Rose Bloom

This rose is one in my parent's garden. They have a small garden now, but some beautiful roses and camelias.

Camelia

A camelia plant grows in the patio at my parent's home in Adelaide, and it is in full bloom right now. It has wonderful large white flowers and this photo was taken late in May 2007. I'm thrilled with it - as I don't oftent have success with close ups.

My favourite gerberas

Having our own gerbera farm has its special benefits. I love picking the flowers. These are some from my regular picking patch. I love the unusual pinky/orange colour and they tend to have consistently good blooms.

Passionfruit flower

Not your normal flowering plant for a garden - but they do have spectacular flowers. I have several passionfruit plants - and I don't know where they came from. The seed from bird droppings I suspect, but there are three plants in my garden and they grow extremely well, despite their neglect.

This year the fruit has been amazing - huge round fruit full of delicious seeds and juice.

It is the flower that fascinates me though. So beautiful.

Tibouchina

My Tibouchina are looking a bit bedgraggled. Of course the lack of water with the drought is one cause, though they get quite a bit of water as I empty my washing machine water near the base of the tree.

The greatest cause of mischief the plant is the passionfruit vine that sprung from nowhere, and despite the drought has produced an amazing crop. I've preserved them, I've given them away, I've frozen them, I've eaten them - and still can't keep up with them.

The weight of the heavily laden vine has broken branches on the Tibouchina bush - because it is somewhere beneath that the passionfruit vine has sprung from.

Soon the passionfruit crop will be finished, and then I can try and revive the Tibouchina. In spring it should be a mass of purple flowers.

More hibiscus

This flower is growing in my son's garden. Not that he planted it - nor is he likely to nuture it. It grows. It is neglected. I've had them growing in my garden from time to time, and I quite like them, but they are not my favourite garden flower.

However, I have found someone who lives not far from here that specialises in Hibiscus - and I'm all set to visit and take photos of his gloriously huge blooms. His daughter brought some to put on the table at a function recently and I was very impressed with the huge size and brilliant colours. Unfortinately he has been sick in hospital so I will wait until he is feeling better and go visit with my camera.

My son's orchid

It was only a few weeks ago that our son was complaining that the orchid plant I gave him hadn't flowered yet. I urged him to have patience.

When I visited his home on Mother's Day on the dining table was this spectacular bloom. He hadn't told me - he wanted to surprise me. Of course it did.

I have several plants of the save variety - and mine are in bud. Not advanced as much as his are.

Spectacular purple orchid blooms.

Flowers at Palazzo Versace

This five star hotel, Palazzo Versace, on the Gold Coast is spectacular in many ways. Always the flower are extra ordinary. Quite a feature - especially in the foyer of this grand hotel.

These were on show on May 13th, Mother's Day, 2007.

In the hot house

We have a Gerbera Farm - so there will be quite a few photos of our beloved Gerberas. They are grown hydroponically under a plastic dome - that keeps out the rain, and most of the bugs, as well as allows us to pick flowers in any weather.

It is heavy duty plastic sheeting - stretched over a metal frame. In it we grow stunning gerberas for the florist market.

At this time of the year we are busy - it is Mother's Day this weekend, so the florists are doing well and need as many flowers as we can produce.

Gardenia

These are wonderful plants with brilliant shiney leaves and a flower with a special fragrance. I don't think they are supposed to do well in this sub tropical climate, but they do. My daughter has several growing at her place, and my plant grew from a cutting from one of her bushes. It grows in a pot - is somewhat neglected and has flowered several times in the couple of years that I have had it here.

The flowers don't seem to last long - but even as they are fading the fragrance can fill a room.

Unusual Gerbera

Nature does strange things. No doubt this plant was derived from an orange flower and a yellow one. Just one plant in the row would produce these unusual flowers with several petals of a different colour.

We do think Nature is perfect, but sometimes it is perfectly unpredictable. I enjoy finding some of the flowers that Nature has had some quirky fun with.

