GTS

The weather has been really weird here,it was very cool this morning and now has warmed up to the point I will off to the pool with the kids later this afternoon!!!
Anyway for today I am featuring some Australian Christmas trees...

The Western Australian Christmas Tree, Nuytsia florbunda, a parasitic tree that is a obligate root hemiparasite that also gained water and nutrients from grasses and plants around it! Sounds very much like a Quandong tree!

The NSW Christmas Tree,Ceratopetalum gummiferrum, a pretty 5m high by 1.5m wide tree that starts with white flowers that are followed by redish pink calyces much in the same fashion as a hop bush.

The Victoria Christmas tree is the Prothanthera lasianthos, a white to mauve flowering shrub to tree , 10m high to 2m wide.

The Queensland version is a gorgeous orchid, Calanthe triplicata,that has 90cm long leaves and showy white flowers held on a 150cm spike.I would to love see it in flower,it sounds gorgeous.

The South Austalian Christmas Tree ,Bursaria spinosa thar is a horny shrub with masses of flowers growing up to 3m high.I wonder if it has a perfume as well!

And there is always the Christmas bells....Blandfordia nobilis, it has 50cm grass like leaves and the flowers are held are also the same height as the leaves.It is a NSW plant flowering mostly in summer.

All photos were taken by Murray Fagg, Denise Greig, and F Humphreys.I found a very good source of native plant information was in Murray Fagg and John Wigleys 'Australian Native Plants'.

The last time I was in the local book shop it was on sale for $50 and I couldn't spare anymore with Christmas shopping nearly done.As this book was around $100 normally,even with heavy hints DH wouldnt get it so I will keep an eye out in the furture!!! I do have an old version but the new one was updated at least from the brief look I had.....

Well I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and green New Year for all and may it rain often in the drought ravaged areas in the Eastern States of Australia,

Cheers.....

GTS

GTS
A bit late but at least I got it here!!!
Echinecea, a small plant that has finally flowered and is sending a few buds up too.I was thrilled to see it survive the ravages of slugs and even kangaroos climbing into the rock gardens to taste a rare bite!





This is a Zepherantes that was planted at the same time,I prefer the pink ones but I've found them hard to find in the nurseries.These were crammed into the pots so it was a bargain as I was able to split them into three reasonable clumps! I think the odd thunderstorm has helped the flowering alon as they are known as rain flowers!













And these I couldn't resist showing as the colours are gorgeous(guess what my fav garden colour is?) The remnants of the spring flowers are there but they need a spray for mites which i will
be doing this week early and a prune back may get another flower or two!














And a close up for luck...............

GTS

GTS

Plumbago

Simply Summer

Simply Gorgeous

GTS

I have been too busy to add any photos for a while so am putting a little in today!

This is the famous and my favourite Robyn Gordon Grevillea that has just taken off this summer.It was small shrub last year that only grew to a flower then was pruned back but this year even when I take off the flowers it will still be 50cm taller than last year!

A veiw from a distance! I think I will leave some height but somewhere around this as it can cause alergic reactions with some asthmatics with some people so I intend keeping inside the rails! These particular shrubs I intend to plant in my developing front yard after Christmas as they are hardy,pretty and being fairily drought hardy so excellant for this area. These photos by the way are my school photos where I am Head gardener at moment as with all Government red tape I have to apply to keep the position and I find out if I remain as this week some time.

Had to put another one in,isn't the colour gorgeous!Perhaps there should be something to compare the size of flowers but they are are around the length of my hands for those who haven't seen them before!

Here is the rose bed that was in a previous entry,it has proved very successful and these with stood 42' heat and in that position was closer to 45' but i am happy to say they didn't droop too much considering that the roots were quite small and haven't had that much time to grow significantly.At the moment there are heaps of buds that will come out during the Christmas break and I will give them a light trim before schools back to see if I can coach some flowers for the office as there wille a lot of new staff this year coming!

Take a look at the St Barbaras daisy ,the Magic Grow Fert has been applied here too and its thriving!

This is the Angel Face rose and although its not a good one of this particular bush but you can see the flower colour,which I caused some confusion before as I only had a red rose flowering at the time and it seemed I was refering to it as Angel Face.I have been waiting for it to put another one out and as its been hot it was not as full as normal.

