Monday 7 July 2008

Rioting Artistry....

or delicate patterns...



Spider Heaven



Kalanchoe tomentosa, or Stitchplant, could it be wool embroidery on velvet?



Grevillia flower, the untangle game!


The prickly stars of a cactus

Aliens in my garden, veines pattern its mellow green skin! (Staghorn)

Haworthia coarctata, elegant form and colour, patterned with symmetry.




Aloe standing sentinel on the way up to my house. I will plant more of them to give this area a real "buzz"!

Closeup of the opening flower, artistry with a paintbrush!



Feathery grasses and...

a surprised face.


It went round and round until it got dizzy...




Handy little seed containers they have already a little hole to shake out the seeds when they are ripe. Dark purple bottlebrushes are gracing this Callistemon when the time is right!




Who can resist kitten faces.





Haworthia attenuata displays the icing on the cake.


Haworthia is a genus of flowering plants within the family Asphodelaceae. They are small (typically 20 cm high) solitary or clump-forming and endemic to South Africa. Bayer (1976)[] recognized 68 species, with 41 subspecies, varieties and forms. Some species have firm, tough leaves, usually dark green in color, whereas other are soft and semi-translucent.
Their flowers are small, white and very similar between species. But their leaves show wide variations even within one species. Some species such as
Haworthia attenuata and Haworthia cymbiformis, are fairly common housplants.
Closely related plants in the Asphodelaceae, include the genera
Aloe, Gasteria and Kniphofia. Some intergeneric hybrids between Aloe or Gasteria and Haworthia species are known.
The genus Haworthia is named after the botanist
Adrian Hardy Haworth.
Haworthia species reproduce both through seed and through
budding, or pups. Certain varieties may be more successful or rapid in pup production, and these pups are easily removed to yield new plants once a substantial root system has developed on the offshoot. Less reliably, the plants may also be propagated through leaf cuttings, and in some instances, through tissue culture. Wikipedia


A shell with a frilly cap.




The raindrops add interest to the linear pattern of this leaf.





The humble Dandelion, the golden stars of the meadows.
The bane of my ornamental garden. Dandelions in the southern hemisphere look a little different to their brothers and sisters in the northern hemisphere.



Ageratum , its lavender trusses look so innocent and beautiful grow in the maedow, tall, with a tonne of roots and a trillion of seeds!



Growing Banksia flower, exact craftsman ship.


Our Mrs. Benteli, a feathery outfit in black and white. Mrs. Benteli is over 10 years old. Her egg laying days are long past, she still doesn't know that she is actually a guinea fowl she thinks she is a dog! She has grown up with the dogs Tash and Sophie both have past away. She misses them. She doesn't like Billy she chases him and than in return he chases her...



The Ballerinas show off the their newest tutus ...



Believe it or not:
To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment. Jane Austen 1775-1817 from Mansfield Park.





Organic tip of the week: Eat more cabbage it is good for you!

The cabbage (
Brassica oleracea Capitata Group), is a plant of the Family Brassicaceae (or Cruciferae). It is a herbaceous, biennial, and dicotyledonous flowering plant with leaves forming a characteristic compact cluster. Cabbages grown late in autumn and in the beginning of winter are called coleworts.
The cabbage is derived from a leafy
wild mustard plant, native to the Mediterranean region. It was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans; Cato the Elder praised this vegetable for its medicinal properties, declaring that "it is first of all the vegetables". The English name derives from the Normanno-Picard caboche ("head"). Cabbage was developed by ongoing artificial selection for suppression of the internode length. The dense core of the cabbage is called the babchka. It is related to the turnip.
The sharp or bitter taste sometimes present in cabbage is due to
glucosinolate(s).
wikipedia


Cabbage should never be boiled. It is a very tasty vegetable,when properly cooked. There are innumerable recipes from many countries to make very tasty dishes with cabbage.

