Parkville garden spring update

As the saying goes 'spring has finally sprung' in Melbourne and the garden I work in at Parkville is showing signs of new growth everywhere. It is so nice to be working outside with the sun shining on my back. We have had some fairly serious spring weather of late including winds that ripped through the garden at over 100km per hour! There has also been a few days where we experienced really heavy rainfall. Despite the weather the garden is still looking chirpy with new growth popping up everywhere and in another month or so it should start to look its best with most of the warm weather plants in bloom or just starting to pop open. My current favorite garden bed (the annual bed) is finally showing all of the flowers on the plants I planted there in winter. I have sown seeds including giant Hollyhocks and Zinnias in tubes ready to restock the annual bed for later in the year. I will post another update on the Parkville garden in a month or two when everything is firing at its peak.

The annual bed as it was a couple of months ago

 The annual bed as it is now. This time I planted Kale, Pansies, Violas, Cinerarias and Stocks

These Cinerarias look so much more blue in real life than in these photos. They were at their best about a week ago and are now starting to show some signs of old age.

These next two pictures are of the beds at the entrance. The Echium simplex flowers are almost all open. Also visible in the first picture is are some tree Euphorbias (Euphorbia lambii). In the second shot you can see the Hellebore flowers are still hanging on for dear life in the warm weather and behind them is a Salvia leucantha bush we pruned in the winter.

 

Below is a plant called a Sonchus (not sure of the species). Before this plant flowered I thought it was quite boring but now it has opened it sure is a head turner. It reminds me of a giant dandelion and is nudging 2 metres in height.

We have lots of bluebells in various locations in the gardens and they are all open at the moment.

 

One of the classic Melbourne plants, an Azalea.

This spring the Clivias are putting on a much better show than last year. They must have just the right conditions.

I really like this last plant. It is an Alyogyne which believe it or not is a plant indigenous to Australia. I occasionally  come across plants such as this that seem to look anything but Australian and it surprises me. I love the huge purple flowers.