Gardening Adventures With Grandma

Hey Everyone,

It isn’t exactly in chronological order, but this way I’m keeping you all on your toes hehehe J.

As I mentioned last week, I think, grandma and I went to not only the Toowoomba Orchid Societies Show, but also the Toowoomba Bromeliad Show, which is run by the same society.  This was my first ever bromeliad show and I have no doubt that it the first of many to come.  I hadn’t had a clue as to how many different types, shapes, sizes and colours there were, I knew there were lots but WOW! 

Also, another upside to bromeliad shows, is that there are vendors there as well.  When grandma and I popped in for “just a quick look” we both very much regretted spending all our money at the orchid show, there was not only the members sales area but also a visiting bromeliad nursery by the name of Talbot Lodge.  The lovely people of Talbot Lodge put up with both Grandma and I’s incessant talking and of course grandma was after some help in identifying her brom…. Gotta love her description; “it is grey, and spiky, and it hangs in the air and it’s forming flowers”…. Well I knew before hand it was a tillandsia but I was sure that was as far as we would know.  And funnily enough, it was.  But still, it didn’t stop me from trying to stop myself from drooling all over Talbot Lodge’s tillandsias and other broms they had there for sale.

Also at the show I got to meet John Woolf, the owner of the marvelous nursery Woolf Orchid Culture, a marvelous nursery with an amazing range of plants.  We had a chat for a while and he was very giving with his information. 

I must admit I was really surprised at just how much grandma enjoyed the brom show, she was absolutely fascinated by all the different shapes, sizes and colours and had a grin from ear to ear which was really nice to see.  She was like a child in a candy store.  But no matter what I told her if she saw a particularly spikey one she just had to poke it to see just how spikey it was… *roll eyes*.

I LOVE this photo, she didn't know i was taking it and it captures just how much she was enjoying herself.  i really really enjoyed myself, i think i enjoyed watching grandma have fun and being able to spend the day with her than i did anything else

the main culprit of Grandma's poking

After the Bromeliad Show we then took my orchid purchases home to drop them off so we didn’t have to keep carrying them around, we picked up the dogs and off we went up to a park to have a look at the gardens up there…. After grandma stocked up at an ATM of course. 

my sarcochilus that i bought from Woolf Orchid Culture

Posie waiting for grandma to hurry up, we had a park to go to

"don't worry, if she doesn't come back i can always drive us there"

This is one of the pictures I took up at the gardens, it’s of a Meadow Argus Butterfly (Junonia villida) perched on a Heliotrope in one of the first garden beds I saw.  

But sadly it’s getting late, as usual, so the photos from there will just have to wait until next time.  In the morning I am going to be riding my bicycle along the Moreton Bay Waterfront so that I can visit one of my societies top Phalaenopsis growers, Lyla and I are good friends and it will be nice finally being able to visit her garden. J

Well, until tomorrow, Happy Gardening

Michael