New World

A Stroll around the Autumn Garden

After a very busy summer working at art in one form or another, our garden has received virtually no attention but that given by my prodigal son, who has cut back some bamboo, lots of tree ferns, and mowed the lawns.

This morning, after a wet weekend, I found myself wandering around outside in my dressing-gown. The first thing to catch my eye was a little cluster of edible ear fungus Auricularia auricula, at the base of a pittosporum tree.

The sprinkling of wood-dust confirms that the cause of the tree's deterioration is probably some kind of borer beetle, probably the lemon tree borer (Oemona hirta), that I have posted about before.

The vegetation is quite thick in that vicinity so its loss will hardly be noticed, and in the meantime, it is providing a source of food for two interesting species, at least. (Just so long as it doesn't get into our mandarins and lemon!)

Something's been chewing on the orchids too...

The bromeliad flowers are out. Such a eye-catching contrast of colours placed together; red, green and blue.

The first camellia. I like the tiny serrations around the edge of the petals of this variety. They show up well against the dark green glossy leaves.

This autumn has been slow to arrive, and there is still lovely colour on the Japanese maples:

And something's also been munching on the sage. Imagine eating sage! It must have been very hungry.

A toppling bamboo cane broke off a large part of the tibouchina but it grows very quickly and there's still plenty of the bright purple flowers left. I always think they look very tropical.

Eye Candy Day 34