Hello from a sunny, winter Saturday. In fact most of this week has been dry with a good amount of sun. Where we live, we are sheltered from frost, so haven’t seen any white patches in the morning. It’s about 14C during the day and 8C at night. However, some things are looking a bit sad (lemon thyme, tarragon, lemon balm which seems to be being eaten by something), but other things are looking good as you will see below. Yes it is time for Six on Saturday and thanks once again to The Propagator for allowing us to share what is going on in our gardens.
First up, a colleague at work has solved the mystery plant problem. We decided it was tecomanthe speciosa. Apparently it is readily grown from cuttings and from seed, and can be found all over the country in gardens rather than in the wild. It likes sun and is sensitive to frost, so I guess the spot it is in makes a lot of sense.
Next up, other things that are doing well are the rosemary and the muscari, which are adding a lovely splash of blue to the decking.
However, there are also clear signs that it is winter, with these berries on bushes all around the house and up the staircase.
All the camellias are looking stunning right now, the white, the red and the pink. We are surrounded by gorgeous flowers.
Spotted….a daffodil bud. These are the jet fire daffodils, that a few of you recommended. Will monitor the progress here in weeks to come.
Finally…I managed to catch this spider’s web spun between one of the ferns and the fence. It’s a good size!
So that’s it from me. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s beautiful gardens in other parts of the world.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram@thistleandkiwis. As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
The red camellias against the blue sky look lovely. The muscari look great in a pot – I may give that a try.
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The Muscari are doing really well and look quite pretty in the tub.
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Thank you to your friend for giving us a name for the unknown flowers … Tecomanthe speciosa …
Otherwise, beautiful camellia colors with this blue sky
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Yes it was such a beautiful day.
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Camellias still looking good and berries giving a nice dash of winter colour.
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The camellias are stunning this year.
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Glad the mystery is solved.
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Me too!
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I see you have some winter Camellia, they are always good for providing colour at this time of year.
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Yes there are four bushes at our place, and then the neighbours have some too.
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Looks like you have beautiful blue skies – lots going on in your garden for winter with those beautiful camellias and bright blue Muscari!
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It is all looking lovely right now…well mostly….there are a few things that don’t like winter.
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Huh. Your winter temperatures aren’t that different to what we laughingly call summer at times. Nice that you have so much going on still.
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When I searched tecomanthe speciosa it says it was only discovered in 1945 & hasn’t been found naturally anywhere else in the world. How exciting is that? I’m glad you’ve got a name for it. Everything else in your winter garden is looking good. I’m still tickled that you’ve got northern hemisphere spring & winter happening all at once. I’m not sure how long you’ve been there, but have you gotten used to that yet or is it still all fresh?
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Yes apparently there is only one plant in the wild (I may be wrong here) but it is available through nurseries etc. I love it. I’ve been here 6.5 years, and have got used to the changes in the seasons – mostly – though I was really exited to see a few daffodils in the Botanic Gardens yesterday on what would be 1 January in the northern hemisphere.
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