Lillies, Echinacea and Sunflowers

I took some pictures of flowers in bloom in the Parkville garden. We have had some very hot weather there lately (almost 40 degrees Celsius). Things alive and well due to lots of watering. My precious sunflowers have all survived the heat and are doing well.

Echinacea (coneflowers) are in bloom and are a magnificent sight. I'm definitely planting some of these at home in the future. I especially like the coloured ones but even these white ones are amazing when flowering.

Below are pictures of the first sunflowers to burst open. Many more to come.

Lastly is a double Oriental Lily.  Eighty percent of the time I'm not a fan of double flowers. I tend to always think of their single cousins as an example of what they are supposed to look like. I'd never seen these before and actually prefer them over the singles.

Plants in the Parkville garden December 2012

I shot some quick pictures in the Parkville garden today after work. It's now Summer but my days are still mostly involved with cutting things back on top of the regular maintenance work such as the lawns and weeding. I planted out over 100 Sunflower seedlings which comprise of 10 different varieties. The ones I've planted at home over the years always ended up eaten by slugs but with over 100 now in the ground and snail bait sprinkled amongst them, I'm guessing more than a few will survive to bloom.

We have lots of different coloured Streptocarpus plants in pots. I'm not a huge fan of Streptocarpus when they are not in flower but when they are in flower they sure are pretty.

Below is one of our Oriental Lilies. We have Two other types but their flowers are spent for the year. Our Asiatic Lilies still haven't bloomed but they look close.

Next are Two types of Daylilies. The term Daylily is the common name for plants of the genus Hemerocallis. As the name suggest the flowers typically only last a day but new flowers appear the day after. They are perennial plants and different species provide different colours and sizes of flowers. You can see the orange Daylily below is already starting to wither (I took that photograph at 3pm). The yellow Daylily is of the cultivar 'corky' and is only half the size of the orange one.

Lastly is Hydrangea quercifolia which is known by the common name of Oakleaf Hydranfea. When was informed that this plant was infact a Hydrangea I was surprised as I was only familiar with Hydrangea macrophylla. It is a perennial plant that sprouts from stolons. It is native to South Eastern USA. I think it is a much more interesting specimin than macrophylla which is very common here in Melbourne.