The Garden in May

Yesterday was our first frost of the year, and this morning the temperature was -1. Winter is coming!

Here's what's still in flower on this lovely sunny autumn day.


Abutilons:

Viburnum tinus:

Red hot pokers:

Buddleia:

There are a few different varieties of salvia around the garden, and most are flowering profusely. But this one is only just beginning:

Photographed from underneath because the blooms are way over my head. It is Bethel sage, Salvia involucrata 'Bethelii'. It gets bigger every year, and is now over 2 metres high. It will get moved once it finishes flowering, as it is too close to the house to be this size.

Lavender:

Treasure flowers:

Penstemons:

Earlier this morning I watched a spinebill hovering and drinking nectar from this plant. Of course my camera wasn't handy at the time.

Our negative temperatures mean the end of the zinnias:

Not a good photo, but the leaves seem to have just disintegrated in the frost.

The ranunculus are getting in early for spring before winter has even started:

Hakea "Burrendong Beauty" was just buds last month, and has almost finished this month:

Yellow buttons, or common everlasting, Chrysocephalum apiculatum:

Correa:

Diggers speedwell:

These photos taken in the shade aren't great, but I'm just including them for my records of what flowers in May. This little pelargonium is flowering profusely:

The bergenia has started again:

The very last of the dahlias:

There are a few roses still coming, although a lot of them have had their flowers wrecked by the recent rain.

This flowering quince (Chaenomeles) thinks it is spring:

Japanese windflowers:

 And last but not least, inside the African violets are still going: