First flowering

I've been planting waratahs now and again for the last few years. It's a notoriously difficult precious little thing, our state floral emblem. It prefers to do its thing in the wild, and tends not to co-operate with any but the greenest-thumbed gardeners.

A few years ago I tried some of the genuine natural native ones. They tormented me for a few years, staying just alive enough to keep me hopeful, but eventually dying anyway of course. Then a couple of years ago I tried again with some hybrids. Braidwood Brilliants, they're called. Hybrids are reckoned to be hardier and easier than the real deal ones. And after a tense recent few months of drought and frequent waterings, one my little beauties has finally come good. Look at this flower!

Bromeliad time

Our bromeliads are in full bloom again. They never let us down - unlike all those azaleas and things that didn't survive the drought.

Don't they look good!

Our very own Queen of the Night

We've got a 'Queen of the Night' plant in our front garden: Epiphyllum oxypetalum. It's a cactus that looks like an orchid. It's native to the rain forests of Mexico, seems to be happy here in Sydney, and I planted ours a few years ago.

It only flowers at night, and according to some accounts, only for one night at a time. I think we may have got two or three nights out of ours. This week was the first time ever that I'd caught it at the right moment.

It's quite spectacular when it finally does its thing. And then, as the label says, it looks bad after blooming and just needs a bit of a rest.

Talking turkey

What do you say to a brush turkey that's colonised your property as part of his territory? Mostly you say things like "#$@&%* off turkey!" It doesn't achieve much though. Brush turkeys are amazingly resilient. They're completely oblivious to  all your efforts to make them feel unwelcome. You can chase them around the garden, scream at them, shoot them with water pistols (lethalweapons not allowed - they're native animals). They just look at you quizzically. "You're in a bad mood" they tell you condescendingly. Then when you go back inside they happily resume their excavations in your vegetable garden!

And they have the nerve to roost overnight in your angophora tree, out of range of your most powerful water pistol. (So far.)




Wonder if my scarecrow is going to achieve much.