FFF386 - AUTUMN ROSE

As we progress into Autumn we tend to see more rose hips than rose flowers in the gardens. However, some rose bushes still produce wonderful blossoms, such as this particular fragrant one. It was photographed in a neighbour's garden and as far she can remember it is called 'Apricot Silk'.

I looked up this hybrid and found that it is a sport of 'Souvenir de Jacques Verschuren' x seedling. It was raised by Walter Gregory and introduced into the nursery trade in 1965. It has large, fragrant yellow-pink, high-centered flowers with anywhere between 26-40 petals, with good rebloom potential in the season. It is a hybrid tea rose forming an upright, medium-tall shrub, 1-1.6 m.

It performs best in a sunny spot, with soil pH preference from slightly acid to neutral. It blooms from Spring through to Summer and Autumn. It makes for a good cut flower, although it does have thorns. It can be propagated by cuttings.

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FFF385 - MUSSAENDA

Mussaenda is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are native to the African and Asian tropics and subtropics. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants. It contains some 194 species. The cultivar seen here is Mussaenda philippica 'Queen Sirikit' and it is growing in the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Queen Sirikit is the Queen of Thailand. It was named to commemorate her first visit to the Philippines in the 1970's.

This Mussaenda is a tropical shrub or sub-shrub that will grow to 3 metres tall in tropical areas, but more likely will reach 1 metre tall in containers. Clusters (corymbs) of small, tubular flowers with five spreading lobes bloom in summer, however it is the large and colourful, ovate, leaf-like sepals (to 10 cm long) that provide the real ornamental display. Some individual flowers in each cluster will develop a single enlarged sepal. Elliptic to ovate, bright green leaves (to 20 cm long). Other hybrids typically feature flowers in red and/or yellow with showy sepals of white, bright red or pink.

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FFF384 - CHINESE ASTERS

Chinese asters (Callistephus chinensis - Tall Paeony, Duchess Asters) come in great mix of colours! There is yellow, scarlet, apricot, dark blue, pink, magenta, and more. Duchess Asters have huge, double blooms with incurved petals that grow on tall, upright plants with 5 to 8 floral stems.

Aster Callistephus is an excellent cut flower and has a long vase-life. Their flowers are similar to autumn chrysanthemums, but they bloom so much earlier in the season. Asters grow quickly and bloom heavily. Start the Aster seeds in the spring 6 to 8 weeks before the end of frost season. The flower seeds are small, so press them into the soil gently and lightly cover them. Harden the Aster plants off for 10 to 14 days before transplanting outdoors in a sunny to part sun position.

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FFF383 - MINT BUSH

Prostanthera, commonly known as mintbush or mint bush, is a genus of flowering plants of the family Lamiaceae. There are about 90 species within the genus, all of which are endemic to Australia. The word is derived from the Greek for an appendage. Within the flowers are small spur-like appendages on the anthers.

They are bushy, evergreen shrubs, usually with strongly aromatic leaves, and 2-lipped, 5-lobed flowers. They are cultivated as ornamentals and for essential oils and spices. All require varying degrees of winter protection in temperate regions, and are usually grown under glass. Prostanthera species are used as food plants by the larvae of hepialid moths of the genus Aenetus including A. eximia and A. ligniveren.

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