I intend to put some of my own garden in next week as I have startd on the front with new plants in a red desert and laid retic,the back yard is green but full of weeds as I have had no time to scratch this last month due to job commitment etc.See you all next Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GTS

I haven't done much in my own yard with work and messy kids,and trying to finish my resume draft.


A firey bottlebrush,in full flower,its a specatular tree,not as prolific in flower as some others but for a reasonablely dull or ugly shade tree,the spring flowers make up for it. I have one in my garden too but I think I may have to wait for a few years to see a flower on it!


This particular Callistemon grows over 4 meters so it would have to be trimmed to size in a smaller yard but on memory this specimim hasn't been trimmed for years except at the base so it has a nice mature shape.Its also fairly slow growing .




Lastly a bush view of our country up away from the salt lakes, in the iron stone ridges, surrounding the town.
The boys are out investigating the local wild life for lizards,the snakes and other animals like dunnarts!

A Green Thumb

This my first entry for this Green thumb day,a quick one at that as I should be working on my Resume!!!!!














This is the best this shrub has flowered since I started work here,I cannot recall the name but it is a native and I will find out its real name (I need to buy more anyway,LOL) I have it,what I thought in the first place but didn't know how it was spelt! Calothunus quadrifidus,isn it pretty!!!!!!!!
Its relatively hardy,but one did die from collar rot so I am careful not to water too much and really its established enough anyway!!!
Cheers ....

My Big Garden!

I took some photos earlier last week and only worked out to get them the SD card so I could transfer them to the computor! I just couldn't be bothered ,work,tired etc to work it out earlier but now I know!
My Big Garden,This is where i work,Kamblada District High School where the Primary and High School has been combined!One big garden of much variation to cater for junior kids through to those who can participate with some garden projects as part of there Out Door Educaion courses

This is one of my favourite places and I believe it has improved a lot in the last twelve months simply with the addition of perannuals that provide ongoing greenery and more flowers than the quick growing and maturing annuals that also cost every year to replace!

Dianthus curtisy of the lead gardener before she went on maturnity leav as they grew like weeeds in her home garden and she transplants a heap here last spring!Nastursiums that reseeded,seaside daisies that are only just becoming mature enough to fill out the borders,with grey plants which avaid my memory for their name but I think are of the gerbera family?It will come to me later.In among these are heaps of annuals ,which this year are pansies at the request of a staff member.I hope to keep this area for fussy things interplanted with some hardy plants so as to provide a heap of colour but reasonably water wise for summer(only during spring need the water with the hardy ones coming into their bit as the heat grows and the annuals die off)

I was and still am really proud of the work done here with my former lead gardener and the two relief ladies who have helped lately to get this patch to the stage it is, at the moment!

Next is the new rose bed that I shifted a couple of months ago before the weather started to warm up.These bushes were in a very shady spot with limited soil in quality as well as quantity.Infact they hardly had any roots on them just a main root that run along the side of the bed!

Among these roses is Angel face which has since started flowering after showing signs of stress and is also shooting more healthy shoots!This is their new home,I will put a photo of the previous site later when the new occupant flower!
The only red in the groupbut I would like to add some more later as there some rearly nice red tones out there now.The lastest one I was looking at was one called Lady Red which is a orangey type,bright but maybe a bit bricky too!

Not sure of this pink rose ,although its a lovely colour it tends to be very weak at the bud stem and droops a bit too much for my liking,I have amemory that it could be a Princess Monacco? or some royal name .A bit of research needed there!

Note the peahay around the bushes ,they are thriving in part to this as they don't dry out too quickly,no spores are thrown up during hand watering and their roots ae cooler or even in temperature.Also a weekly feed of rose food is helping too!

St Barbaras Daisy, a type of gerbera,unless I am corrected,I went looking in a plant search on the internet and discovered this so if it another type I would love to know.It self seeds but the offspring rarely grow further than the second stage leaf and just sit there !I tried putting the seeds into the shade house but the same thing happens,so I shall persevere as maybe the timing was wrong .

I left it where it was mainly as it was a charming location for it ,it was perfectly happy there and a great show in early spring!Also I couldn't plant anothe rose there anyway!!

