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Windflower (Anemone coronaria)

Without noticing, I’m attracted to flowers from the buttercup family. It might be natural because of the flowers’ shape. The same goes for anemones. I tried to plant bulbs for the first time this year. The ones I planted were from a mixed colour package, so pink and red flowers appeared: not what I usually plant. There were more than I expected, but they got long, thin stems because they didn’t get enough sunshine. But they are still cute, so I decided to plant them next year, too.

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Delphinium (Delphinium x cultorum)

Actually it might too graceful a flower for my tiny garden, but I like it and planted it. (It is in the super-star class of flowers in English gardens!) The location suitable for tall plants in my garden might not get good sunshine, so I planted five in a planter. They grew well, but some time later, three of the five somehow got themselves cut off at the root. It was disease, or a bug…? There were two left that could blossom. To tell the truth, I like single petal flowers (belladonna) more than double petals (Pacific Giant); but even so, I’m attracted to the impressive colour of these flowers. This is also a member of the buttercup family.

(For more about belladonna, see the previous ‘shady garden’ feature. )

The photograph on the right shows the playful shape of a Pacific Giant. At the rear is a rose geranium.

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Moroccan Daisy (Chrysanthemum hosmariense)

It didn’t blossom when it was in a place without much sun, even though it was on the south side, so I brought it up to the east side of the second floor balcony. Then it blossomed. Plants are really honest.

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Bigleaf Periwinkle (Vinca major)

There were a lot of these unvariegated purple blossoms in the flower bed of an apartment block I used to pass. Compare to them, we are… And when I was thinking that, it blossomed. Even so, there weren’t many blossoms… I thought variegated leaves are all right for shady places, but it’s probably better to get reasonable sunshine.

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African Daisy (Dimorphotheca)

In the picture, the left is a white variety, and the one on the right is called ‘Ninja’. As you can guess from the name, it changes colour. The tube-shaped petals have two different colours front and back, and as it opens little by little, the flower changes colour. Although it was pink, I felt it was so strange that I bought it.

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Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans)

It was a flower I wanted to get for a long time because I heard it grew well in shady places. But it didn’t survive in a completely shady place. If it gets nice sunshine, it grows very well, as in the photograph on the right. I have high hopes for it.

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Tulip, Muscari, Primula, Viola

This place on the north side of our house gets good sun (for some hours in the morning).

I was impressed by how well the primula grew. Tulip flowers have a short life, but they are still pretty. They were big flowers, so we thought about a nun’s headgear when we saw the flowers from above, after they had passed their peak.

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Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata)

We trained it to grow along the fence on the east side of our lot. It’s the nicest sunshine spot in our garden. The first year, it didn’t blossom at all; but it has increased the number of flowers it puts out every year. The flower peak time is about one week in mid April. Currently, two kinds of passion flower and jasmine are rushing through the rose from the north side. We are happy if they are healthy, but our garden might turn into a jungle unless we think more carefully about pruning.

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Snapdragon, Viola

This is the planter on our gate post. It mainly gets west sunshine, but I think it’s a good place to grow flowers during the winter time.

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Salvia

I believed they were strong, but I feel that little by little they are getting weaker. Anyway, I thought they were nice until the second flowering. More soil space opened up in the planter after these salvia became weak, and a cat somewhere (maybe ours) used it as a toilet when I was careless – it was sad.

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Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

I noticed that the rosemary on the second floor balcony unexpectly blossomed for the first time. They are very small but pretty.

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Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia)

I mention this plant in ‘Real Life Manga’ elsewhere on this site (under its Japanese name, goya ). I heard that we usually eat the veggie before it fully ripens, but anyway I sowed the seeds instead of tosssing them, and it sprouted and blossomed. The sowing time was too late, so we don’t think we can get edible veggies; but we enjoy the leaves and the flowers. (Now it’s almost October, but some tiny veggies are trying to grow. We don’t know what will happen.) Anyway, we decided to try sowing earlier next year.

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Calla Lily (Zantedeschia)

The former resident might have forgotten about it when he extended the house. It put out one or two flowers from between bits of concrete from 2000, the year we moved in here, until 2002. (There were no flowers last year.) I tried to dig it out last winter. It was between a couple of walls, in a place where even my sholders wouldn’t fit. The bulb got a little broken, but I dug it out all right, and planted it at the border bewteen our lot and the house next door.

The photograph on the right shows the gate posts next door, and an amaryllis which blossomed this year for the first time in ten or more years.

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Australian Violet (Viola hederacea)

I soaked a cutting we got from our neighbour until it put out roots. It seems weak for too cold or too hot weather, but it grows well, and blossoms in spring and autumn. This is a cute creeper good for a half shady place.

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Passion Flower (Passiflora)

It didn’t blossom in summer 2003, but it has grown awfully fast in this past year. It seems that it’s almost reached our second floor, and the roof of the house next door, together with a reddish-purple passion flower, jasmine, and the cherokee rose. We must prune them before our neighbour notices it…

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Narrow leaf cotton bush (Gomphocarpus fruticosus)

I sowed seeds we got from a neighbour in 2002. It didn’t bloom so I almost gave up; but this year it bloomed. The flowers look strange, and then it puts out a seed shell that looks like a puffer fish (pictures below). I gave one of two to my parents’ house: their plants grew to the same height as ours, but about five times the volume. (Caution: It seems that yellow aphids love this plant.)

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Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana)

This photograph was taken in the middle of December and at the end of the flower peak. I brought it to the east-facing second floor balcony this time, but it was hanging above our entrance gate before. Before I introduced it as a summer flower, but with such a long flower peak time, it should be considered as an all year flower.

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Blue Marguerite [Blue Daisy] (Felicia amelloides)

It didn’t grow well at all when it was in a hanging basket or planted elsewhere in the garden; but when I left it in our entrance container garden, it bloomed well. This is its second or third year, but I haven’t had any success growing the variegated ones – I soon dried them out.

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Mini-Cyclamen

I read an article about this flower before in the newspaper, saying that it’s strong for winter cold. I got this one as a gift from our neighbour.

Date posted: 2004-09-30