Garden Photography Challenge : Essence of Summer

In early summer, October and November in this part of the world, summer is heralded in with the glorious, flamboyant display from 2 trees, that to me, shout “summer is coming”.

Neither are natives, but they have been planted as street trees in many areas.

The lovely lavender shades of the Jacaranda mass planted are a joy to behold.

The display is only short-lived. Often wild winds will devastate the display and a carpet of leaves are all that is left.

The town of Grafton, about 300 kilometres south of here, is famous for its streets lined with these beautiful trees and each year they have a Jacaranda festival in early November. This year I am going to be there and have pre-booked accommodation. Expect many more Jacaranda photos then…

As the Jacaranda fades the vibrant Poinciana takes centre stage.

Our local shopping street has them featured. I also have a young one in my garden. As yet it has to come into full flower, maybe it will this year, it is now about 10 years old.

June has slipped by and this is the last of the “essence of summer” challenge from Jude, “earth laughs in flowers”. I have enjoyed remembering summer as winter is now biting down under, but the shortest day has been and gone and we are now on our way back to summer…

Next month we will be looking at the “edible garden”.

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Garden Photo Challenge : Essence of Summer.

The absolute essence of summer is the scent of the frangipani.

The delicate perfume pervades the air, especially at dusk as the sun goes down.

A perfect time to sit in the warm tropical evening after a day in the garden and share a glass of wine. This is summer in my part of the world.

But that is just a memory.

It is now mid winter and the frangipani have dropped all their leaves and the bare branches reach for the sky.

But look closer, 2 very confused buds are just opening…

Like the world over the plants are quite confused with the seasons. It is supposed to be winter and  our dry season and temperatures should be cooler. But it has been the warmest April and May on record and now we are having record rainfall.

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Jude at “earth laughs in flowers” hosts a garden photography challenge and for June she says…

“This month I want to see what summer means to you. Still focussing on the garden or parkland let your photographs tell me your story of summer-time wherever in the world you live.”

Garden Photography Challenge : Tropical Summer…

Last week I reminisced about my English past and the roses that brought the “essence of summer” to mind from that bygone era.

This week I am  back in the present and what the “essence of summer” means to me now. I live in the sub-tropical area of South-East Queensland and the summers are hot and humid. The flowers and foliage are vivid, dazzling, showy even flashy. Demanding attention they flaunt and show off often surrounded by luscious tropical greenery. So here is a gallery of some of my favourites.

Bird of paradise.

Heliconia

Nasturtium

Banksia, native Australian shrub

 

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In the northern hemisphere it is mid-summer. Maybe the sun is shining, hopefully the flowers are flowering. But down under, in Australia, it is now winter in this topsy-turvy world, but our sun is still shining, well most days. So I have to go back to December, January and February to find these signs of summer. As Jude (Earth laughs in flowers)  says:

“This month I want to see what summer means to you. Still focussing on the garden or parkland let your photographs tell me your story of summer-time wherever in the world you live.”

Garden Photography Challenge : The Essence of Summer…

This weekend winter arrived in Queensland, Australia.

Torrential rain, 90km/hr winds and the temperature plummeted to 19c degrees. Now that may be balmy in the Northern hemisphere but down under, after an endless summer of 25-30 degrees, it meant dragging out the winter woollies.

This month the theme Jude (Earth laughs in flowers) has chosen is “the essence of summer“

“This month I want to see what summer means to you. Still focussing on the garden or parkland let your photographs tell me your story of summer-time wherever in the world you live. “

So I have travelled back in my memory to a perfect summer I spent in Adelaide and visited the Adelaide International Rose Garden.

The Adelaide International Rose Garden takes visitors on a heady journey that’s a delight to the senses. As you wander the garden you’re drawn through a series of colourful spaces, each cleverly revealing a rose collection from a different style of garden.

The garden displays over 2,500 roses, including areas devoted to Australian bred roses, single roses, heritage roses and pillar roses. A walkway in the garden highlights roses selected for specific Australian causes (Olympic Gold, The Children’s Rose). Mixed companion plantings add lots of seasonal colour.

Together with the National Rose Trial Garden – which began in 1996 to help the rose industry establish which roses not yet for sale in Australia are best suited to our climate – the International Rose Garden is a great favourite with national and international rose lovers alike.

Roses are one of my favourite flowers and, unfortunately, I cannot grow them in this sub-tropical climate. There are species bred for this climate, but they are hard work. The humidity attracts all kinds of bugs and viruses meaning constant spraying and pampering to survive and thrive. So I love visiting rose gardens when I am travelling.

It is 10 years since I visited these gardens so this is a 10 year younger me…

Thank you Jude, it has been an enjoyable browse back through my archives. I can almost smell the roses.

Jude has also chosen rose for her post this week. Pop over to see more summer scenes. 

Garden Photography Challenge : Wild Flowers

 Australia is a relatively flat continent and the Snowy Mountain Range, in New South Wales, is the highest mountain range in the country. The highest peak is Mount Kosciuszko, it reaches to a height of 2,228 m (7,310 ft) above sea level.

It was February 2011, on our circuit of Australia, that our trusty old camper van, Matilda, slowly took us up and over this very impressive and steep climb. It looked as though snow was coating the far hills. But it is summer and that is the result of the devastating 2006 bushfires that ravaged over one million hectares of high country. One of the worst bushfire seasons on record, the fires raged for 69 days. 70 individual fires, caused by lightning strikes eventually merged to cause an enormous uncontrollable wildfire.