The only part of the plant that is normally eaten is the leafy head; more precisely, the spherical cluster of immature leaves, excluding the partially unfolded outer leaves. The so-called 'cabbage head' is widely consumed raw, cooked, or preserved in a great variety of dishes. Cabbage is a leaf vegetable. wikipedia

Medicinal properties
In European folk medicine, cabbage leaves are used to treat acute inflammation. A paste of raw cabbage may be placed in a cabbage leaf and wrapped around the affected area to reduce discomfort. wikipedia

Cabbage contains significant amounts of glutamine, an amino acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties.
It is a source of indol-3-carbinol, or I3C, a compound used as an adjuvent therapy for
recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a disease of the head and neck caused by human papillomavirus (usually types 6 and 11) that causes growths in the airway that can lead to death.wikipedia

Mechanisms of Action of Cabbage: A Food Source of Glutamine with Known Chemopreventive and Immunoprotective PropertiesIn addition to its glutamine (and folate and glucosinolate) content, other factors within cabbage contribute to its inherent immunoprotective and chemopreventive properties. Cabbage stimulates the production of tumor necrosis factor a (TNF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1), important players in antitumorial, antiviral, immunoregulatory, and inflammatory responses.37 Further, cabbage contains glucosinolates and their breakdown products that alter the induction of glutathione S-transferase (GST), NADPH, and Quinone oxidoreductase (NQO),38 thereby supporting detoxification of colon cancer-causing agents in the body.
www.townsendletter.com/




Copyright T.S. Yesterdaytodayandtomorrow in my garden. July 08
All Photos from my garden July 08







Have a nice day!

15 comments:

Katarina said...

Mother nature is a true artist - so many fantastic patterns on display today!
The surprised face is Dietes bicolor, isn't it? I nicked some seeds of it in California last autumn and I am now waiting for the flowers to show themselves.
Have a good week!
/Katarina

Di DeCaire said...

Hi there, your photos capture what is less obvious to the eye and that's what I like about them. Wondering if patterned daylilies have gotten to your part of the world?

Marie said...

Beautiful photos! So many different plants :)

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Katarina, yes it is Dietes bicolor.I hope yours will give you many beautiful flowers. They are very hardy, don't mind rain or drought.)

Di, patterned daylilies are available. I haven't bought yet any, because they are very expensive. I have bought some which are not so popular anymore but still absolutely gorgous.)

Marie, thank you, I will now dash over into your garden!

Amy said...

So many fascinating plants that are probably common to you, but I've never seen anything like it in my life :) Thanks so much for "faving" me on Blotanical.

Unknown said...

Grevillia, Stitchplant--what beautiful patterns! And i simply love the way you have interspersed shells and petals. Most appealing!

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Amy, you are very welcome and thank you for visiting.

Kanak thank you for your visit and thoughtful comment.

Barbee' said...

You do have the eye of an artist! Beautiful!! Oh, and how I love seeing your little guinea fowl. My grandparents had them on the farm where I grew up and I miss them terribly. I wish I lived where it is permitted to have some.

Laura said...

Lovely, unique and quirky plants :) Great shots! You can almost reach out and touch them!

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Barbee and Laura, thank you both for your visit.

Frances, said...

Hi Titania, one could get lost in the geometry of the plants you have shared with us. Your climate must be very tropical to have these blooming now, you are in mid winter, right? And I promise to eat more cabbage.

Sunita Mohan said...

Beautiful photos and a very interesting post. You never fail to surprise me : )
Your photos are amazingly sharp and clear. Share the secret?
I'm looking forward to seeing what you're going to post about next.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Frances, yes we are in the middle of winter. Mornings and nights are cold but in the daytime it quickly warms up. Lots of plants are enjoying the cooler time of the year. The climate is subtropical.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Sunita thank you for your visit. I think my photogaphic skills are only thanks to my tiny, trusted Lumix MEGAO.I.S. I still have not fully investigated it. I am always surprised what it can do! I think technic today is superb, surely it can't get better!

Linda said...

I love guinea fowls, especially their sound.