Living in Australia, I don’t normally get to write about cacti. The other day when cycling past the train line near the Prahran Market, here they were (!), the bright yellow flowers of Prickly Pear Cactus. Mind you, I’ve been living in the area for many years now but have never noticed the cactus growing […]
I have been chasing the flowering of Illawarra Flame Tree for months. In late Winter, I went with my camera to the St Kilda Botanic Gardens to photograph a red flowering tree but then realised that I was looking at the Coral Tree Erythrina. From my books I learned that the Flame Tree is in flower at […]
I have just returned from my travels to New Zealand to be part of the First Light Flower Essence of NZ workshop at the serene Tauhara Centre in Taupo. Apart from attending the workshop I’d been intending to photograph New Zealand’s native flowers but as so often, the flower world has its own plans and the […]
Grevilleas are diverse, with about 340 species native mainly to Australia but some can also be found in New Guinea, New Caledonia, Indonesia, and Sulawesi. They come in all shapes and sizes from small ground-cover shrubs less than 50 cm in height to tall trees up to 35 m. They are named in honour of Charles […]
I asked the rose, ‘From whom did you steal that beauty?’ The rose laughs softly out of shame, but how should she tell? – Rumi Why on earth am I writing on roses? Hasn’t there been enough written about them, used in imagery a million times over and poetry galore? My reluctance to write about […]
The wisterias are in blossom in my neighbourhood and I adore seeing this abundance of cascading flowers swaying in the breeze resembling violet-coloured waterfalls. The gentle softness of the wisteria flowers are betraying the climbing killer that lives underneath strangling anything in its way for the best spot to display its beauty in the sunlight. […]
Bottlebrush is one of the plant genera that signify the Australian landscape along Eucalyptus, Acacia and Grevillia. Belonging to the Myrtaceae family there are two species that use the common name Bottlebrush, Callistemon (with 35 – 40 species) and Beaufortia (18 species). The latter are endemic to south-western Australia, while Callistemon can be found throughout temperate and […]
A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute. Shakespeare in ‘Hamlet’ Violets are in bloom right now in the cool Melbourne mid-winter. My discovery of their return into flower the other day was not by seeing them but smelling their fragrance when […]
Did you know that Australia has two genera of grass trees which interestingly bear distinct ‘male’ and ‘female’ features? The Xanthorrhoea genus has a long spiked flower head while Kingia features egg-shaped clusters of flowers. Initially they were thought to be ‘male’ and ‘female’ species of the same plant as they bear superficial similarities when not in flower. Apart from the […]