It is now 5 years since the fires and the snow gums are stark and skeleton like stretching into the distance. But look closer and there are signs of life.

Regrowth is starting from the base of these snow gums. Many Australian species are well adapted to fire and can survive, but it will take time.

Meanwhile the wild flowers have taken the opportunity to take over the empty spaces.

If you look carefully you can see the winding road that we came up. This area has stronger regrowth. Maybe a different type of faster growing vegetation

This is the last week of May and so ends the “wild flower” theme. I could go on for ever with this theme. But next month it is “the essence of summer”. This will certainly be a memory jogger for me as we move into winter down under. But then our winters are often as perfect as Northern summers!!!

It is well worth going over to Jude’s “earth laughs in flowers” to see the glorious wild flowers from all around the world. Maybe you have some you could show us…

Garden Photography Challenge : Wild Flowers

Last December we travelled along the “Waterfall Way” from Dubbo to Sydney and came across acres of these white daisies.

I discovered that they were Pyrethrum Daisies and in this area they were a commercial crop.

“Botanical Resources Australia Pty Ltd (BRA) is the Australian grower of over 60 % of the world’s pyrethrum, the botanical insecticide, and runs the most high-tech pyrethrum industry in the world.”

But many of them had escaped and now could be classed as weeds or wild flowers.

They were everywhere…

So I think they will be suitable for Jude’s “garden photo challenge” which this month is concentrating on wild flowers.

Garden Photo Challenge : Wild Flowers…

Western Australia is a mecca for viewing wild flowers. You can pull up anywhere along the roadside and wander around finding so many different types, forms and coloured flowers. A photographers paradise. Look at the dry, stony soil and yet flowers are everywhere.

Big, bold clumps easy to see. Then walk further into the bush and look carefully and you will see the tiny, delicate orchids and many, to me, unknown species.

Donkey orchid is very well named.

Green hooded orchid.

I have no idea what this very tiny flower is. Anyone recognize it?

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Jude at “Earth laughs in flowers” host’s a garden photography challenge and this month the theme is wild flowers.

“This month I want to see native wild flowers found in the hedgerows, woodlands, farmland, meadows, by the coast, up a mountain, on the heath and even in your own garden. Basically those plants that haven’t been planted, but occur naturally, although specifically planted wild flower meadows can be included. Wild flowers provide food for humans and wildlife and are usually hardy, resilient and well adapted to the climate and soils, and yes sadly often referred to as weeds”

Garden Photography Challenge : Wild Flowers…

 

I can go back in memory to 2010 and spend time searching through the hundreds of photographs I took of the Western Australian wild flower season. We spent 3 months slowly, very slowly, driving and living in Matilda, our small camper van home, along the wild flower trail from Broome in northern WA to Perth in the south. 2010 was a perfect year, just enough winter rain meant the flowers were in magnificent abundance.

It was a dream come true for me to be here reveling in one of the planets exceptional displays. A profusion of beauty.

Here is a gallery of some of the more unusual wild flowers from Western Australia.

Sturts desert pea

Fringe flower

Kangaroo paw

Unfortunately I do not know the names of most of these beauties, I just enjoyed the experience of seeing them and capturing their images to live in my mind.

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Jude has some beautiful wild dog roses to show you this week. Go over for a look.

“Jude says: This month I want to see native wild flowers found in the hedgerows, woodlands, farmland, meadows, by the coast, up a mountain, on the heath and even in your own garden. Basically those plants that haven’t been planted, but occur naturally, although specifically planted wild flower meadows can be included. Wild flowers provide food for humans and wildlife and are usually hardy, resilient and well adapted to the climate and soils, and yes sadly often referred to as weeds”

Garden Photography : Wild Flowers…

I’m going to enjoy Jude’s (earth laughs in flowers) theme for this month “wild flowers”

“Jude says: This month I want to see native wild flowers found in the hedgerows, woodlands, farmland, meadows, by the coast, up a mountain, on the heath and even in your own garden. Basically those plants that haven’t been planted, but occur naturally, although specifically planted wild flower meadows can be included. Wild flowers provide food for humans and wildlife and are usually hardy, resilient and well adapted to the climate and soils, and yes sadly often referred to as weeds”

I can go back in memory to 2010 and spend time searching through the hundreds of photographs I took of the Western Australian wild flower season. We spent 3 months slowly, very slowly, driving and living in Matilda, our small camper van home, along the wild flower trail from Broome in northern WA to Perth in the south. 2010 was a perfect year, just enough winter rain meant the flowers were in magnificent abundance.

It was a dream come true for me to be here revelling in one of the planets exceptional displays. A profusion of beauty.

This path wound through a stunning display of everlasting daisies. They stretched as far as the eye could see. We took photo after photo trying to capture this riotous pageant of colour. But a photo can never capture the feeling that is inside you when you look at all this beauty.

Here they are in close-up. Not only are they beautiful today as I take their photo, but the petals will slowly dry to a crisp papery texture and will last (as the name implies) for ever, without water.

There are so many wild flowers I will have to restrain myself.

If you would like a sneak preview of more wild flowers click here.

Thank you Jude for hosting this interesting challenge. Use this link to see more wild flowers from around the world.

Garden Photography : Macro…

Do you know what this flower is? I think it is an unusual detail…

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This month the theme Jude (Earth laughs in flowers) has chosen for her garden photography challenge is Macro photography or close-ups of anything you’d find in a garden –  so she asks us to look out for unusual details.