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| Fabulous staghorn |
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| Heliconia |
It was a pretty wet day and I did not take my Canon SLR into the park so I used my little point and shoot Samsung camera. (I have bought an annual pass so that I can go with camera on a fine day!)
The gardens are fabulous and I look forward to going back one day to see more! Read my post about our visit here.
This is the little orchid that grew out of what I thought was a dead orchid plant. I had hoped that it was a Cooktown Orchid - but it does not have the deep purple of that variety of Dendrobium.
The Cooktown Orchid is the state flower of Queensland.
I love the scent of frangipani - generally the pale yellow ones appeal to me, but I found this wonderful display in a Narangba garden a couple of weeks ago.
As a South Australian by birth, I am familiar with the flower which is the floral emblem of that state - Sturt's Desert Pea.
It is reported that the first specimen was actaally discovered by William Dampier in 1699. There is more information about the flower and its history in Wikipedia.
Further you can read the story about the South Australian emblem here.
This specimen was in the gardens of Kings Park, Perth.
I have always loved flowers - perhaps because my mother and grandmother also loved and grew flowers. My mother took classes on floral art including Ikebana and entered Floral Art Competitions when I was in my early teens, and I learned from her, and also entered some competitions and won awards. All these years later I still have some of my certificates.
Then for a number of years flowers took a back step in my life, and around 1972 we rented a house in Sydney. The lady of the house was reticent about leaving her wonderful orchid plants and she instructed me on their care. We were there for around 6 months, and when the family returned she called me and asked me to visit. She presented me with 6 huge pots of cymbidium orchids as she was so thrilled that her orchids had flourished under my care. Some time later we returned to Queensland and the orchids came with us.
Over the years they continued to flourish and I repotted some eventually having quite a collection.
However in the early 2000's I had trouble - I needed an "orchid house" as they needed to be protected from the raging Queensland sun in summer, and I lost a few. When I worked overseas in 2008 - 2010, and then left home leaving them at my daughter's place, they suffered again.
Earlier this year when I moved to Beachmere I brought some of them with me, and later my "orchid house" came to be with me. I am working to help them recover.
Some of the cattleya orchids were also damaged by the sun while I was away late last year.
There was also a "dead" orchid - still in a pot, with a hint of green it its stem that I refused to throw away. I was thrilled to see new growth and indeed two buds on one of the orchids - I am not sure if it is a Cooktown orchid. Only time will tell, but it looks like it is flourishing.
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| The two buds.... |
One of the cattleya is also showing great signs of life, with what looks like two buds protruding from a leaf.
I am hoping all is well.
Lotus is not seen very much in Australia, but I recall seeing many beautiful lakes in China with gorgeous displays of these flowers. During the dormant part of their life there is nothing to see - in the lake near the entrance to the university where I worked in Shaoxing, there were pots sitting on the base of the pond - lined with tiles I might add - and frogs and fish would often appear to be sleeping on the soil that was in the pot. Nothing else - until suddenly leaves started to protrude from the pot.
The leaves would grow up to 4 feet or so, and eventually an amazing bud would appear, which soon opened up to reveal a perfect flower.
I remember that a few years ago I found some Lotus growing near Gumdale (Brisbane, Queensland) in a dam and I visited occasionally to take photos.
Honestly, I can't recall seeing them anywhere else.
One day recently I found a huge display of Lotus - though sadly I had come across them towards the end of their flowering season - at seaside Sandstone Point, in Queensland. The afternoon I saw them I was actually running late for a meeting, and as I hadn't been in the are before I had missed a turn off. Despite being late, I stopped the car, grabbed my camera and took nearly 10 minutes to take some photos.
I have been back several times, but the flowering season is at an end, and the buds and flowers that protrude from the huge leaves are few and far between. I think the best time to see them at their best would be late December or early January. I will make a note to myself to visit this spot in 2015 after Christmas.
The buds and flowers are so perfect that it is no wonder that the Lotus flower appears in religious texts e.g. Hindu. There is much myth around the flower too.
This is one of my favourites - a tree which in full bloom produces masses of purple flowers - and as purple is my favourite colour, I am a big fan of the tree. We had a healthy tree in our garden at Wynnum West, but my new abode has nothing other than ground cover. And my pot plants - those which have survived my moves and travels.
The Tibouchina is native of South America.
