Where I live

The window in my sewing room looks out onto the patio.  This is a sun trap in winter and a lovely place to sit and stitch or knit.  My dream would be to have climbing roses growing up the posts and all over the railings.  But I live in the sub-tropics and roses just don't grow very well here.  What will grow is Bouganvillia, so I have planted some of that.  Now, I wasn't sure just how it was going to take but it is now starting to cover my railings.

 

The view out the window is improving.  It has taken over a year to get to this stage and it has no perfume, unlike roses.

It still has to be trained into position but this is a start.

The big drawback are the huge thorns on the branches, they can ripe your arm open.  They make rose thorns look like midgets.  I bought a purple variety to plant at the other end of the patio.

So now I am on the look out for other coloured varieties.  I have seen a lovely mauve one in a local garden but haven't spotted one in a nursery as yet.  I had a wonderful climbing rose in Cairns, which is in the tropics.  Just couldn't get it to grow here.

 

 

 

Comments

[Queenie Patch]

I never knew Bougainvillea had thorns! However dangerous they might be, these flowers are beautiful and I hope your balcony will soon be a riot of colours.

[Rachel]

The Bougainvillia is lovely, but I agree there is nothing to beat the smell of a rose!

[Carolyn Foley]

Yes, those thorns are really dangerous.