Sage

The sage is coming back after winter dormancy, always keenly anticipated by me because I like it so much. First we get the pretty blue flowers, then the new shoots and the leaves that are so useful. It’s certainly a strongly flavoured herb, and it’s toned down by cooking, but I like just to chew a leaf off the bush occasionally. It’s pretty tough in Sydney, can suffer a bit from the wet in Summer, so a pot with sandy mix is good. Mine is a bunch of plants, just…

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Orange Phalaenopsis

Orange flowers seem a little unorthodox for a Phalaenopsis, but they’re lovely just the same. I might try crossing with a standard pink and white, a long-term project but who knows what would result? This year this one is flowering on a new winter spike, and off last year’s spike at the same time. It seems that these flowers are always relatively small.

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Thyme and chives

Two herbs that are essential to have on hand to pick, thyme and chives do well together in a big tub with full sun. Both are over the late winter dormancy now, and the thyme is full of flowers which bring bees when the day warms up. I divided the thyme from a big seedling pot from a nursery, and got one upright plant, with the rest low spreading. The chives grow happily in the middle.

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