PUSHING THE BORDERS

Summer is not the most floriferous time of year here..but last week while dropping somebody off at an appointment in the city center, I popped into King's Park. I've posted photos of various bits and pieces here on GOTE before, but this time I went for a wander down one end I'd never bothered to walk through before, and there was more in flower than I thought there'd be....not to mention a few interesting specimen trees I had no idea they were harbouring.

Grevillea 'Kimberley Moon'


Mulla-mulla - Ptilotus sp.


Anigozanthos 'Bush Pearl'


One of the A, flavidus cultivars


Can't remember the name of these


E. rhodantha






Banksia prionotes


Parakeelyas - Calandrinia polyandra


'Summer Red' - C. ficifolia x C. Ptychosperma


A creature for Martin




Qweensland firewheel tree - Stenocarpus sinuosa






Tabebuia pallida - I've never seen these before, although this one looks like it's been there for years...





I can never remember the name of this thing - I've got one out the back the previous owners planted that's been there for years - in full sun and dry sand. I ignore it assiduously.


A random frandipani (not something they plant much in these gardens)


Spathodea are always difficult to photograph because the flowers sit up on top of the foliage


Sand bottlebrush - Beaufortia sparsa


The illyaries are finishing now - E. erythrocorys


The prostate form of B. attenuata


They've gpt a few Wollemi pines stashed in this general area; they don't look great, even though they're getting watered. I suspect it's just too hot and dry here for them over summer...




...these, on the other hand, seem to be doing just fine - a copse of E. deglupta. I'd never seen them before and thought they might be a bit edgy for here but apparently not...






Some other random trees...Queensland kauri - Agathis robusta


A dracaena rescued from someone's garden


A bodhi tree - Ficus religiosa (I now have one of these)




Cyathea


A wild cycad - Macrozamia fraser


Some more exotic cycads: this one they called just Macrozamia sp.

Wow!
I have a coach party of Australian gardeners booked in for Late May to see our garden here (while on a tour of gardens) but seeing those pictures I am wondering why they would leave home!!

MICHAEL wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 3:09 pm Can't remember the name of these


I can never remember the name of this thing - I've got one out the back the previous owners planted that's been there for years - in full sun and dry sand. I ignore it assiduously.

Michael that is an awesome assemblage for 'not the most floriferous time of year here'. I'm inspired by the large flowered mallees.

I'm a bit out of my depth with your flora, so my ID's are tentative.

Is the first one above Gomphrena canescens, an Australian native?

And the second one the Central American Odontonema tubaeforme?

Chad

Superb Michael. Love the Kookaburra. I fell in love with one in a zoo in Cornwall. Don't know if she is still alive. It was probably about 10 years ago and I don't know how long they live. She was called, rather unimaginitively, Sheila. Magnificent birds and to the UK ear, the call is so associated with what we imagine the Australian bush to sound like. I keep saying we need to come over, especially with family living in Perth. We really must.

Fabulous photos, some familiar here, others not. The red flowered plant definitely looks like an Odontonema, similar to O. stricta, but I can’t imagine this plant thriving in dry sand, the genus is definitely not drought tolerant here in California. I grow the purple flowering O. callystachium in my own garden.

Thanks Chad - you're right, and laziness does pay. Gomphrena is a native, yes.

David - the red thing is Odontonema...and I do have one in dry sand. I never ever water it or touch it or do anything, and it somehow survives. My suspicion is that they are an older-fashioned thing that you don't see much in nurseries anymore. That reminds me - I have a little present for you.,..

Martin - re: kookaburras - they are, interestingly, not native to the south-west of the continent, having been introduced many years ago. They are everywhere now, but never in big numbers. You do hear them cackling away in the morning or evening some times, but then not for days on end. Funny things. They're good at stealing fish from ponds, and get very tame if you feed them.