Blooming Calamity

11/06/2025

I'm working my way through the winter rose pruning, but this one keeps getting a reprieve. I believe it's a Pinkie climber and it's decided to put on one more flush to distract from all the bedraggled black-spotted leaves.

All of the rain we missed in Autumn has arrived in one long weekend. The ducks are delighted, and I've finally planted out all the seedlings that I've been babying on the front verandah. There's new peonies in the ground and bare root roses on the way.

Winter's earliest failure has been the cover crop of chickpeas I'd planned for a new production bed. I covered the whole thing with netting to keep out the birds, and then noticed a few days later that all the chickpeas had disappeared and been replaced by a scattering of mouse droppings. I've not spotted any actual mice, but between our chickens and the neighbour's trespassing cat, it may well have been their final meal.

03/06/2025

Winter is running late this year, so there’s still dahlias and cosmos flowering in the driveway, and I can keep making little bunches of autumn colour. The orange chrysanthemums came from a plant I bought at three years ago, whose offspring are always my first chrysanthemums to bloom and then the last ones standing.

(This year I successfully struck cuttings in a pile of sand, a tub of dead leaves, and a literal teacup of old coir. I’m worried that I’ll drop a stem in the car and find that it’s rooted between the seats.)

This chrysanthemum starts as tight little buttons the colour of a traffic cone and then opens on the plant to a fluffier, tequila-sunrise-coloured spray. There’s a jugful of Mother’s Day leftovers on the back verandah, now three weeks old and just starting to fall apart, but still holding onto the warm honey scent that they share with buddleias and sweet alyssum.

25/05/2025

We were coming back from a bushwalk today, and the car somehow drove itself to Peard's through absolutely no fault of my own. It turns out they're closed on Sundays, so the car continued on to the botanic gardens in Albury, where I could find some more things to add to my endless shopping list.

I'm obsessed with these coleus (take a look at for a stunning bouquet of coleus and pitcher plants), which don't survive our winters, but could perhaps find their way into our guest bathroom alongside the phalaenopsis orchids and zygocactus.

I think that second photo is an oakleaf hydrangea, and it's inspired me to move my own tiny specimen to a more prominent position so I can enjoy it this time of year. And I already have the tree dahlia from the last video (look at the little bee!), which is flowering for much longer than usual since we're still waiting on a proper killing frost. I tried to cut a branch for the house last week before realising it's essentially a very tall beehive.

I didn't get a good photo of what Google Lens tells me was a copperleaf (Acalypha wilkesiana), but I loved the textured flower spikes and I'll have to track one down. And I spotted a full-grown Duranta erecta, the size of which made me consider moving mine from our front path while it's dormant this winter.

Hopefully the rain continues this week, so it can water in my newest chrysanthemums (I've completed my rounds of the local nurseries to pick up discount stuff covered in Mother's Day wrapping). There's only 300 tulips left to plant, before I move onto the daffodils and bluebells, and then the peonies should arrive sometime next week.

22/05/2025

I'm having a mini holiday from the flowers, so the flowers have gone elsewhere to play...how sweet is this creation from 😍
(If you're a skier, I highly recommend their face balm: happy winter skin, even when it's horrible and windy)

14/05/2025

11/05/2025

I just found leftover pizza in the airfryer, which means that dinner last night must've just been this beautiful cupcake from 🙈 This weekend marked the close of Blooming Calamity: Season Two, so thank you to everyone who bought flowers, read my newsletter, and introduced me to their friends as "flower girl". Bring on the killing frost!

09/05/2025

Flash sale! 🚨 My flower season finishes on Mother's Day, and I'll have a limited number of wrapped mixed bunches available tomorrow afternoon. $30, pickup from Lake Albert in the afternoon, DM to reserve a bunch ❤️

04/05/2025

A rainbow of chrysanthemums 🌈
I've never felt the urge to disbud them and dye the survivors blue, but each to their own.

24/04/2025

The first chrysanthemums are finding their way into bunches 🍂

23/04/2025

One of our neighbours had a sulfur cosmos that'd gone to seed, and Aaron watched me grab a seedhead and deposit it in one of the small ziplock baggies that I keep on my person for such opportunities. He thought I looked like a drug dealer, but I've had the last laugh...just look at that happy little flower at the top centre 😍

15/04/2025

No idea what this white dahlia is (it was a mislabelled Cafe au Lait from Tesselaar a few years ago), but it's going gangbusters in the garden 🤷‍♀️

It's paired here with the equally productive Breannon dahlia, from the lovely

14/04/2025

Chrysanthemums in progress 🌱