a perennial, a weed, a vegetable that's gone to seed, or self-sown! Let's take a look at what's out there....
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Dead-nettle; a common weed with herbal uses, the bees love it.
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Flowering early in the spring, ornamental quince is pretty but unproductive. This one grows wild in the hedgerow bordering our section.
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My blueberries are just starting to flower - I saw a bumblebee visit this flower just before I snapped the pic.
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Broccoli - after harvesting the main heads and eating lots of side shoots, I left later shoots to flower for the bees - they LOVE brassica flowers! Small birds also love the dried seed pods, if you leave them that long. There have been a series of flowers since about June, always buzzing with bees.
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Self-sown calendula in various shades are dotted around the garden.
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Spring onions - all onion family flowers are great for bees.
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Common thyme
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My trellised Banksia rose is just starting to bloom. The fragrance is delicate but wonderful!
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White alyssum - I actually just hauled out a couple of wheelbarrow loads of this as it was swamping my carpet roses, but it will grow back. Very vigorous.
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This camellia is in full flower, though my other two aren't even close.
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Buddleia - aka Butterfly bush - we have a long row of these trees with lots of Monarchs visiting
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Arum lillies
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This unidentified native (?) tree is flowering
The pears are just about to burst into flower, and the apples won't be far behind. Meanwhile, I have a number of flower seedlings growing in the greenhouse.

If I keep on top of the garden for the next year, it will be interesting to see what is flowering next October and compare!
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Dandelion, Catsears and the like. A gorgeous finch is taking advantage of the seeds. Dandelions are a valuable source of pollen for bees early in the season
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*Real* quince - this large tree is now covered in blossoms and bears loads of fruit each year.
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Self-sown borage
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Self-sown broad beans. Flowers are very popular with bees from about Sept onwards.
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White alpine strawberries seem to flower year-round
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Mizuna in a pot is flowering.
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Rosemary - in need of a prune, but providing flowers for the bees most of the year. I have three rosemary plants.
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Stella cherry
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Lavender - due for a prune!
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Polyanthus
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Petunias
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An ancient kowhai in the paddock
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Buttercup - boo-hiss!
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Damson plum, grown from a sucker. Hoping for fruit this year
What flowers are in your garden now? What are you planting? To see some pics of 10 flowering plants that were attracting lots of bees and beneficials in my garden one January, as well as a list of what else was flowering, click HERE. It might give you some ideas of what to plant now for summer flowers!
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