Friday 8 January 2010

PINK

I have never really thought of myself as a lover of things pink; preferring instead what I call autumn colours. I have no pink clothes and even if I had girls, I am sure I would never have dressed them in pink either. How is it then that my garden seems to be turning pink?

image Amaranthus....
Currently my favourite summer-growing vegetable. Eat the new, pink tinged leaves in salads, cook older ones, scandalously flamboyant flower tassles and stems, nutritious seeds for humans and chooks, self sows readily, water efficient, gorgeous to look at, 1.5m high.
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Pink Hollyhock.... always a surprise.
Pops up anywhere. Drought tolerant. Tall and elegant. Also have crimson ones and white ones. Flowers for months with carefree abandon. Can grow as tall as the roof!
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One plants whose name I can never remember but which covers an arch in a single bound and would be able to leap tall buildings too. Masses of soft pink flowers with very little water needed. Deciduous. Spectacular.
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Tropical canna lily. Needs water. Colours range from pink to orange, yellow, red, lime to dark greens. Spikes of bright red flowers. Who designed this plant to have leaves like this??
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Fuschia.... oh to be clever enough to grow the dainty, frilly ones!
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This graduated pink salvia with flowers resembling little animals smiles all through the heat.
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I love hydrangeas with their showy heads but I prefer the white ones. This is almost the last surviving one given to me by my father about 18 years ago.
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My absolutely favourite plant.... the spotted leafed begonia with fine webs of pink flowers connected in intricate patterns. Needs shade, not too much water and a frame. I forgive it for being pink!
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Even the string tying up the bales of pea straw is pink these days! Here it is being used on an old fence.
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My favourite beetroot has deep pink leaves and stems and the leaves are great to liven up a green salad. This is a tiny seedling I planted out just yesterday.

2 comments:

chaiselongue said...

The amaranthus leaves look lovely - I've never tried them. I'm always amazed, too, by the amount of pink that appears in the garden. I'm surprised you can grow fuchsias and hydrangeas - we used to grow them in Wales but I didn't think they would thrive in a Mediterranean climate.

Kate said...

Thrive might be going too far chaiselongue but hydrangeas have a place in the area most watered in the garden, under the tree ferns. Some of the darker, smaller-flowered fuchsias, however, are very suited to semi-shaded heat while others like the big, fluffy ones are very soft and hard to keep going here. People do though and there is a fuchsia society that puts on a wonderful show each year.