Toowoomba Carnival of the Flowers (Part 1)

Hey Everyone,

As I said last night in my Bloom Day post, I was lucky enough to go up to Toowoomba yesterday.  The reason why I was so lucky is because next week is the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.  The marvelous thing about this carnival is that if you’re a week early it doesn’t matter that much.  Queen’s Park was simply bursting with incredible blooms, so much so that it forced me to take over 600 photos…. The fact that the park forced me to and not that I’m trigger happy is my story and I’m sticking to it J HAHAHA.

Seeing as how there are so many photos I thought I would stagger them out over several posts, and if something interesting happens in my garden I’ll talk about that, but if not then to make sure I make my daily post I’ll post about the Carnival of Flowers…. You know what, lets just call it COF from now on J

Luckily I’m going up again next weekend because mum has a quilt show on up there for the weekend so I’m going to go too, and I’ll probably stay with my grandma and  go on some of the bus tours around the gardens.  We went on a bus tour one year and it was absolutely brilliant, the gardens were just so spectacular and diverse.  Also, because I’m going up next weekend I’ll be able to get photos of the plants that haven’t opened yet, or I might even just go around taking new photos of everything because it is simply more spectacular.

Oh, and if while looking through any of the photos you happen to know the name of a plant please do let me know, I would love to know their names and be able to caption them for others who are like me and do not.

Well, I better stop rambling on and show you all some photos, and as i always say, don't forget to click on the photo to see a larger version J

Before you walked into the park via a beautiful stone archway there was a lovely tree that within its mixture of green leaves it would have a flaming hot red one, and some of the most delicate looking pale apple green leaves with spidery flower heads appearing at the end of each branch.

As you walked through the archway and into the park the path was lined on one side (my right) with some of the most gorgeous May Bushes (Spiraea cantoniensis).  They were just about to explode into the most amazing profusion of flowers but they still looked simply divine.  I love the fact that they are covered with the tiniest most intricate flowers, and they manage to produce so many.  Definitely a must in a garden, if you can.

On the other side of the path (my left) the border was the most exquisite mixtures of Ranunculus, Tulips, and some Polyanthus (thanks to Kathryn for informing me on the name).  They came in an incredible array of colours that I never would have dreamed of from the hottest of Lipstick reds, to amazingly vibrant yellows, and pinks in all possible variations of colour.  Not to forget the most amazing oranges that were just amazing, and surprisingly difficult to photograph, I don’t know what it was about them but the camera did just not want to behave itself, it just would not capture the exquisite detail, but luckily I did manage to get one or two photos of them.  Oh and how could I possible leave them to last, those whites, those absolutely amazing white Ranunculus that beautifully complimented the purity of the white tulips.  And then there were all manner of mixtures in colours, for example the Yellow tulips that had the most perfectly places marks of red on the petals.

As you continued down the path between the borders of Ranunculus, Tulips, Polyanthus and May Bush, you then came to a point where a pathway from your right joined up to allow access to the lawns and the garden bed where the “Showy” flowers were.  However, in classic me style, I wanted to see every single plant I could, so I continued on straight down the path…. Now here comes the embarrassing lack of my knowledge of non-orchids. 

As you passed the path coming through on the right the borders/gardenbeds, changed into a selection of bushes/trees.  On the left where what I may haard a guess at as being cherrys, however what I can recall the individual flowers normally have far fewer petals.  As I was looking at these trees and standing on my tip-toes to try and get some shots of the flowers the camera focused on the background which then lead me to see the beautiful clump of yellow Clivias.  I will normally admire the usual red clivias and mention how nice they are, but I’ve never had to strong a want for them to be included in my own garden for some reason, however, these yellow clivias are a completely different matter.  Aren’t they just amazing, because they were at the back of the garden bed, which was rather large, I couldn’t get too detailed a shot of them because I was not about to go walking through the gardens as I would absolutely hate it is someone walked through mine.  But I promise myself, next time I’m up there I will find a way to get a nice close photo of them. 

As you continued down the path (after mopping up all the drool that magically appeared when I saw the yellow clivias, really, I don’t know where it came from, I swear J) you walk past these two bushes that have beautifully contrasting flowers, one is the pale blue with slender anthers projecting out of the flower, with the perfect amount of point to the petals, which has only a few flowers out at a time, which is next to the absolute riot of the “red plant” (as I am going to call it until I find out the real name LOL).  The red plant has almost round petals which as they progress towards the centre of the flower they darken in their pinkness, then the centre of the flower is simply a ring of “fluff”, I’m sorry but I don’t know of any other way of possibly describing it J.

 

 

Then as you continue down the path there is a wonderful selection of what I thought at first were magnolias but now I’m starting to reconsider, so once more, they shall remain nameless.  Then as you pass the toilet block you notice the even large clump of the normal red/orange clivias, so I had to get a photo of them too.

Then as you reach the bottom of the path (finally J), there is this odd plant, similar growth habit and leaves to a Macadamia, however it has the strangest blue “fruit”, and I would greatly appreciate it if anyone knew the name because it is just so interesting.

Well, that’s the end of one of the paths and I better get back to study, so tomorrow we’ll either walk back up the parallel path, or I may perhaps do a post on the foliage that’s in our garden, inspired by Pam at Digging

Well, until tomorrow, 

may your plants continue to bloom, 

and an interesting quote from none other than;

Sir David Attenborough 

“An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.” 

And another just for fun 

“Children start off reading in books about lions and giraffes and so on, but they also-if they're lucky enough and have reasonable privileges of any human being-are able to go into a garden and turn over stone and see a worm and see a slug and see an ant. ”

p.s. this took way longer than i thought it would, here was me thinking half an hour tops.... nah, took me more like 2 hours to get it perfect :)