Welcome to my blog. Here you will find my adventures with my family and friends. Thanks so much for stopping by.

I'm so enjoying this wonderful world of blogging where I have met and made so many new friends.

Please leave a comment when you drop by so I can visit your blog and get to know you too
.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

GARDEN DISAPPOINTMENTS

Gardening can be so disappointing can't it?
You nurture your plants.....
Fertilise and trim them .......
and when the buds appear you look forward keenly to a beautiful show of flowers.

This is what was happening in our front yard.
The Ixora plants are lush and green after a dose of fertilizer and lots of rain.


They were completely covered with buds promising big heads of coral pink flowers like this.


But no. Look at this.


This plant should be covered with flowers


Instead we have this.


A horrible caterpillarish bug is eating all the buds and we are left with this!


Yuk ! YUk ! YuK !


I've sprayed again this morning but it's a battle with the rain washing it off.

Let's hope it's not too late and the next lot of buds survive.
I'll keep you posted !

At least elsewhere in the garden things are looking better.


The flowering gums are doing well


and the flowers are spectacular.


with the promise of more to come.


Even this tiny tree has heaps of buds


The frangipani is doing its bit and sending a delightful perfume through the air.


I guess you win some, you lose some!

Cheers.

10 comments:

  1. So sad to not get the wonderful flowerheads. It seemed to me the best show was always the year I forgot to do things to my garden :-)
    But oh I do so miss my gum, just like yours and its beautiful shows. I also had a wonderful orange one which was almost irridescent. At least you look high and dryish compared to the rest of your state

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh what a pain, I love Pink Malays, I have a few in my garden and so far so good.
    I am having trouble with my evergreen frangipanis they haven't been doing at all well this year and are only just starting to flower now. The other frangipanis are all starting to get rust as it has been so humid and wet. I'm crossing my fingers that the lawn grub won't be so bad this year, last year they completely decimated the lawn.
    After a few days of dryish weather we are now back to rain again, grrrrrrr.

    ReplyDelete
  3. very disappointing for you Helen!
    What a shame, never mind your garden is still beautiful. I look back at my blankets out there in my garden (in my album) and I cant wait for the spring /summer to arrive. We 've had enough of this cold weather, mind you I shouldn't complain, we are lucky comnpared to your country, what a shame, terrible views on the TV!
    Thanks for commenting on the knitted house. beautiful wasn't it? Fancy a lady in America showing us here. I put it on the MSE Knitting forum yesterday though and they have seen it on the Welsh BBC now.
    Love to you and I agree small things turn big!
    Suex

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the photos of your garden.Nothing doing here at the moment.Even the witch hazel hasn't come out.I think we are in for a long wait this year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your garden still looks better than mine. I hope you can get some flowers happening on your Ixora.

    Love frangipani.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OH, Nooooooooooo... Spray, Spray, Spray. We still have a long winter ahead here and are counting on your for the flowers and color.

    By the way, Love the curb appeal to your great looking house. Show us more.

    As always great posting,
    Kate

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a shame, especially when you are hanging out for some colour and blossom. Nasty little grubs.
    Your flowering gums look gorgeous, such a beautiful colour.
    Anne

    ReplyDelete
  8. You do have lots of beautiful flowers. Sorry about the bugs. Yes, you win some, you lose some, as I know. I am sure I have accidentally killed some of mine because I stabbed a fork in them, in the snow, intending to make frozen holes for slugs, forgetting that the plants were there!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It can indeed be disappointing but on the other hand it can be so satisfying when it works out well too! I guess the thing is to have a mixed garden so that even if some don't do well others will and it looks as if that is what you have there. All those flowering plants are so different to anything we get here and from where we are standing at the moment it all looks very colourful! Raining cats and dogs here now and everything is so wet and miserable looking so keep those lovely flowers coming Helen! Maybe next year those plants will surprise you with a mass of blooms.

    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a nuisance, I regularly have gardening disappointments! Just haven't really got green fingers! x

    ReplyDelete