This pic is of a vine we have always loved as it climbs around several houses in this area – and just this week planted one in our garden.

No, DH didn’t mangle it in the car while bringing it home, (as happened with a beautiful bougainvillea once when the car door blew shut on the top third of the plant!…it has now recoverd from the shock) The woman at the nursery picked a sample for him to look at more closely as they talked about it.

This one piece shows all the main stages of flowering:- the row of green bobbly things are actually the unopened flowers, next up, green tinged with yellow is young flowers,, which change colour to orange/mature after a while, and then finally the little cup things drop off – as per lower right corner. It is a vine, not a bottle brush, nor is it a eucalpyt, but reminds us of both. We are replacing a very uncooperative maracuya/passionfruit with this vine , and have resigned ourselves to buying passionfruit in the supermarket. NO, I’m not going floral in my quiltmaking, just including this on the basis of a thing of beauty being a joy for ever…