ROSE BOUQUET

Rose bouquet:  Red for love, pink for joy and white for secrecy...

ANDROMEDA

Andromeda polifolia, common name bog-rosemary, is a species of flowering plant native to Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only member of the genus Andromeda, and is only found in bogs in cold peat-accumulating areas.

It is a small shrub growing to 10–20 centimetres (rarely to 40 cm) tall with slender stems. The leaves are evergreen, alternately arranged, lanceolate, 1–5 centimetres long and 2–8 millimetres broad, dark green above (purplish in winter) and white beneath with the leaf margins curled under.

The flowers are bell-shaped, white to pink, 5–8 mm long; flowering is in late spring to early summer. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous seeds.  'Compacta' shown here is a small evergreen shrub to 20cm in height, with oval leaves and terminal clusters of clear pink, globose flowers. 

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FREESIAS

Flowering bulbs are easy to grow either in your garden or in pots. Moreover they can forced to bloom out season if you follow a simple set of directions. Freesias are particularly rewarding bulb flowers as they need little care, bloom profusely and many varieties are scented beautifully. Many of the new large-flowered cultivars come in some astounding shades.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SPRING BOUQUET

An early Spring bouquet from our garden. You can see anemones, freesias, bluebells, stocks, primulas, calendulas, marigolds and eau-de-cologne plant foliage.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

WINTER BOUQUET

I guess we are fortunate in Melbourne as our Winters are never heavy, with the seasonal cold and rain quite tolerable. If it snows in the City it is first page news, so we're lucky there too. This generally means that whatever the season, fresh flowers are available locally (even if some of them have been forced to blossom - the Spring bulbs, for example).

This Winter bouquet has violet-coloured Dutch irises (Iris × hollandica), creamy white Alstroemeria (Alstroemeria × hybrida), and orange-pink Asiatic lilies (Asiatic lilies - Lilium asiatica).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

BOUQUET FOR MUM

Mother's Day is a celebration of all the mothers in the world, honouring the mother of the person, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honouring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents Day. In Australia we celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May, May 14 in 2017.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme.

WARATAHS & CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Waratah (Telopea) is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania). The most well-known species in this genus is Telopea speciosissima, which has bright red flowers and is the NSW state emblem.

The waratah is a member of the plant family Proteaceae, a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The key diagnostic feature of Proteaceae is the inflorescence, which is often very large, brightly coloured and showy, consisting of many small flowers densely packed into a compact head or spike. Species of waratah boast such inflorescences ranging from 6–15 cm in diameter with a basal ring of coloured bracts. The leaves are spirally arranged, 10–20 cm long and 2–3 cm broad with entire or serrated margins. The name waratah comes from the Eora Aboriginal people, the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.

Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the centre of diversity is in China. There are countless horticultural varieties and cultivars. Shown here is a green spider chrysanthemum hybrid.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.