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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Gardening while away

Wherever I go, I like to visit gardens and nurseries too. I had a great time on Sunday at the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens. The gardens are vast and more than can be seen properly in one visit. It is certainly a busy place though most of the people seemed to be in the cafe or in the open grass areas rather than looking through the plantings. With free entry though, it is probably a nice Sunday afternoon outing with the gardens as just a backdrop to family fun for those who live locally.




The gardens are 100% native plantings. I know many think of our natives flora as a little plain but it can be anything but plain given the right planting combinations in the right place. The planting above would never work where I live because of our frosts but here it looks great with plenty of colour and interest.


White waratah


The white waratahs were in bloom and simply gorgeous. I have a red one planted in a sheltered spot and it does look like it is going to bloom so I am even more hopeful after seeing these lovely specimens.



Sturt's Desert Pea


The Sturt's Desert Pea is a real showstopper. The foliage is a bit drab and belies the vibrant flowers. A definite favourite. I got plenty of ideas and inspiration from our visit and I am ever grateful that I have a family that enjoy doing these things with me.



Bunya at Mount Annan



It seems that we always seek out the Bunya Pines on our travels too. I never took any notice of them until my interest was peeked by the tree opposite Tim's workplace. Now I see them all the time. They were always there of course but I just didn't know what they were. The Bunyas at Mount Annan are very healthy and lush. Mostly the big old trees I see are a bit more sparsely covered. These ones looked a lot like huge Christmas trees albeit very spiky Christmas trees.





Grace and me



My favourite part of the garden that I saw anyway was the Fruit Loop. Just a small walk planted with native edibles. The finger limes were stunning and much bigger than my young tree. I am now after a few more native edibles to grow here at home.

Tracy














2 comments:

Bec said...

Id love to grow a white (or red) warratah like that one, they are so unique.

Paola said...

Thanks for your travellers report, Tracy! My parents live about 10 minutes from Mt Annan, and I will probably be up there in the next few weeks - it looks like a trip to the gardens could be worth my while..