Hut Christmas 2013 - lilies

Our garden comes to the party just at the right time. Although I have quite a few white trumpet Christmas lilies, they are usually not ready until January. However, the bold colours of my Asiatic lilies more than make up for that. 

The red ones started a few days ago.

Do certain flowers remind you of Christmas? 

Snap it {yellow}

Looking back in my albums I found a little bit of yellow. I need to see these photos, it's a grey old day here in Tasmania. Unsurprisingly all were photos of flowers!

Playing along over here today.

Garden at sunrise

With ANZAC day in the middle of our week, we feel like we've had two Friday nights and two Sundays. Delicious indeed.

The veggie patch is coming along, with cabbage, rocket and carrot seedlings popping up in the beds. Fingers crossed they get going before it gets too cold. Rob planted all the golden shallots we kept from last year, if we do as well as we did last year (each bulb became a set of 6) he may let me eat some of them!

We spent a happy afternoon planting bulbs that we have been dragging around in pots from house to house. The Zantedeschia bulbs are quite freaky looking, big potato sized things with fat roots coming out around the crown of it. I hope they'll be happier in the ground finally. The final pots of pink and white lilies also went in to their beds too.

We're looking forward to a quiet weekend at the hut, we're having a few friends over for lunch on Sunday, so Rob and I are busy discussing menu options. I think we've settled on gougères to nibble on whilst the tea smoked ocean trout cooks followed by a Tarte Tatin, Rob's favourite dessert.

Happy weekend to you.

Friday Flowers

It's back. I just got a download of photos Rob took awhile back with the real camera. Ahem. It makes me realise how much better these photos are than my iPhone, and that I should stop being so damn lazy and use the real camera!

Anyway these were the last of my lilies for the year, these oriental lilies not only looks stunning but also are scented.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, we have a long weekend in Australia, so I'm planning some sleeping in (hopefully Rob doesn't read this), gardening, and some hut maintenance jobs.
We need to re-coat the timber, as the original coat has finally soaked in.
I'm sure I'll be back here over the weekend anyway.

Friday Flowers

Our fence is progressing, although unwinding 200m of tangled high tensile wire took all morning, I had to hold ends whilst Rob unwound the mixed up loops. It was like the worst puzzle you can imagine, anyway it's done!

I've been rearranging lilies in the garden beds, grouping them by colour. Although we actually planted two beds with box cuttings for the edge of my beds and another with garlic and shallots so I can't quite put them in their final places. It's getting there and I've dug out a big plan I made of it all, it will be a like a colour wheel. I'm starting to get excited about buying some other plants in the new year.

So a few pics of the yellow lily that started this week and another of those purple zantedescias.

Friday Flowers

Super quick, about to head off on a mystery work Christmas lunch.

New cream lilies from the hut. The window you can see in the last pic is our bedroom, I love looking out to the flower garden, and can't wait to see it develop.

Friday Flowers

Another week has gone in a flash. This Friday I have some hut flowers to share. The lilies have started!
I love lilies, so easy to grow, and so spectacular. The Asiatic lilies usually start first, but this year my Zantedeschia lilies have decided to go early. This black one is my favourite, the colour is so rich. They are great cut flowers as they last forever in a vase. The orange and red lilies are just starting, but I can see the cream flower buds swelling up so they must be close too.

Thanks for all your comments about our tree. Even though I was so tired last night, I still had to sit and look at it for awhile. Just a little sneak peak of the living room at the hut, our honeycomb decorations went up last night and those cute little red stocking garlands are on each window. I've written little notes for Rob and tucked them into each day of our Advent calendar. We accidentally ate the chocolate I had put aside for each day so I need to get some more, cause you can never have enough chocolate right? I won't share all the notes with you, (for fear you'll realise just how silly and romantic we are), but Rob's 2nd advent calendar note was that I will put the iphone away this evening (apart from the obligatory photo of dinner) and I will just concentrate on him. He looked quite happy about that, opps, maybe I'm a little more addicted to instagram and blogging than I thought!
Have a lovely weekend.

Faking it

I'm cheating winter.

I bought some lily bulbs that were cold treated.

The poor things think it's summer.

This is a LA lilium called Royal Sunset.

I love the outrageous colour, like a fruit sorbet.
They have been flowering for weeks now,

somehow they make me feel warmer even though it's chilly outside.

From our garden: Lilies

I have to confess a slight obsession with lilies- I started a couple of years ago. Some Asiatic and Christmas lilies. Then the next year I got some Orientals and more Christmas lilies. They are the best sort of flower- pop them in the ground or a pot, forget about them until the leaves pop up like little pineapples, then water and feed (only a bit) and then you are rewarded with these beautiful, and sometimes fragrant flowers.
The best bit is that they vegetatively reproduce themselves like crazy, after they're done you can dig up the bulb and there will be a twin and several small baby ones.
So my collection doubles itself each year!