GARDENING FOR THE BIRDS....

We recently discovered Maleny Botanic Gardens where Pam and I went for an interesting walk through their gardens and partook of some Devonshire tea.  The above flowers are  two of only a few I can name (begonia and echinacea although I could be wrong on both counts) because disappointingly, for a botanic garden, we couldn't find any name markers on any of the plants which is a shame. In some places the plants were competing with weeds (they weren't named either)

 These 3 beauties were quite striking...

...as are the views from the poinsettia in the grounds.

  The gazebo has a great view (the vista above was taken from beside it) and is a pretty structure ideal to enjoy afternoon tea.

There are lots of different spots that would be perfect for wedding shots and, indeed, they are a wedding venue.

These two are fine examples of cycad and there are a lot of them around the place.

The grounds are inhabited by lots of different birds, and these are a few who came to see what we were doing.  Mr Peacock did not cooperate and put his tail on display unfortunately.  The tame American turkey spent most of his time trying to get into the office.

 There is a very large aviary on the grounds (there is a charge for entry) and the keeper is very knowledgeable about the 350 parrots, finches, doves and other birds in there. I include this photo to show you how big it is.  Most of the birds are not natives although there are some natives like galahs and cockatoos.

 A couple of the finches for your viewing pleasure.  Such beautifully coloured plumage. I don't know their names, sorry.  The keeper did say but one needs to have a tape running, very good memory or be frantically taking notes.

 I do know that this one is a red-cheeked cordon-bleu finch thanks to a friend who used to breed finches.  I did think she was joking at first.

There are a number of macaws and they are quite tame as you can see from this photo of Pam and friends.  I dare-say they love visitors because they get lots of treats from the keeper so they won't bite or get too frisky.  

I imagine a bite from one of those beaks would be very painful; 2 blue & yellow macaws on the left and a scarlet macaw on the right.

 I'm not sure if either of these is a native parrot but they're very sweet and extremely colourful.  While we were there, all the birds would suddenly fly off as one and it was because there were hawks flying over the aviary.

Looks like this bleeding heart dove from Philipines has been injured doesn't it? There are nests all over the place and that pink dove looked quite happy in hers. I pointed out the 2 baby doves on the ground for the keeper. She hadn't noticed them before and got quite excited to see them.

 After meeting the birds, we went for another walk and found these gnomes who appeared to have lost their way in the garden.  I think they're meant to be Disney dwarfs as there was a Snow White nearby.

Pam having a rest amongst the flowers.  Lots of resting spots along the way.

 Another of the little resting spots by one of the lagoons, complete with dovecote.

 This one came complete with..... a statue.  We didn't make it over to see exactly what it was.

While we were eating and drinking I noticed a face on the back of Mt Beerwah.  The front of Tibrogargan has always been likened to an ape face of course, but I'd never seen Mt Beerwah from this side before.

There are several waterfalls and lagoons, although a couple of them are overgrown with weed.

I think this well was broken because, so far, my wish hasn't come true....

"WHAT'S THIS?" WEDNESDAY XVIII - WEEDY OR NOT? [SOLVED]

I first noticed this very cute little flower growing out of a potted orchid I have, a year or so ago and, at the time, assumed it was another type of orchid in the same pot.  However, it died off and didn't regrow.  

 Then, as you can see, it reappeared between the pavers, competing with weeds for attention.  I'm thinking I might pot it up before I forget myself and pull it out with some weeds.  These shots were taken a month ago and I meant to take a photo with the lower flowers open, but never noticed if they came out.  It is still growing strong so perhaps I'd better do it. But what the heck is it?  Weed, orchid or something entirely different?
[EDIT 20.2.14 - Once again Ian Percy from Florez Nursery has come to my rescue with the name of this little beauty.  Pseuderanteumum variabile or shooting star.  I then found mention of it on another blog The Home Bug Garden where he also calls it the Love flower]   
[EDIT 6.3.14 - True to my word (wonders will never cease!), I dug up and potted the plant and now, over a week later, it appears to be still growing strongly.  Yay for me, leader of the brown thumbs.]

"WHAT'S THIS?" WEDNESDAY XXVII - WHO GIVES A FIG? [SOLVED]

 I may have answered my own question on this but am not sure.  While lunching at Mooloolaba today at the Velo Project with friends, I noticed a very large tree next door which was almost groaning under the weight of fruit of some kind that I thought looked like pears. Not being an area noted for growing such things, I naturally went to get a closer look and a couple of photos.

The fruit looked like a cross between pear and fig, fairly spongy. I picked up one of the dropped fruit which you see here, broken open. The brown inside is soft to the touch, like velour. We thought it might be about to become a flower like a camelia, however not one fallen flower or bud to be seen on or around the tree. Research on the net has led me to believe it may be the creeping or climbing fig (ficus pumila)?  Photos found on this link are almost the same as mine.

This is the tree, though, which doesn't look at all like a creeping vine does it?  Wikipedia photos are nothing like this so I am understandably confused.  I may have to go back and take a shot of the trunk because I seem to recall seeing a lot of thin "vines" winding around it but they're not visible in this photo.  The investigation continues...

 --0--

[edit 14.2.14]

 I had noticed a palm tree behind the fig "tree"  but cropped most of that out of my tree photo. Today I went back and discovered the real situation.

