Colour in my December summer garden

I love my December summer front garden. Every year it blooms glorious colours - 

red, yellow, pink, bluey mauve - and best of all these plants come back year after 

year with little maintenance. They bloom, I water and clip them back a little, 

and next summer they bloom again. Beautiful. 

So today I share some of them with you.  (My apologies for this post apearing strange 

on mobile phones. - I don't know how to fix it. Sorry)

Mauve-blue agapanthus, against the backdrop of the red coral bush, and along 

the bottom my wild hibiscus - an Australian native 

Pinks and mauves of the hydrangea - I must admit that the ones along the top 

row - the bluey mauve ones - are in my neighbour's garden

 

Roses, though they have finished their first glorious flush

The yellow Coreopsis daisy that is a wonderful border plant that comes 

back every year, frangipani, and the yellow rose bush

 

Last year a glorious new frangipani flowered in my garden - a cutting gifted to me 

by my friend - It looks like it has buds on it again - so fingers crossed. 

Native yellow and green kangaroo paws - the honey-eaters love these. 

The Australian native red bottle-brush

My Hoya is flowering in my shady patio garden

In my back garden we are picking apricots (a month early this year - looks like I 

will be making apricot jam later this week), the red and green grapes are looking 

fabulous along the side fence, and the tomatoes are coming on. We also quinces 

on our tree which will be ready in autumn. 

The apricot tree has bags all over it to firstly guard against fruit fly, and 

secondly to keep the birds off when the apricots are ready to pick. The parrots

love apricots too! 

Some of the native trees are blooming too. Everything seems early this year - 

you can see some of them on my previous post here - 

Trees are blooming for Christmas. Below are the candlestick banksia (they remind

me of giant Christmas candles), purple jacaranda (not an Australian native), 

the yellow Christmas tree, and the red flowering gum. So vibrant. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to 

hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous 

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How to make Lilly Pilly Jam - a delicious Australian bush tucker delight

When we moved to our current home about 20 years or so ago we found a Lilly Pilly bush in our front yard.  This is a plant native to the eastern states of Australia, but which grows well in the west too. It has very fleshy leaves and a very attractive small flower, which you can see below, but which withers almost immediately if picked.  The bees love them.

Following flowering a small red fruit forms, about the length of your thumbnail. We have tasted them from time to time over the years. They have a crisp flesh, not unpleasant taste, though slightly acid, and probably an acquired taste.  They have a small stone in the middle. You can see my bush and the fruit below here. 

The origin of the name Lilly Pilly is unknown. The first recorded sighting of a lilly pilly in Australia was Syzygium paniculatum. On May 3 1770 at Botany Bay botanist Joseph Banks stated in his journal: They "found also several trees which bore fruit of the Jambosa kind, much in colour and shape resembling cherries; of these they eat plentifully and brought home also abundance, which we eat with much pleasure tho they had little to recommend them but light acid."
From:  Australian Plants OnLine 

There are several varieties of Lilly Pilly, belonging to the  Myrtaceae family. 
The Lilly Pilly was a bush tucker for the Aboriginal inhabitants, and was prized by early European settlers for making jams and jellies.  It seems to have been used soon after the establishment of Sydney town in New South Wales. 

Jam making is a tradition in my family and I have been intending to make Lilly Pilly Jam ever since I discovered the plant in our front garden, and yesterday I did. My husband wanted to prune the bush as it had got quite big and was starting to develop a scale infestation as it had the previous year. So I picked about a kilo and a half of fruit and made the jam on Saturday morning. 

 The recipe I used came originally from the National Trust of Australia, New South Wales, and is in my Australia's Home Made Jams and Preserves Book compiled by sugar company CSR. I have used many recipes in this little book. 

The recipe was actually for jelly, but I adapted it to make jam. 

Lilly Pilly Jam 

Remove stalks and stones from the fruit and wash well. Place in the pan with a little water. I used 2 cups of water to 1.245kgs of fruit. Cook until fruit is tender (about an hour). I also added one lemon cut in half to the pan as the lemon will help with setting. 
When the fruit is tender add the same weight of sugar as the weight of fruit. 
Boil till jam sets when tested. This took about another hour, but will really depend on the quantity you are cooking. 
Remove the lemon halves, bottle the jam in sterile jars and seal immediately. 

The jam is a beautiful deep pink-red colour and I think tastes a little like a mix between plum and strawberry jam. Delicious! I made scones this morning so my family could taste the jam. They all enjoyed it, so I think I will from now on be making Lilly Pilly jam every year. 

Another reference to the Lilly Pilly can be found in May Gibb's children's book, The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, an Australian classic about the gum nut babies first published in 1918. I told you about the bad Banksia Men from the book a couple of weeks ago. Please click here if you missed it -  Celebration of the Australian Banksia

Here is an illustration from the book of the characters Lilly Pilly and Ragged Blossom. In the book Lilly Pilly is an actress.  You can see here below on the left with the lilly pilly fruit forming the skirt of her dress. 
For more about May Gibbs click here - May Gibbs

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post about the Lilly Pilly. If you are in Australia and you have it growing in your garden, I hope you will make some Lilly Pilly Jam. 
Is there a native fruit that you make into jam? Perhaps you would like to share with us in the comments.

Here are a couple of references on the web:
Burke's Back Yard
Australian Native Plants Society
Evergreen Growers - scale pest on Lilly Pilly
Taste Australia - Bush Food


Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday
Travel Photo Mondays
 Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
 Life Thru the Lens
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
What's It Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

 You might also like - 
Quandongs, delicious Australian bush food
And slices of quince which they ate with a runcible spoon
Tamarillos, lost food of the Incas