Thai Tulip or Curcuma

This flower fascinates me. At one stage I thought of growing it commercially, but couldn;t get the support of my flower growing partners. I think it would grow easily here, especially if we got our summer rains. One drawback is that it only flowers once a year, and we are used to plants flowering non stop all year round.

They are a member of the ginger plant family.

I do have some in my garden.

More information here

Bird of Paradise - Strelitzia

The Bird of Paradise or Strelizia is a native flower of South Africa - and is quite a spectacular flower. They seem to grow well - even if neglected - and several times a year green spikes grow from the crown of the plant and in time turn into spectacular flowers.

They are easy to grow - pretty drought tolerant. Cutting off the spent stems and dead leaves makes them look a neater plant too. We have two plants - one on either side of the driveway, and when in flower it is a spectacular sight.

For more information

Another Hibiscus

I am glad to house sit - especially if there are some good flowers in the garden. I usually take some Gerberas with me from the Farm, but I'm happy to have some good flowers at the house to admire too.

This one is also from the house at Lamb Island.

Frangipanni

I love frangipannis. They are a wonderful tropical flower with the most sensational fragrance. Most of us are familiar with the most common of frangipannis - a pale yellow with a darker yellow streak. Whilst the flower and fragrance are wonderful the tree itself is quite ugly.

In winter when all the leaves have fallen it looks a stark ugly jumble of sticks, but as spring comes, there is a little activity at the pointy end of each branch and soon the buds and foliage burst forth.

It flowers contunuously for some time and the spent flowers fall in a carpet below the plant.

Bouganvillea

If ever there was a plant that was special in drought conditions it is this one! Whilst the boganvillea does like a little water from time to time it does flower at it's very best when conditions are dry.

Around Brisbane this summer (2006/07) with the lack of rain, there are many stands of stunningly beautiful boganvillea around the suburbs. The colours are brilliant. This one was seen at Hemmant, one of the old suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland.

Hippeastrums

I love these wonderful flowers. During autumn and winter there is nothing to see in a garden where hippeastrums grow and come spring they push through the soil in some places looking like a giant green spear that opens out to brilliant coloured flowers.

These flowers were in the garden of one of my house sits at Manly in Queensland, Australia.

Varieties grow in the Central and South America in the tropical areas.

More more information click here.

The Grevillea

On my walk from one end of Lamb Island to the other, (I walk most mornings to get the daily paper), I found quite a number of beautiful flowers and this Grevillea is just one of them.

They are native to Austalia, and our native birds just love them, sucking out the insects and nectar from the flowers. There are quite a range of Grevillea's, and much information about them on the Internet.

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Agapanthus

We have a number of Agapanthus plants at home and from time to time

We have had a wonderful "festival" of blooms. They are good plants to grow during our drought, as they take little water, but they do need to be cared for. I have white and blue ones in my garden.

Frog in a Gerbera

One of my favourite Gerbera photographs is this one. One early morning I was picking flowers and came across this tiny frog sitting in the flower. I quietly back pedalled and ran to my car to get my camera. I was somewhat amazed when the frog was waiting for me when I returned.

It sat then while I took the photo. The flower wasn't ready for picking, so I left it and I noticed later that it had disappeared.

Hibiscus

This is a beautiful Hibiscus from a garden on Lamb Island where I have done some housesitting. The garden there is quite new - just a couple of years old and has some very interesting blooms in it. Hibiscus are a flower that is more often associated with Hawaii but they grow very well here in Australia, particularly in the hotter parts.

Why Tottie's Blooms - Gerbera.

Well, you could ask"Why Tottie?" but I'm not going to explain it here. It is already explained elsewhere.

I've realised that I have a lot of flower photos so I thought I'd post them all on one site. I have hundreds, so much to add.

I have always loved flowers and over the years had many blooms in my garden. The Gerbera has become very popular in our household as we created and managed a Gerbera Farm here in Brisbane Queensland. So it is only right that my first photo would be of a Gerbera, and you'll see many of them as you peruse this site.