FLOWERS FROM THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS

Good Morning to you,

I was tidying the kitchen yesterday evening and I looked out of my kitchen window and I could see a red glow in my garden. 

I went outside and look what I saw.  I  called George to come and take a look at this wonderful sight of nature.  

I dashed upstairs to get my camera, to record this beautiful sky and I thought you would love to see it.  I have not done anything to these photographs apart from placing a border around them..... isn't nature the most wonderful thing. What is the saying "Red sky at night, shepherds delight".

..... and talking of nature, I thought I would show you some of the beautiful flowers which I grew in my garden in Cyprus. I really do not have many photographs, as I never thought to take photographs of my garden, well that is until I started this blog, I just used to enjoy the experience of gardening.

Look at the colour of the sky, I have to tell you, it really was that beautiful shade of blue. Now go back and take a second look at the sky which I photographed last night..... so totally different in colour.

The first year we planted sunflowers, we were amazed at how tall they grew and we could not believe the size of the flower heads, they were the size of dinner plates. We always left the flowers to dry on the plant as the birds loved eating the seeds.

I'm not exaggerating when I say the sunflowers were about seven feet tall.  You can see they were tall because of the angle of the photograph, it was taken from below. 

This beautiful flower is a Caesalpinia from Argentina, but is commonly known as the Yellow Bird of Paradise.

The flowers are so very beautiful with long red stamens protruding from each flower.

Do you remember, I spoke about this plant when I visited the Amethyst Gardens in India, it has a  fascinating way of seeding itself. If you would like to know how this Yellow Bird of Paradise seeds itself, you can read about it here.

I had never seen a Lantana bush until I lived in Cyprus, then the second time was when I visited Natasha in Atlanta, they were everywhere and in a range of beautiful colours.  Can you see the little ant which is paying the Lantana a visit. In November, I would cut it right down and by the Spring it had trebled in size. I even turned one of the bushes into a standard Lantana, and I was so pleased with the results as it meant I could under plant the Lantana with smaller flowers.

This beautiful Hibiscus is rose-sinensis which thrived in Cyprus. The common name for this Hibiscus is Rose of China. I planted four Hibiscus plants in the front garden and with a little trimming they provided us with the most beautiful, colourful hedge which was full of these beautiful red flowers.

To the left you can see a beautiful purple climber which is full of flowers which look like miniature Buddleia flowers.  I never found out what this plant was called, a friend gave me a cutting, who also did not know the name, I rooted it, then planted it and it romped away, covering the fence. 

The climate in Cyprus was perfect for growing  Geraniums, well I can only say they were a triumph.  We never experienced frost or snow, in Larnaca, so the Geraniums just grew and grew.  I think the tallest was about 3 feet and they grew into bushes.  I had to prune them in the Autumn to keep them in some sort of order, well not too much order, as I love to see plants mingle, where you don't see where one plant begins and another ends.

In England, George loves growing bonsai trees, but when we left England he had to give them all away, as the climate in Cyprus was not conducive to growing bonsai trees..... far too hot in the summer. So George discovered another plant which he had a talent for growing..... Cacti.  

Look at this beautiful Cactus flower. Have you ever seen anything prettier.  George had a huge variety of Cacti which he enjoyed growing, but I think my favourite was this Golden Barrel Cacti. The cacti would produce buds, the bud would open, but not  during the day, they would open during the evening.  

Then within 24 hours they would fade away. We had many of these lovely Cacti, so we had a succession of flowers to enjoy. They really are the most delicate flower.

I have loved showing you these photographs, and they have been a lovely reminder of our garden, but I cannot take any credit for them, as they were taken by our friend Nick, who came to the Island of Cyprus to stay with us for a week.

Thank you Nick, for taking these lovely photographs and for bringing back memories of our beautiful garden...... we both loved looking at them again.

Take care and I will see you later in the week.

This week I will be joining,

Yvonne from StoneGable

and

Sherry from No Minimalist Here

and
Kathryn from The Dedicated House