Winter in Western Australia

Linking to:
Mosaic Monday
Macro Monday
Today's Flowers
SOOC

Wild About Wildflowers

For Flaunt Your Flowers on Tootsie's Fertiliser Friday, I shall be flaunting today, not my own flowers from Mygardenhaven, but instead, I shall flaunt my photographs of Australian wildflowers.


I was in Western Australia last week, and I was on the  look out for Australian wildflowers. No, I didn't go trekking in the bushland. That would have been an adventure, I know, but the best place to find them all together was of course King's Park Perth Botanic Gardens. The plants here are mostly native trees and bush flora of Western Australia.

If you are visiting King's Park, make sure you have wheels...a bicycle, or if you are from out of town, a rental vehicle. Why? Because this wouldn't be your usual morning walk in the park where you take a stroll and cover the area in half an hour. The park is approximately 4 sq kilometres,  the largest inner city park in the world! 

A little more about King's Park before we get to the wildflowers. This is a beautiful park and the panoramic view of the Swan River as well as of the city from Mount Eliza, where the State War Memorial Precinct is, is captivating.

    

These are the famed Boab Tree, or the Gija jumulu, ancient giants ( the trees can grow up to a thousand odd years! ) from the Kimberly region, north of Western Australia. They travelled 3000km to be part of King's Park. They certainly are the major attraction here. I got to see these trees in the dry winter season, so they are bare of leaves. The trees begin to flower and fruit in the wet season in September. I was here one month too early to witness this. I was surprised to learn that almost every part of the tree can be used...for food, shelter and medicine! The boab tree roots are said to be delicious, the young leaves can be added to salads, and the seeds are high in vitamin C content! Not bad coming from a  bottle-shaped tree.

For Haiku Heights (Friendship)

the tree of friendship

it nourishes and comforts

stay rooted yet free

Here we are at the Botanic Garden. There are about 2000 species of Australian native flora here, and I'm going to show you all of them!? That would take me a week to prepare such a post, so...no, not all of them. Besides, like I mentioned earlier, my visit was a bit too early. The peak of the wildflower blooming season is from September to October. That's when the annual King's Park Festival is held where among other events, the flaunting of beautiful wildflowers takes the limelight. Here are the ones that were blooming, though. 

This was the lone Kangaroo Paw I encountered. It is the Mangles Kangaroo Paw and has the singular  honour of being the floral emblem of Western Australia.

These pretty little things were in abundance. They are Qualup Bells.

    

This is decidedly my all-time favourite shot. I am deliriously happy each time I look at this photograph. Oh, of course I love the golden yellow Coast Banksia here, and I also love the shape of the leaves. But oh how I adore that bird for resting there and allowing me to capture that pose! I don't even know its name. It was a lovely, lovely encounter. I read that banksias produce lots of nectar, and that must have been a pitstop for the thirsty bird. I also read that the aborigines also partake of the sweet nectar.

For more images of King's Park and Western Australia, check out my travel-i-tales blog.

Till we meet again, cheers mate!

Linking to:
Fertilizer Friday
Macro Friday
Macro Flowers Saturday
Haiku Heights
Haiku My Heart

Pond Makeover

My little Fishies (they share a common name as there are too many to name individually) had been complaining to me about needing to upgrade their pond lately, so a makeover was in order. Hubby was pleased to get his D.I.Y. skills into practice, and he designed this pond concept that I am crazy about, clean lines and transparency! He used tempered glass, and we now have on our patio a 12ft by 12ft glass pond with a water feature in the centre, and a corner for water plants. Now I can watch my Fishies from every angle...they, on the other hand, get a huge apartment (a penthouse, no less!) thanks to my handy hubby.

Before  

Linking to"
Fertilizer Friday
Macro Friday 
Macro Flowers Saturday
Haiku Heights 
Haiku My Heart






For  Haiku Heights (Prompt: Confession)


confess to the waves
empty the soul of burden
fish glide blithe with cheer

My Red Orchids Rock

My red orchids have been featured before when they shared the limelight with my dianthus in a post about Red rubies in my garden. Today I am pleased to feature them as the crown jewels of mygardenhaven this month! I had moved these vanda plants nearer to where the sunlight could trigger their flowering mechaninism. And it worked like it always does.With vandas, or possibly with all orchids, this does the trick. However, I noticed that their leaves were getting scorched in the process, whilst the blooms were as fresh and as crisp as cabbages in the refrigerator. It would be timely to remove them from full sun, I thought, so, in order to keep them fresh and crisp, I  decided to place them in a safer, cooler environment. Remember my purple orchid post, My Precious molly-coddled purple orchids? They were not blooming because I had put them in almost 90% full shade. That was why only one spray emerged; and that was from the plant nearest to the light. What I've done now, is, I've moved my precious red orchids to that place of 90% shade...oh, did I forget to boast about the FOUR sprays that emerged from two of the three plants? Yes, my FOUR sprays will last much longer in the shade now that they have endured enough sunshine.


Here they are, introducing my ravishing red orchids!

A Tribute To Nature's Gift

nature's gift of  life

borne of the soil,

nurtured by the elements

bearing beauty beyond belief

gifts that we treasure beyond measure

lives that we tend to, 

lives that we propagate

proliferate and  pamper to produce

abundance

abundant sustenance, feasts for the table

abundant inflorescence, feasts for the eyes

that is nature's gift so valuable

 a  blessing to our lives

Linking to:

Mosaic Monday

Macro Monday

Poetry Potluck

Bauhinia Kockiana

If you're looking for a spectacular show of vermilion-yellow blooms in your garden, this climber you see here, the Red Trailing Bauhinia, or Kock's Bauhinia, is the plant for your garden. The sun-loving flowers bloom almost all year round if you are in the tropics.


This plant is easy...you don't have to feed it often, but just make sure they get enough water. Pruning is essential to encourage more of the showy scarlet blooms to make an appearance.


They grow very quickly and if you have an arbor, or a pergola, the vines will cover your structure in no time. And when the blooms grow crazy like a party gone wild, you'll be proud to say you have a Bauhinia Kockiana in your garden!

Scarlet profusion

Drenched in tropical shower

Quenched by ambrosia 

Linking to

Poetic Form

Haiku Heights

Haiku My Heart 

Fertilizer Friday 

Macro Friday

Thursday Poets' Rally

Macro Flowers Saturday