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

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

The Baron's Beauties

Hey Everyone,
At the Eastern Districts Orchid Society we were once again graced with the presence of our friends at the African Violet Society of Queensland.  Twice a year they come to our shows and they put on a marvellous display with incredible plants and flowers and i am trying SOOO hard to resist buying one because once i do i know i'll get hooked.  I was given a Gloxinia recently from a friend so this could be trouble, hehehe.

at the show i decided to take some photos of our lovely friends and some of their plants.  also, i must explain, the lady on the end didn't know i was taking a photo and i happened to take it just as she sneezed, oops, sorry.

looking at these photos while i'm uploading them, i'm really starting to rethink this whole 'no african violets' thing, i now REALLY WANT SOME!  i'm now really dissapointed that i didn't take more photos of them, my favourites are the white and blue-purple one, and the blue-purple one.  i'll definitely have to see them at our autumn show next year.... if i can wait that long...  oh, and some of you may be curious about the title, i've decided i might try and come up with interesting titles just to keep myself ocupied plus by doing a bit of research i can then find out some cool and interesting stuff.

the reason why i titled it "The Baron's Beauties" is because the plants were discovered by Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire in 1892, and to honour the man who discovered them the genus was named Saintpaulia.

well, i'd best start organising the photos to make another post because i still have photos from the carnival of flowers, the orchid show, and of course the mischief that Nalle has been getting up to.

well, until my next post,

Happy Gardening

Michael