Flying home tomorrow. Hey ho, all good things must come to an end. And back to who knows what. I have a fair idea, gleaned from The Propagator and all the other contributors to six on saturday.
One.
This will definitely be my last post from Australia. Having been here seven weeks I am beginning to get to know a few plants. I saw Buckinghamia celsissima flowering in Brisbane Botanic Garden over a month ago. It is by no means common in people’s gardens but there are a couple of small towns just north of here, notably Landsborough, where they have been planted in large numbers on the wide roadside verges. Our hosts have a tree on the verge in front of their house that has died; this is probably the leading contender to replace it, if we can find one to buy.
Two.
When it comes to working out what to grow in your garden here, a great place to start is public parks. Roma Street Parkland in Brisbane is a cracker. There’s some impressive landscaping, interesting and effective use of native and exotic plants and well executed parks style bedding. It was here that I realised that effective summer bedding here needs to able to withstand high temperatures for weeks or months. UK summer bedding subjects are mostly more suitable for their winter if at all. Petunias and Marigolds seem to do OK, much of the rest was less familiar to me. Among the exotics I was stopped in my tracks by a couple of double flowered forms of Lotus growing in the main lake.
Three.
Another garden we visited calls itself Maleny Botanic Garden. In scale and plant range that is not an outrageous claim but sadly nothing is labelled. Maleny is in the hills of the hinterland, lovely little town. It does mean that it is a little cooler than the coastal plain.
Four.
Armed with a little knowledge, we headed off to the local garden centre. It’s getting a bit late for summer bedding but we found a few things; Petunias, a thing sold simply as Vinca and another thing I don’t have a name for. All were doing well at Roma Street. We planted them in three containers, mostly replacing Antirrhinums that didn’t look at all happy. They seem to be doing alright so far.
Five.
On another trip to Maleny we stumbled upon a small but excellent native plant nursery, Forest Heart. They publish their plant range on their website and it is extensive and interesting. Leaving without purchasing was not a realistic option so we picked out these two; Cat’s Whiskers and a bottlebrush, Orthosiphon aristatus and Callistemon ‘Firebrand’.Ā
Six.
Uh-oh!
The white flower at Melaney (since you’re a professional, my sophisticated plant identification is probably within your understanding) is remarkable. Stunning. Exotic. I’m in love. Again. The unidentified purple things bought at the garden centre, they’re quite interesting, both foliage & blossom. And, you do have a startling change of climate to come home to. Best of luck w/that! And safe trip. Your Aussie posts have been wonderful but I do look forward to seeing what’s happened here while you were away.
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Iām glad youāve enjoyed the Aussie posts, shame I wasnāt able to recruit a local to carry them on. The white flowered tree was stunning individually; a whole street was even better but hard to get a picture.
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That’s a tree? O my goodness . . . how I’d love one in my back garden.
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Ah, methinks misunderstanding. White. Malaney. Tibouchina? If so, not tree, at least not yet.
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Back to winter with a bump!
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Thank you for sharing your Aussie pictures… many beautiful views, plants, and shrubs that you have enjoyed in these 7 recent weeks. And good luck to come back to our cold lands!
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Happy day-after-Australia-Day day. I saw a weather forecast last evening that said the south of the UK was in for a mini-heatwave. A thick fog is now descending and I can barely see the other side of the close. I guess that’s a sign of the change in the weather. I’ll say one more time thanks for the series of Antipodean posts. It doesn’t seem like seven weeks but time flies when you’re enjoying yourself. Next week will be interesting. Good luck.
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A mini heatwave sounds encouraging, but down here 12C doesnāt quite count as one. Glad you enjoyed the Oz posts, as you say, next week will be interesting, I just hope itās for the right reasons.
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Safe trip, enjoyed seeing the tropicals. Love the white Tibouchina.
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