Sunday 13 October 2013

Some gardening and some stitching

Yesterday I spent several hours at the botanic Gardens attending a fascinating workshop learning lots about propagating from cuttings.  Now I just have to put it into practice. starting later today!  I took these4 photos of some of the gingers which are flowering at present.

 This is a Chinese tulip ginger, with a closeup below. 



 Pink torch gingers in various stages of maturity.  They look spectacular.
 The curcumas in the Shade garden are flowering now.  Mine is a different variety and it won't flower till January.
 I showed this picture of a dianella in my garden last year, but missed the beautiful berries which follow.  They are edible, but I don't find they have much taste, and they are lovely just to look at.

 Bill has finally had time to rebuild the trellis which fell down (after 43 years!) and we have planted a new creeper.  While it is growing I have put in some petunias in front and they are giving us a great display at present.
Fortunately I have someone coming to water our garden while we are away, so I shall come home to plenty of flowers still, I hope.

 There hasn't been much stitching going on around here, but I had fun playing with the inktense blocks I recently bought from Dale.  Blogger has posted the photos in the wrong order, but you can see them all.  I needed a little notebook holder to take away with me.  I put down a layer of colour on evalon which I had first sprayed with water.  I let it dry and then did rubbings over a stamp with dry blocks.  I stamped over the top with the same stamp and gold paint.  I rather like the finished result, though the colours are not true to life in these photos.

I probably will not be posting again till we return, then I will have so many photos I will not know where to start.  We will have a week exploring in the South Island, before attending a Walking Guides of Botanic Gardens conference in Christchurch, then another week in the North Island to catch up with family again.  I am hoping the weather improves before we arrive - definitely still what we would call winter at present!

8 comments:

  1. I loved the Christchurch botanical gardens before the earthquake, I think it suffered a lot of damage, we used to go every year when we were skiing, in particuarto see the manificent magnolia campbelli in flower, hope it is still there, have a lovely time.

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  2. Wonderful pics as usual Robin - those gingers are gorgeous, as are the other plants. It was quite a surprise to see petunias after all the exotics. Your garden is beautiful. I love what you have done with Inktense blocks and must experiment more with mine. I have some Evolon somewhere so there are no excuses. Enjoy your time away and I hope the weather is kind. At least you can relax knowing you have someone to do the watering in your absence.

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  3. Super little notebook holder - shall expect it to be full of notes for us to enjoy on your return. Hope you enjoy your time away.

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  4. I enjoyed seeing those flowers. Here, autumn has arrived, the leaves are becoming bare, and few flowers are in bloom.
    Your notebook holder is eye-catching! Very nice.
    Have a wonderful time on holiday!

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  5. The ginger flowers are stunning. Do those very tall stems amongst the pink torch ones also have flowers on top.

    I love the notebook holder and I'm sure that it will get plenty of use. Have a lovely trip and good luck with the weather.

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  6. Your ginger plants are spectacular Robin, and I just love what you have done with the fabric for the notebook holder. We are having extraordinary weather here too.

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  7. What exotic flowers...I am mesmerised by the tulip ginger.
    And your notebook holder is fab....so vibrant!

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  8. I just popped over to see how you are. I love the pictures of New Zealand. I don't suppose I'll ever get there so its nice. I love your garden flowers, and its easy to see where the inspiration for this cover came from.

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