October 01, 2022

Fall Breeze & Autumn Leaves

The nights are drawing in and the leaves begin to turn orange. 

Despite nature slowing down for the year, Michele's garden is still full of beautiful autumnal finds. Take a closer look below.
Originally bred for the floristry trade, you can now grow the elegant flower stems of this hardy Amarine in your own garden. This unique hybrid of Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine bowdenii brings the best of both species into one plant: vigorous growth, taller sturdier stems, a hardier habit and bigger flowers that last much longer in the garden than those of true nerines.
Magnolias produce large opulent flowers, usually in shades of pink or white, in spring or summer. In full bloom, the display can be truly breath-taking. They range in size from large trees to compact shrubs, so there are options to suit most gardens.
Tigridia pavonia is an exotic Mexican bulb, sometimes called peacock flower, an appropriate name in view of its quite startling colour combinations – all the shades of scarlet, orange, pink, yellow, mauve and white, usually with contrasting markings. It’s barely hardy, and normally grown as a tender summer annual, planted in spring and dug up again in autumn for storing in a dry frost-free place.
Cyclamen are tuberous perennial providing colour often when little else is flowering, particularly in late winter or early spring. Hardy cyclamen species and cultivars are ideal for naturalising under trees, on banks or in a shady border and planted in association with other early-flowering woodland plants such as snowdrops, winter aconites and primroses. Michele's seem to have made an early appearance this year!
With its large, scented, trumpet flowers, hanging in abundance from its branches all summer, this tropical shrub or small tree is a real showstopper. The huge, trumpet-like flowers in shades of white, pink, orange, red or yellow, can reach 30cm long.
Their shape gives the plant its common name, angel's trumpets. The flowers are deliciously scented, especially in the evening – in the wild in tropical south America, they are pollinated by moths.

Nothing quite beats the drama of delphinium flowers. They produce towering flower spikes that can reach over 2m tall. They're probably best known for their vivid sapphire blue flowers, but they also come in mauve, pink, white and even red. Delphinum flowers can be single or double, depending on the variety.

Delphiniums are in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and have been grown in the UK for centuries. The word delphinium comes from the Greek delphinos, meaning dolphin, probably because of the shape of the opening flowers. Their common name, larkspur, dates back to Tudor times.
Bougainvillea is a showy and spectacularly colourful evergreen plant for the home, conservatory, or greenhouse. The showy ‘flowers’ come in a huge colour range including purple, mauve, pink, apricot, red, yellow, and white. They're actually large paper-thin bracts which surround a central cluster of true flowers, which are tiny and white in colour.
Written by Michele White