Blooms that make me smile.

This beautiful vine is Thunbergia, commonly known as 'black eyed susan climbing vine'. It grows incredibly quickly, and inch or more per day, and flowers well, even with very little sun. The pumpkin coloured flowers are delighful.

I am a big fan of Blue Star Petunias, I plant them every year with some white & blue lobeila. I find them very cheerful, and they bloom beautifully, even with only receiving a few hours of morning sun.

Also in my east facing shaded beds are a few yellow snapdragons, I'm surprised at how well they're doing, and will be sure to add more next year. This bed has been a bit of a challenge, and is a work in progress. It has daffodils in the spring, and in previous years has been left mulched, but this year I added a few perennials and annuals to liven it up.


Here is another new addition, Delphinium grandiflorum 'blue elf'. I love the shape of the flowers, they remind me of witches hats. The colour is much nicer in real life.


This is a recent picture of my H.F. Young clematis. I'm so pleased with it, since i wasn't expecting to see any blooms until next year, and there are at least a dozen buds forming. I've had to add on to my 4 ft trellis.

The base of the trellis is planted with these lovely 2 tone purple & white osteospermums. They have grown incredibly well, I'm hoping they will somehow self seed and come back next year.


They remind me of the simple, and always pleasing shape of a shasta daisy.

I planted a few obedient plants about 3 years ago, and they did very poorly. A few would come back but only grow some foliage and not set any flowers. This year, many are growing quite vigorously and blooming well. I like the way this one looks alongside C.carpatica.


And finally, the belle of the ball, Kyushu hydrangea.