Hot Summer Love

Date: 2009.01.29 | Category: Horticulture | Response: 5

I am besotted by my Summer Love ( Acalypha reptans ).

You may know Summer Love as Pussy Cat Tails because she goes by that name too.

She often looks depressed and withdrawn over the Winter months but then in Summer, she flourishes.

Just divine in a hanging basket or any container where the plant can sprawl and spread out. Absolutely gorgeous flowers and oh..they’re very ticklish too

Giant Bird Of Paradise

Date: 2009.01.26 | Category: home, Horticulture | Response: 0

I have this absolutely huge Giant Bird Of Paradise ( Strelitzia nicolai) growing at my work. It is stunning and reaches a height of around 5 metres. It is also very wide and spreading.

People are always mistaking it for a Banana tree. In fact, this is what I also thought it was at first, until I saw the incredible flowers it produces.

At the moment it has many flowers all over it, nestled amongst it’s big sheltering leaves. I am sorry I did not take a photo so you could get an idea of the size of these flowers. They are quite large actually and are very dramatic. The plant gets it’s name by the fact that the flower does indeed look like a bird.

The plant is native to South Africa and there is an orange flowering species too ( Strelitzia reginae) although it is a lot smaller in it’s growth habit.

This is a fantastic, hardy plant to use if you are trying to create a tropical style of garden but suffer with drought and tough conditions.

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish my beautiful friend Kerri a very happy 40th birthday! She has spent 2 sun soaked weeks camping on the beach near where we live. We celebrated the day with pink champagne, fresh oysters and delicious prawns. Oh and Chocolate Mud Cake.

Mmmm….Quinces…Quince Jelly? Possibly….next year.

Date: 2009.01.24 | Category: home, Horticulture | Response: 1

I adore Quince Trees. They are just so beautiful in so many ways. They have gorgeous, grey velvety foliage that is soft to the touch and very tactile. The flowers are just spectacular too. Quinces are in fact one of the earliest trees to blossom in Spring and their flowers are quite large and a lovely hue of dusky, antique pink.

Ours are currently in fruit and each year I think I really should make some quince jelly. I love it with cheese and crackers But each year I never seem to have the time. So I just enjoy the spectacular fruit hanging on the tree and appreciate the beauty that is my quince.

I love Botanical illustrations like this. This one is taken from Wikipedia.

I love Common Tussock Grass

Date: 2009.01.20 | Category: Horticulture | Response: 4

At our beautiful camping site we visited recently there was a plethora of coastal native plants. Some of the most beautiful and enchanting species are the native grasses. I just love they sway in the wind and the sunshine reflects through them.

Have you ever stopped by a field of tall grass and just watched the most amazing, swirling patterns that are made when the grass bends and moves in the wind? Just one of life’s simple pleasures.

Common Tussock Grass (Poa labillardieri).

This particular species is very widespread throughout NSW. It can grow to around 1 metre high and is often used by landscapers and gardeners in their designs because of it’s drought hardiness and very attractive habit. It has very pretty seed heads throughout early Summer that are often tinged purple. The whole grass itself tends to go this copper colour in Summer but in the other months it remains green and lush.

Frolicking Flamingo’s

Date: 2009.01.17 | Category: family, home | Response: 3

These two very unusual specimens arrived in our garden on Christmas Day. They seem to like the place and have decided to stay. They dont eat much or cause a fuss.

My very clever brother made them actually. They are made from steel, cut into shape and painted with a very quirky kinda style. This is the first time he has attempted to make anything like this and I think he should get his creative hat on and make some more. There is a whole world of wonderful birds out there and therefore just a ton of inspiration.

My Stunning Flowering Gum (Corymbia ficifolia)

Date: 2009.01.14 | Category: home, Horticulture | Response: 4

It is virtually sweltering here today! It is so hot!!! Actually looking at the gauge confirms that it is 43 deg Celsius which is around 109.4 Fahrenheit. There is no where to hide…ugh…except within the confines of a cool dark house and the most powerful fan money can buy.

It’s pretty loud in here then as you may imagine, the fan noise competing over the kids watching ‘Fraggle Rock’ on tv. Oh, Fraggle Rock is back? It does seem so.

A quick escape out into the heat to check the mail led me past this stunning beauty by my front gate

Dwarf Orange Flowering Gum (Corymbia ficifolia). This is a grafted specimen and only grows to around 3 or 4 metres where they usually can get up to 15 metres in their natural habitat. It is a West Australian species and the flowers are so symbolic of long hot Australian Summers.

The bees love it too!

You can grow this tree from seed but it does not grow ‘true to type’, which means that the flower colour can vary greatly from the parent plant. In fact, seed collected from a red flowering tree may even turn out to have white flowers or pale pink. The grafted species ensure you will retain the colour you desire, whether it be intense red, bright pink or this superb orange. They are usually grafted onto the rootstock of the Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata), as it is a very hardy and adaptable species.

This particular tree was given to me about six years ago from the guy who grafted and grows them. He has a native plant nursery that specialises in the production of these beautiful grafted gums.

You can even grow these trees in a really large pot or tub. A half wine barrel is ideal.

I have just recently bought a red one and a pink one too to plant out in my front garden. I had never got around to planting a tree each for my children so these two will be their trees.

Oh and by the way, can you believe apart from getting waylaid by such a stunner, by the time I got to the mail box it only had bills for me?

