Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers (Part 2)

Hey Everyone,

I've finally gotten around to doing part 2 of the photos i took at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flower, for part one click HERE.  Just quickly, how many of you are into gardening and murder mysteries? now, if by some crazy coincidence you, like me, had not discovered the show "Rosemary and Thyme" then i highly suggest it, I only realised i might like it 3 days ago and i am already up to watching the second last episode of season 2 and i dread when i reach the last episode of season 3 which is also the finale... but all good things must come to an end and this show is AMAZING! hehehe, well enough of my idle chit chat, though i guess that's pretty much all this blog is, I'd best get on with the photos :)

now, i think I'll begin from where i left off in the last post.  up the second pathway we go :)

As i turned the corner from the toilets and followed the path back up towards the old stone archway and the absolute snowdrifts of May Bushes i spotted this amazing pure white camellia.  the smell coming from it was simply divine.

on the other side of the camellia was a small clump of bearded iris, i only wish I'd gotten more photos of them, they was sublime, i have a thing about irises, i forget about them for summer and autumn but then when they come up again in winter and spring that love is rekindled and i have to stop myself from spending every last penny on buying more :)





as i went past the bearded iris i saw this wondrous thing.  thanks to the marvellous powers of the Internet I've been able to find out that this is a watsonia.  i received some bulbs, well corms, from my grandma a couple of months back under the belief that they were gladiola, however, when her set of plants flowered she told me that they weren't gladiola and i should just through the corms out because they weren't anything much.  seeing as how i couldn't see what the flowers looked like because i couldn't see grandmas and my corms hadn't

of course, i had to take a photo of the bee didn't i :)

flowered yet i figured I'd keep them just to see the flowers for myself and then make my decision.  well, while i was at the carnival i saw these wondrous plants and instantly fell in love, i was mesmerized and wished i knew the name so i could buy some, but for love nor money could i find a name tag anywhere so i just figured I'd never be able to get any so instead i took a bazillion photos of them.  well when i went and visited grandma a week later i discovered that those corms she gave me were in fact this plant and i was absolutely tickled pink.  for some reason, I'd say due to incorrect culture, my corms have not flowered yet and the plants are pretty small so when they die back in autumn I'm going to take them out of their pots and put them in one of the garden beds and just let them run riot because the display they put on at the carnival i thought was just spectacular.  well i better stop typing about watsonia and let you see some photos :)

then as i reluctantly dragged myself away from the watsonia, which by the way i took a heap more photos then i bombarded you with :), i then found the amazing ruby red camellia, ain't she just bootifull.


then, next to that and at the end of the row there was this magnificent magnolia, it was so peculiar, i obviously hadn't seen a magnolia in quite some time.

then as i was about to turn to my left to walk across the lawns of the park i noticed another bed that was hidden behind the may bushes as i walked in, it had a wonderful combination of white and blue irises.

how could i not get more photos of the may bush?

and then this is Cotinus coggygria from southern Europe/china.... it was the only plant with a name tag :), just look at that foliage

well i guess that's it for now, sorry about not posting last night, i slept in the tent in the paddock last night with two friends from school, i figured it was about time i did that again, it was really good fun.  and hopefully I'll be able to make another post tomorrow night because I'm staying at another friends house, then Saturday I'm going to the beach for a friends birthday, then I'm staying at a friends house Saturday night, so if you don't hear from me it's not because i don't like you all anymore it's just that I'm off being a kid :) hehehe.... though I'll try get on and upload some photos :)

well, I'm going to go and watch Rosemary and Thyme so I'll speak to you all later :)

Happy Gardening,
Michael