 In fact, it wasn't behind, it was in the middle of the fig "tree".  The fig vine has completely enclosed the trunk of the palm tree.  It is an amazingly sturdy vine which apparently hasn't bothered the palm much at all. And for all intents and purposes, is living  life as a tree.  So I think I can safely say, this mystery is solved....

"Sometimes I feel I'm not quite me,

I think I'd rather be... a tree."

                                                  ...SMG

DAM, IT WAS GOOD...

 Recently, I stopped by Ewen Maddock Dam to visit the bush track to the dam near Landsborough.  It was very peaceful but we hadn't had much rain at the time and most of the area was very dry with water holes dried up, although the dam itself still had plenty of water.  Since then, it's rained a fair bit so I might revisit shortly to see if there's much difference.   I was gob-smacked by the beautiful young banksia I found (above) mainly because most of the banksia there was those horrible "bad banksia men" type of plant; all dried and ugly. I've always loathed them thanks to May Gibbs and her otherwise delightful stories. But this one, growing out of its crown of furry, red fingers, was startling in such company.  I'm using it as my facebook profile pic at the moment and it has caused some rude comments about its shape.  Honestly, some people can see lewdness all around them.

 I was felt a bit trepidatious as I set forth alone; not because of any worry about lurking muggers, but snakes! The walkway is quite wide and parts of it are boarded. When I heard a loud rustle in the long grass I braced myself to run but then saw that it was no snake but this goanna.  I had apparently interrupted his sunbaking on the path and he had seen/heard me before I saw him and beat it into the scrub.  

Then he climbed a tree and played hide and seek with me so that I couldn't get a good snap, keeping the trunk of the tree between me and him as I moved. 

The next reptile I saw was not threatening at all and very cute; he bravely stood his ground while I sneaked closer to get a better shot.

There were tiny little birds everywhere, flitting around, singing sweetly; but very difficult to see amongst the foliage.  I managed a few shots of these two birds but, typically, only managed the backs of their heads in focus.  

I include the out-of-focus shot just to show his face. [edit: 7 years on, I can tell you this one is an eastern yellow robin and the black and white bird below is a leaden flycatcher]

This guy kept the trees between me and him at all times as well.

The dam is quite shallow and marshy with all the reeds, weeds and water lillies there; perhaps next time I'll take some galoshes. 

 I was puzzled by the bands of "something" I could see 
on the dam until I cropped the large photo I had, to 
discover they were groups of tiny white water lillies.

 Perhaps I should have kept this fellow for my "What's This?" posts because I have no idea what it is. I thought it was a type of grass tree but can't find anything that looks like this.  The stem is about 6ft high and grows from a grassy knob like lomandra. 

Another candidate for the "What's This?" is this lovely yellow reed-like plant which was growing on the edge of the dam.

 Lots of dragon flies around, of course, and this fellow was very cooperative, sitting still for a few minutes, although he was quite a long away from me.

And finally, what could be more Australian than some scribbly gum? Although, it may not actually be scribbly gum.  Just a eucalyptus that an insect or slug is trying to consume.  Not sure that they're all the same as mentioned here. I have posted about the red triangle slug which also makes scribbly trails on trees.

"WHAT'S THIS?" WEDNESDAY XXVI - VIETNAMESE VEGETABLE I'M TOLD...

I spotted this lovely flower in my local shop owner's garden as I walked past so asked him what it was.  He is from Vietnam and couldn't tell me the English name but says they use it in stir fry.   Now, I have another friend from Vietnam who was growing loofahs and she used them in stir fries too but couldn't tell me what this one was from the flower.  In all the photos I've seen of loofahs growing, they have a bright yellow flower. 

 And according to my grocer friend, this particular vegetable doesn't get that hard "skeleton" inside like the loofah does.  These last 2 shots were taken from the footpath.

It must have been ready for picking because was gone a couple of days after this shot was taken.
[edit 2/11/13 - Thanks to Kerrie, I believe we've identified this one, but will confirm with my grocer when I next see him.  It appears to be Chi Qua and you can read all about it here along with other Asian vegetables and how to use them.  Thanks again Kerrie!]

"WHAT'S THIS?" WEDNESDAY XXV - WEED OR NOT A WEED? THAT IS THE QUESTION...

I don't often get excited about weeds but some of them are quite attractive.  This one was found recently and it reminded me of one I'd found years ago that I thought might be a miniature white morning glory and wondered if there was such a thing.  It's taken me a while to find the old, out of focus shot I took back then to compare them.  I think they're a match as you can just see the inside pink stamen on the one below. The tiny flowers were only about 2 to 3 cm across.

Unfortunately, I only took the one hasty shot of it back then and when I returned to do a better job, it had been mown over and never grew back which was the reason for my "excitement" to find it again elsewhere. I may have answered my own question because when I searched for white morning glory, I came across something called Ipomoea obscura or small white morning glory, however, none of the images (and there were many, many of them) showed that dark pink stamen. Then I found reference to Ipomoea lacunosa here and it looks exactly like these flowers but the gardener was asking What's this? and I didn't find a reply.

This is a photo of a white morning glory we found in Arrow Town in NZ last year and the flowers are at least 8 or 9 cm across.