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Wednesday 15 February 2012

January/February in the Garden;


The best known-and perhaps most inspired-literary mushroom of all is the one nibbled by Alice in her Adventures in Wonderland. Eating from one side of the mushroom makes her grow larger, eating from the other side makes her shrink. It's possible that author Lewis Carroll knew of the properties of Fly Agaric. One effect of this hallucinogenic fungus is to make objects appear larger or smaller in the user's eye.




Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia is a genus of nine species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, with a disjunctive distribution native to eastern Australia (seven species), New Caledonia (one species M. neurophylla) and Sulawesi in Indonesia (one species, M. hildebrandii).
They are small to large evergreen trees growing to 2–12 m tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, lanceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6–30 cm long and 2–13 cm broad, with an entire or spiny-serrated margin. The flowers are produced in a long, slender, simple raceme 5–30 cm long, the individual flowers 10–15 mm long, white to pink or purple, with four tepals. The fruit is a very hard, woody, globose follicle with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds.
The genus is named after John Macadam, a colleague of botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, who first described the genus. Common names include macadamia, macadamia nut, Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, queen of nuts and bauple nut; Indigenous Australian names include gyndl, jindilli, and boombera.




It can take 50-100 years for fungi to reduce a hardwood trunk to dust.





Pink Turmeric


Globba winitii, Zingiberaceae 






An unsettled summer's sky;



Miniature garden paraphernalia;



Beautiful patterns found on fungi growing on decaying wood.




I am always amazed and glad when I see the stags and elks attaching them selves freely  from seed to the bark of trees



Sweet Chestnuts; Castanea sativa;  the subtropics are not the optimum climate for Chestnuts.




Quisqualis indica also known as the Chinese honeysuckleRangoon Creeper, and Combretum indicum is a vine with red flower clusters and is found in in many other parts of the world either as a cultivated ornamental or run wild. The genus translates into Latin for What is that?.



Passionfruit, this is the yellow Hawaiian; it is absolutely delicious. 



Aechmea gamosepala 'Lucky Stripe' Bromeliad



The flowers of the native Alexandra Palm, Archontophoenix alexandrae; nectar and seed for birds and insects.



Pecan nuts growing.



My new play area, the old chicken yard. The chooks have received a new home on the other side of the garden, a sunnier spot and lots of grass and herbs to nibble on.


I have started to plant, it will take me a while to finish, at the moment it is hot and muggy which saps my energy. It is a mixture of sun and shade so I have quite a variety of plants I can use. A birdbath is also on the list. Perhaps a bench to have a rest and watch and look and see!


Believe it or not;
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~


© TS text and photos



12 comments:

  1. Beautifull! Grandious!

    It´s ever a great pleasure to see and read about gardens, plants and your knowledge about this matter.

    Regards

    António

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  2. I missed you. Are you back blogging again? came via Trudi's Facebook. Love all your photos.

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  3. Antonio, thank you so much for your visit, glad you like my garden. T♥

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  4. Ann, good to see you here. I was a bit blog tired for a while. I think I have recovered; it is still fun. I will also visit your blog again. Thank you Ann.

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  5. It's such a treat to visit you after such a long gap. I loved your Under a hotter sun blog, your everday poetry and photography is beautiful and here you on another full of wonderful tropical plants. I love macadamia nuts and have them at Christmas as a special treat. Ditto your Rangoon Creeper....it would not survive here alas.

    We have had our coldest and longest winter for many a year and so many plants have been killed off. Our three varieties of hibiscus, which you asked about, may not survive, but we live in hope.

    I don't blog much myself now but when Spring gets going and we see what has survived, I shall have something to say.

    Meanwhile, happy blogging to you.

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  6. I love the texture and patterns of the fungi. It is too hot for gardening now except early in the morning. can you help a friend identify a flower at:
    http://travelwitheileen.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/panama-scenes.html#comment-form

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  7. Diane, hello, good morning, the flower is a Heliconia species, but I am not sure which one as there are so many new, similar ones available. T♥

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  8. Lady Luz, thank you for your nice comment. I will be around to enjoy your spring garden, perhaps some new mosaics and always happy gardening. T♥

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  9. I bet your passion fruit is yummy, the patterns on the fungi makes each one it own piece of art.. hugs and thank you for stopping by it was a nice surprise... Cherry

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  10. Liebe Trudi, eine in letzter Zeit sehr schreibfaul Gewordene meldet sich zurück. Nach all dem vielen Schnee und der Kälte ist es direkt eine Wohltat für's Auge und die Seele in deinem wunderschönen exotischen Garten mit den vielen bunten Farbtupfern zu spazieren. Und ich sehe, du hast wieder ein neues "Areal" in Beschlag genommen und bist fleissig am Pflanzen. Um die Früchte in deinem Garten beneide ich dich....Passionsfrüchte kaufen wir hier sehr teuer und sie schmecken nicht mal besonders gut durch das unreife Ernten und des langen Transportwegs. Ich stelle mir deinen Garten ein bisschen wie ein kleines Schlaraffenland vor :-) !
    Herzliche Grüsse, Barbara

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    1. Liebe Barbara; danke für dein B'süechli. Es freut mich immer; hier probier mal diese passion fruit, sie sind am reifen und für mich etwas vom besten. Das neue Revier braucht noch etwas Zeit, es ist fast noch zu heiss und es gibt so viel zum jäten und aufräumen, immer wieder habe ich ein paar "Ecken" die ich immer ignoriere, schau einfach auf die andere Seite! Bei dir fängt es an zu blühen, alles neu macht der Mai oder besser der März. ciao T♥

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