Well thats it for now,I will add more pictures of developement bits around the school, as its great to see the improvements as they appear and the new plants that are added ( identified at least).

lots a flowers

Tis spring but I think the days will warm up to the point (around lunch time anyway) so the traditional flowers will fade really fast leaving the hardy natives to bloom and show off.....
This is a gorgeous callistemon called Perth Pink,its colour isn't showing up as bright as in real life but its so pretty,I plan to buy a few next year for the school garden as there is a dominance of red ones....
Tilly hiding and hoping she won't be roused on for trampling Mums plants(personally theres more weeds in there than anything nice )

Heres the other side with Tilly not budging a whisker,see what I mean with the weeds,that what happens with a busy job and five boys!

These Flag Iris are doing beautifully and hopefully I will be adding to the colours shortly,I would love to get some bi-colours and yellows,reds would also be great,just have to find somewhere to source some rhisomes!

This Convuluvious (not sure if thats how it spelt) Moon Flower is one common name,its a ground cover that at night the flowers nearly glow(for me anyway).The roos love them at school and I'm having a hard time getting to mature enough to put on a display. The leaves are silvery and covered with fine hairs so are fairly drought hardy.

This one is in my garden and only has the dog to contend with, though its mate is suffering, as I put it near the dogs favourite path into the fence where she used to converse with the neighbour Jack Russell(though I haven't seen him for a while,maybe he was getting too noisy for them as theres a new baby on the way)....

Heres the popular Kings Park Special bottlebrush,this tree is about three years old and is about to put on athe best show.It was squashed by the neighbour a couple of years ago and I had to cut it back to maintain its shape,he was cutting down a eucalypt and didn't ask us at the time otherwise we could have helped .That way the branch that fell on our side could have been handled differently...

This tree is a very easy one to grow and the colour is very bright,apparently it was a sport that was found in the Kings Park in Perth by gardeners,its parentage is not known or confirmed anyway.its the only red/pink that I look at when buying that colour for new plantings at work but at home I am adding different ones to put a bit of variety in.

I am waiting for the Western Glory to flower at present,it should be a deep dark pink...

This is the Pink Champayne that flowers all year round with the best show in spring but always has flowers to look at!The leaves I noticed go a bit prickly if it goes dry and I have tried to train all the natives to get their roots go down for water conservation (and cut the bills ) so I guess I am going to get used to those sharp bits!
I just love this Perth Pink......

Out back Flowers

I have decided that to keep my other blog for my creative bits I needed to start somewhere else to put my many gardening bits .
Here I shall record the happenings in my area that will include the school developements (garden wise) and anything that is remotely green or light brown in some cases as this is the arid area of Australia. A fun way to show my green thumb/fingers.....(also wher I can prattle on about gardening too....

First and foremost We have some rain! it was fast and the smell was heavonly,the kids were dying to get into the mud and all kid things that happen when it rains but I had had a long day at work and the last thing I wanted to do was clean up four muddy boys and a dog. They had to suffice with a toe dangle.It was all to brief and probably only about 30 to 40 points in the old gauge and really you wouldn't even have known it had rained at all two days later.Watering still had to be carried on at school and all the raking that the storm mess created.

This is a glimpse of our bush near our house where the BMX boys have been digging up their jumps.You can see how arid it is ,not exactly desert but there is no naturel water for a long way.All our town water is piped in from Perth and the mines use as much of the local underground saline water wher they can.

A member of the local native population,not sure what his name s but there ae some very pretty reptiles around here.

Heres another one.....(a gecko this time)
I do have some other lovely piccies of natives but stored on another computor..this was/is a garden site but how can you have garden stuff without some residents as well!
This a spalsh of colour,Tibuchina,or Lisandris(Hope I got that right),now what I would love to know is ,Is this a native Australian Lisandra or the Brazilian one,I have done some research and as usual the Nursery only puts the easy name on the tags and internet research came up with some confusing and confricting info...
Here is the other colourful addition to my own garden,a Geraldton Wax,will add its full name later but the colour is wonderful,I spyed another deep burgandy one in Kalgoorlies only WaterWise Garden centre ,Macbrides ,there are two others but this is new! and very nice(wasn't game to look at prices though).....Tillys just checking it out.....

This a closer look,the flowers are gorgeous....and they are quite hard to touch not soft and feathery at all.I haven't been game to plant any in my garden before but as I was developing the front I thought why not,careful preparation and all that,6 months will tell how successful I have been..

Next post I will put some photos up of my front garden, as its mostly red dirt, it will be interesting how it developes over time!(the back yard is a disgrace so it shall remain hidden for a while,LOL....