It's beginning to look like the tropics..(Chapter 4)

sorry quality is not great ...but this is our lady

the goldfussia is about to burst into a big lavender ball....the clivias ....I grew from seed!

This is the "dead" grass tree bought home from the tip by hubby a few years ago

Some of my old man's whiskers ...the birds ave flogged off with a lot of it for ther nests

I grew these giant spider lilys from seed

sorry I don't know how to do this focus stuff yet this is a lovely camelia

back of my home showing some freeze damage in the upper storeys such as the banana and ice cream bean tree ...but it is all still alive

The boardwalk

my big cactus....taller than me!

giant strelizia with dam behind it ....sorry it was very nasty weather

the salvias and lanterns came through winter without stopping

Latest waxy cuttings doing well

first lilly of the nile has popped out!...if you look you can see a cape gooseberry lurking waiting to be eaten

some prettys

Looking down from the second floor balcony onto the scary jungle .....down the side of the house where our Triffid plants and vines live....yikes!

OK that is enough for now I close with more of the scary jungle showing the china doll pods at the top of the tree.....Once again I am not used to a camera....and if you allow for the awful weather and having just come out of a nasty winter freeze not long ago..I think this fantasy tropical garden is pretty good you wait till you see Summer when things are really jumping! my sad looking Jacarandah is just breathtaking then.:)
Hope you enjoyed having a look ......no annuals this year because I was housebound.So TM finally ...but the best is yet to come!

You kidding me you were born with a camera in your hand!!!!LOL
Glad you did,I open the gate and let the horses run,couldn't hold them back any longer!!!!

I'm amazed at the plants that made it thru the winter,unscaved!
And blooming like the giant white bird of paradise!!!!
And the banana that got fried,being that both plants belong to the same family!!!!

Your giant oaks look like cedars to me,what variety are they???
Your black eyed susan,made it thru a freeze,here it would have been the first thing to fry!
Your sweet orange murrya.I have one 5ft grown from seed of my 7 ft,that I gave to the zoo,couple yrs back,and yours is growing tree !!!

Can you grow proteas there???
What a amazing variety of plants you can grow!!!!
More to come as the spring progresses.


LouC.send me some of that rain.last 2 days rained all around me,just sprinkles here!!!!

Hey Hey!!!Look what I smelled when I got out of my truck,when I got home from work today!!!Sweeeet!!!!

Another

I was given this plant,can anyone Identify it?

Red Pineapple anyone???

Flowering maple

Obedient and ginger in the b ackground

Red cabbage palm,and snail vine pretty colors

Hmmm Male and female Madagascar's roaches in Kansas????

Praying mantis keeps the bad bug population to a minimum.

Crystal Velvet Black alsocasia

Hi TM...well we are lucky as I explained before being border line we grow all different kinds of things ....the She oaks are a stram
nge kind of tree ...I have no idea why they are called oaks at all they look like a sort of drooping pine and their fruit are like tiny pine cones (that draw all the cockies around)....and yet they are not either ..... they scream in the wind like demented women so I guess that is why they are called she oaks even though there are boys and girls.... the botanical name is casuarina ...they can be used as fodder and they fix nitrogen in the soil. Yes we can grow proteas, but in built up beds of crushed sandstone as the clay would kill them stone dead!
I have grown many murraya from the little orange fruit ....do you get the little fruit?

Beehive starting to flower as well,no fragrance that I could tell!!!

MMmm can smell those gingers from here *Sniff*

Oh I love the palm jungle!!!!!
Will have to look the oaks up,there new to me.
Yes well mine was red fruit,very shiny rd at that,well might have been orangy red when first came on!!!LOL

Love the flower on heat wave hibiscus

Chrissy 11:05PM here what time is it there.is it 14 hours different in out time?

Minerva Rose of sharon

Passiflora fruit Morifola,when ripe about the size of golfball and almost black in color and the fruit pulp is a dark orange in color,not edible!

Ha ha ha I knew you would say that about the passy....it is 2.20 in the avo (afternoon)

While you two were building an encyclopedia of beauty last night I was watching Discovery HD Theatre. It had started when I turned it on so don't have a title. Filmed in Australia at the barrier reefs. All about the spiney star fish that is destroying the coral. The concensus at this time is that the fertilizer draining into the rivers and then into the ocean is changing the water. Too much nitrogen is helping the star fish multiply and live in greater numbers.
There is a boat with 8 men that alternate every 4 hours diving twenty four hours a day and killing them with an injection of their own acid. Of course, the under the sea picture were wonderful. John and Shari bring us that world often but to see it actually moving in the water was breathtaking. Chrissy, the lady scientist is Australian and is the leading researcher. Shari has said before that whenever they come upon one of these creatures they turn them on their backs and hold them down with rocks so they will die.

Ok went to the guide on-line.....next showing:

DHDTR
Saturday, (my time)
09/08/07
8:00 AM
Predators of the Great Barrier Reef

I called the fish by the wrong name......it is Crown of Thorns

That is the call numbers of the channel. It comes to us via cable and I believe it is on the satelite dishes as well. Discovery HD Theatre.

Best thing on TV by far.

Ho LouC yes the Crown of Thorns was a major threat a few years ago I think that may have been an old show....as far as I know it is under control now ...the new threat is that a much warmer sun is "bleaching" out the coral and causing it to die off. Sadly in Australia the govs and the powers that be allow the sewerage to be pumped out to sea.....a disgrace!
Well I am interested tell me the truth does our place still look like Texas or more like Africa......in the Summer my secret garden is very lush and green (I use grey water if needed)...a far different picture than it is today......I am very interested to hear your opinion ...isn't it sad about Pavarotti dying? wonderful voice....

I would say that because we have become a people who can get anything from anywhere we are becoming more homogenous. I can plant your natives and you can plant mine. Pretty surprising the number of plants that you and I both are growing. Some of our most popular perrenials are said to come from Africa. Would say that the tendency to jungle -like growth is unique. The areas that you have shown where there were homes and domestic animals could be anywhere, Texas. Then when you pan to the side and catch the jungle....???? They did address the bleaching of the coral but did not mention sewage.
There was no time or how old the show is. Beautiful day today.....gonna play in the dirt. hhuummm....need a song......

It's a lovely day today, so whatever you've got to do, I'd be so happy to be doing it with you. So if you've got something that must be done and it can only be done by one...there's nothing more to say....except...It's a lovely day for saying....It's a lovely day....lalallala...

Yes it is true thanks to the explorers I guess we all have similar stuff if we live in similar climates....mind you some of my special treasures won't be out for a while right now a lot of this stuff is surviver stuff........you know made it through the freeze type stuff
thanks for your point of view I agree. My sweet olive has flowered all Winter

green green.... it's green they say on the far side of the hill ....green green ....I'm goin away..... to where the grass is greener still.......

Cooooooeeeee hey TM I think everyone has gone swimming...or diving......I hope I did not frighten them away with all of my wild jungle stuff.......your plants are just lovely ....how many more do you have to bring out of the weather?....our lemons stay yellow and growing all year ......I feel awful now seeing someone hope that theirs will ripen before the cold......and here is me complaining about a bit of frost damage.......here is a manderine left up the top because I can't reach it....it will fall shortly!

hey everyone come back!!!!!.....but sorry I won't film underwater in my dam I hate black eels and catfish!!! ......love you all but can't do that I am afraid it is just muddy land here.........

Oh solo mio.................ha ha ha