In the garden this morning

The Day Lily. It derives its name from the Greek hemero = day and kallos = beauty, and of course, only flowers for a day.

Gaura, native to North America and I found out today; also found in a yellow variety.

The ubiquitous agapanthus, indigenous, and deriving its name from the Greek agape = love and anthos = flower.

After taking pictures of flowers in Prince Albert some months ago I decided to buy two books on flowers so that I would no the name of the flowers I was photographing.

They were; 'What flower is that?', by the late Kristo Pienaar, and 'Wild Flowers of South Africa' by Braam van Wyk. Both are available on http://www.kalahari.net.

So, when I took photographs in the garden this morning, I looked up the details of each of the lovely subjects and I learned so much!

More Prince Albert flowers

Early morning garden

Geranium flowers.

Geranium flowers peaking their noses out.

My first rose of the season, slightly weathered already.

My first strawberry. After transfering it from the nursery pot into its new more spacious home it turned red overnight. That's gratitude.

Watsonia flower.

Spring

At 09h00 on Saturday I headed to Cape Garden Centre to indulge in some green retail therapy. I returned with a bootfull of spring blooms including three varieties of tomatoe seedlings; Ox Heart, Roma and Moneymaker (?), four geraniums, three violas, one strawberry and one Parfait Raspberry Dianthus.

I also bought three Watsonias - I knew of a Watsonia but didn't have any idea of what it looked like. I saw two sugarbirds flying into the nursery grounds to suck at the flowers and I thought that's what I must buy and it turned out to be Watsonias - long elegant plants with chalky peach flowers. They are destined to be planted between the burgundy icebergs in the front garden where they will enjoy long hours of sunshine and easy bird access.