December in the Dandenongs

The volunteer tomatoes that popped up everywhere in September are fruiting

The dreaded agapanthus (Agapanthus praecox) season is in full bloom.  These guys are ranked as 5th worst weed in the Yarra Ranges.  They make great cut flowers, so feel free to cut yourself a bouquet from those growing on nearby roadsides!

Feral peaches are ripening.  This tree is near us and the birds take most of the fruit, but what is left tastes delicious!

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) is flowering, attracting lots of beneficial insects and getting ready to set seed.  This plant is in a small herb bed in our (in progress!) forest garden.  Some seeds we will dry for cooking, others we will allow to scatter nearby for next year.

Rhodanthe anthemoides, more commonly known as the Paper Daisy, is putting on a great show 

Might need to thin out the plums a bit more...  oh wait, the cockies and possums do that for us! :)

The Water Plantain, Alisma plantago-aquatica, has a nice big flower spike...

but the individual flowers are teeny, tiny!

Goodenia humilis, Swamp Goodenia, starting to get in on the act in the bog as well

Alyssum still flowering, but starting to get dry so expecting this to take a break over Jan and Feb

Origanum vulgare, Oregano, on the other hand really appreciates the dry weather so is only just beginning to flower

Centaurea cyanus
I love cornflowers!  They most beautiful blue and the bees love them too :)

Wahlenbergia spp., was sold as W. stricta, but I suspect it's W. gracilis.  Will one day get around to checking, but for now it's happily self sowing in various places in the insectory beds and forest garden

This is exciting!  Dipodium roseum, the Rosy Hyacinth Orchid, is now flowering at the bottom of one of our Messmate Stringybarks - despite the best attempts of the slugs to once again eat the tender stem tips before they had a chance.  This year we only lost one of the emergent orchids and 5 are (hopefully) going to make it to flower :)

Er... it's pink and pretty.  Okay, I have no idea what this is except to say it came in a cottage garden mix from somewhere...

Viola tricolour, known as Heartsease, starting to flower below the cornflowers

Finally, the ornamental cherry, Prunus spp., had lots of ripe cherries on it this year.  Not that you'd want to eat them even if the birds left you any though - they're very, very sour!