Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 15

This week it is all about the flowers and they really make me smile.

This week, when I had a wander around the garden, these little self-seeded gerbera reminded me of the sunshine. Originally there was one little flower from a seed dropped by a bird. Now I have a whole pot of them.

I have even transplanted a few like these in one of the troughs hanging from the front railings. The little yellow flower on the right is a plant that I can't name but it is from last summer and should have died over the winter, but it is still going anf now it is trying to flower again.

Just looks at the buds on my little red carnation. This plant grew from a cutting I took some while ago and now it is also flourishing.

Round in the back yard, one of my troughs is looking particulary bright and colourful, and I can see this from where I sit on the porch, so that is nice.  The yellow daisies are osteospermum, again one that has lasted the winter, and all the purple ones are the perennial versian that always gives a good show of flowers at this time of year. The flash of red at the end is of course, a geranium and between them is a succulent I put there when it was looking a bit bare, and it turns from dark green in the winter to orange, yellow and a touch of red all summer.

The trough around the corner also has an osteospermum with one little flower on. I thought it had died but I am glad to see it is struggling on. It reminds me of a marigold.

But my biggest surprise was when I spotted this. It is on my very tall cactus, (much taller than me now), which started as a little spike mid-calf height when we arrived. I have watched it growing, swaying a little in the wind, and wandered whether it would live to out grow me, and I always hoped it would eventually produce a flower, but every year I have been disappointed. I half expected one white one right at the top, so you can imaging my surprise when this week I spotted these little red buds bursting out of the higher seams.

I have done some research and now know the cactus goes by the rather splendid name 'Pachycerus pecten-aboriginium', and it is native to Mexico, (commonly know as the Indian comb). Apparently the brown scabs that are all over mine, (I assumed insect activity), are most likely caused by overwatering!, but that is not something I do very often. I am of course hoping that the buds will develop and open before we leave but again, thanks to Google, I find they have to go through this stage...

... before getting to this one. But I live in hope.

They flower by night and die by midday, and are polinated by bats. So I will be checking first thing every morning!

Yesterday I had a dental appointment and when I came out I decided to have a little walk to the top of the village, as I don't walk half enough right now. I stood looking over the top railings and found there was a lot of activity below me. The area that used to be used for social gatherings by the Equadorians from our village and the surrounding communities, is now planted all over with trees. (I hope they have been given an alternative meeting place).  Last week I said how the orange blossom stirred up my hayfever, and this week I found another irritant. Everywhere you look there is a mimosia tree in flower. 

It is so very pretty, but just looking at all the flowers, you can see why they produce so much pollen to torment us all.

I mentioned a while ago how sad I was that the crysamthemums don't grow wild all over the campo like they used to, but just below the railings I saw this patch, all raising their little faces up to the sun, and that made me smile too.

And still, sort of on the flower theme, I have finished my cross-stitch sewing! I love to see the poppies and daisies growing together in the wild, so I am really pleased with this picture. I am packing it carefully as it is, and one day, when I finally unpack all the boxes, I will get it stretched and framed.

I hope some of you really like flowers as I seem to have rambled on a bit today, but now I will stop and get this ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and be published in the morning.