have some flowers

I've always been about growing all the edible things! Succulents? Not really. Ornamentals? Pass. Flowers? Can I eat them? No? No.

It's only the last couple of years that I've started realising that I need to plant more bee-friendly plants, more meadow flower patches, more spaces for flowers of all types and kinds.

I mean, there's always been the roses in the lounge room bed (although they were much smaller when we moved in):

And nasturtiums in the orchard almost as long as there's been an orchard.

And in the last couple of years, I've planted an array of salvias, marigolds, lavender, and asian basil, as well as an elder bush. And the bees LOVE it.

There's always been freesias around in the lawn - they just spread and seed of their own accord. And I've planted tulips, daffodils, and jonquils, with varying success (but usually 'not much'):

I've repeatedly tried growing poppies - both the oriental and the california sort - anywhere and everywhere. Almost none of them took. In fact all the flowers that I planted intentionally never seemed to really take. (Salvias, Indian and Asian basil, and lavender don't count. They're the sort of plants that if you leave them alone they'll sit there forever, and then suddenly BOOM.) Even the sweet peas - which everyone said was super easy - didn't do very well for me.

Then this year, I decided I would try planting things in late autumn, let them sit through the winter, so that by the time spring and the rapidly warming seasons came around, they'd have their roots in.

Sweetpeas:

Asection of lawn under the frangipani tree where I spread a 'meadowflower mix' really thickly...

And right now, when the poppies are flowering...

So, yes, I can grow flowers. Sort of. In big tranches of planting. Sometimes. (I've planted a whole bunch of other flowers in clumps and often they haven't made it up. These ones were thickly planted on prepared soil and covered lightly with straw to keep the moisture in.) Other attempts at developing swathes of flowers will probably have to wait for next autumn, because I think it needs the winter to get their roots in without being burned to a crisp.

Welcome to Australia.

But just look at that last poppy. The colours! The powder blue pollen! The hot pink centre with green gills! The dark inner petallage that highlights the colours? So pretty! SO. PRETTY.

I haven't grown many flowers over the years, but I am loving this season.