Agapanthus

Bamboo and Agapanthus at Adelaide Zoo

Adelaide Zoo is fantastic.  I read somewhere that it is not just a zoo, but a garden where animals live.  There are many bamboo plantings especially around the Giant Panda exhibit, and the rows of agapanthus are beautiful.

Lavender

Lavender at the Lyndoch Lavender Farm - this farm, shop, cafe is a good place to visit from Adelaide South Australia in the Barossa Valley.

Verbena Gone Wild

As I neared Miles (Queensland) I was impressed to see fields of purple flowers (purple is my favourite colour), though I knew not what they were until I spoke with folk at Miles.

They are not native to Australia, and sadly have run amok around the west of Brisbane.  Along the side of the roads, there are purple patches of these flowers.  They go for hundreds of kilometers.  The local folk get angry that in the city, these plants are for sale - giving further opportunity for them to be seeded and sent further into places where they are not wanted.

My Favourite Flower Photo

It is along time since our Flower Farm closed - and I often reflect on the busy life we lead at tht time, and how we enjoyed working with the flowers.  It is nearly four years since it closed.

I still find this photo in my computer and remember it all, and am thankful that I could take this photo.  The frog waited for me to go to my car and get the camera and was waiting for me when I came back.  

I love these, and I have had a continual display of them as I have quite a few potted orchids.

These (and others) are a few of my favourite things.....

I think of Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music when I say those words.  But flowers are some of my favourite things.

Sadly I have no garden of my own now since our house sold last year, and I am house sitting so have no garden.  I pass by our old house and note that some of my treasured plants have been pulled out and I assume destroyed.  All that work I put in, gone.   But you can't take them all with you, and life goes on.

Day Lily

These are some of my favourite flowers, but as the name suggests, they last just a day.  Day Lilies are easy to grow though, and if you have many in the garden they will supply lots of wonderful colour and bring smiles!!!

Orchid - to be saved.

Spathoglottis - sounds more like a disease.  But it is a little ground orchid, native to a range of places including norther Australia.

I bought a pot from Bunnings recently and it has been flowering well and now has a new flower bud reaching to the top of the plants.  I will need to repot it - it does seem to be struggling in the little pot it came in, so will do that, perhaps after the bud has bloomed.

It is reported to be 'vulnerable' in northern Australia but the commercial growing of it will help to ensure that it lives on.

ps.  (March 12th)  I am glad I took the photo above - as now the flower, thanks to a couple of feasting grubs which have decimated the flower and the new bud, it looks pretty awful.  I might just buy a new one and keep it inside the house.

Lotus

I am familiar with the flowering lotus and loved seeing them in China, but didn't expect to see them flowering in a suburban garden.  It is actually flourishing in a lake or dam in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane, and I was thrilled to find it not far from where I am house sitting at the moment.

I have taken photos, and people to see it.  I'd love to have some  growing in my own pond - if I had one. 

Orchid

This is a lovely little orchid that I bought in 2011 - in part because where I am house sitting, there are no flowers, and I could not even find any vases.  When I saw this plant in a supermarket I bought it and these were the flowers that resulted, plus the buds eventually opened.

I followed the instructions and when the flowers were spent, I cut off the stem, just below the flowers.  I am happy to report that already, only three months later, there are more buds forming, and I think a new flower spike as well.

I have been keeping them in the bathroom which is quite warm in the afternoon, and it seems to love it there.

Bali Flowers

Ginger Flower

Pretty white flower clinging to a wall overlooking rice paddies

Heliconia flower

No idea!