Time to hit the beach….

What a campsite!

Date: 2009.01.11 | Category: family, holidays | Response: 1

We have just spent four fabulous days camping. We have this gorgeous spot we go to which is situated on the South coast of NSW. The water is pristine, the birds were chirping and everybody wore big fat smiles.

The days were hot and sunny, so just perfect for lazing around in your bathers and a sarong. The plants in the area are mostly coastal species such as Coastal Wattle ( Acacia sophorae), Sea Box (Alyxia buxifolia) and Pigface (Carpobrotus rossii).

Our fantastic view from our tent. The kids delighted in waking up each morning for a dive in the river and a good swim. Some mornings the tide was really high and I feared we may be washed out, but it always subsided and left nice little swimming pools.

There were lots of crabs getting about in there and quite a bit of seaweed too. I always wish I could identify the many coastal seaweeds and seagrasses. They look so amazing. Just so textural and structured.

Behind our tent there was a little track that went along for about 20 metres.

The Coastal wattle was all in seed and had these beautiful curly seed pods all over the trees filled with little glossy black seeds. Anyway, the track led us out to this:

We spent a lot of time here, swimming, building the most amazing sand castles and making racing tracks for match box cars.

I went fishing quite a few times and suffice to say we ate very well Lots of fresh fish on the bbq and some yummy abalone too.

I hope to get back again before the end of Summer, so will take lots of shots then of the flora of the area. Hopefully by then I might have my new digital camera and can do my photos some justice!

Wild Cherries Grow On The River Bank

Date: 2009.01.04 | Category: family, Horticulture | Response: 1

Yesterday the kids and I spent an idyllic morning down by our local river. This beautiful river is literally just down the road and around the corner from where we live.

It was a gorgeous morning, sunny and warm with lots of dragonflies flitting about. The kids spent their time swimming in the river while I threw in a fishing line. I did catch a few fish but only small so they were released back into the river.

If you look across the water to the other river bank you can see that big tall, very green tree there. It’s the one to the left of the photo. It is quite conical in shape and actually looks a little like a pine. The rest of the foliage is rather dull and grey but this one always looks vivid and lush. The tree is known as Cherry Ballart or Wild Cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis). The tree is native to the Eastern states of Australia and is often admired for its lovely, pendulous growth habit which often turns purple or bronze in the Winter. The other thing that is amazing about this tree is that it is actually a parasite and lives on the roots of it’s host plant, usually Eucalypt’s. This is no way suggests though that it is a menace. It is a native plant species that is an integral part of the Australian bush. The other wonderful thing about this tree is it produces edible fruit and dense fine grained timber too. The timber has been used for fashioning tool handles and other woodturning work.

Look What I Got

Date: 2009.01.01 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 5

Well aren’t I the lucky one?

My uncle came up to visit this Christmas, he has just retired from his job as a lecturer in arboriculture at one of the big universities. He has taught there for many years and before that lived and studied in the United States. Anyway, he has literally hundreds of horticultural and gardening books from information laden text books through to big glossy coffee table numbers.

Well he decided he needs to pare down his collection a bit and so I was the lucky recipient of many fantastic books. As you can imagine, I’m very happy about it. Loads of inspiration there.

Happy New Year everyone! I finally planted my coriander and thai basil plants today that have been sitting waiting in their pots for over a week! I deliberated over where to plant a beautiful double white tree dahlia I was given too, but cannot decide where it will go yet. Because we are still building our house and have yet to put on the front verandah, I find it hard sometimes to get an ‘overall’ idea of what the completed picture will look like. Therefore it is at times difficult to know where to plant things. Maybe I should just let the plant decide..I have read about people planting by this method. You take the plant and walk around the garden with it until you get a strong feeling that it would be happy in a certain position. Has anybody else heard of this? Or possibly even tried it?

A Beautiful Garden Escapee

Date: 2008.12.29 | Category: Horticulture | Response: 1

The beautiful flowers of Leonotis leonurus are such an intense, brilliant orange. It is quite spectacular when it is in full bloom.

The plant is known by many common names, including, Lion’s Ear, Lion’s Tail and Wild Dagga.

This particular specimen is cut back quite harshly when it has finished flowering. It usually looks a little straggly for quite a while but at this time of year it comes into it’s own and looks superb.

The plant is actually native to South Africa and can grow up to 2 metres high and around 1.5m wide. The flowers appear in whorls around the stem, they are tubular and I find the honeyeaters just love them for their sweet nectar.

Apparently the plant is used in Shaman rituals also and it has quite a few medicinal uses. I am not sure about what they exactly are. But I have seen seed of the plant for sale on herbal websites.

In my part of the world the Lion’s Ear is actually declared a weed or a ‘Garden Escapee.’ Some gardeners have been known to dump their garden refuse in the surrounding bush and then the seed within will germinate and the plant prosper in the area. This can have a huge environmental impact on native bushland and sand dunes where native plants find it hard to compete with often aggressive exotic species. I have done quite a bit of work over the years in bush revegetation and the control of environmental weeds. We will have to talk about that in another post, another time.

Many nurseries in Australia are proving to be very responsible in this aspect and will not sell any plants that are considered to be environmental weeds.

I guess I wanted to make the point too that just because a plant is considered to be a weed, it does not mean that it cannot be appreciated for it’s beauty.