The succulent society got another invitation to visit my favourite garden and off I went: it's not too late in the season and the light was kinder. Something that Ian the garden maker said really resonated with me and became the focus for the photographs I want to show.
Ian enjoys doing tours and somehow manages not to avoid repeating himself every time. This time he was talking about the 3 qualities needed for a successful garden: patience, a good eye and a love for god's creations. I'm rather atheistic in my outlook but I do appreciate what is around me, regardless of theories about how it came to be here.
I think that the defining characteristic of a good garden is the eye of the gardener: while there's an overall structure to the place, the little details make the difference; the individual choices of placing single or groupings of plants keep us coming back to look and see something different every time. The bromeliads below are a great example of this.
From the speckles of bromeliads to the contrast of leaves and spirals of air plants and wild figs
A delicate little Aloe flower
Looking up at the largest staghorn fern I have ever seen
Late-flowering Adeniums
Thanksgiving cactus flowers a little earlier than Christmas cactus
The task after all the visual and spiritual reasons for gardening is of course the patience to tend all of the plants. Ian's been at it for the past 37 years and it really shows.