Growing Grass Trees!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Day 25 in the life of a Grass Tree flower stalk.

This stalk is now 89 & 1/2 inches tall. (227cm)
Measured from the ground level

The flower part at the top is now 24 & 1/2(62cm)
This is the tallest spear this plant has had so far!
( to my knowledge ... )
Amazing !

We had 11 inches of rain in two days!
I think moisture, rapid growth and lovely
sunny had this dramatic effect on the stalk.
However the next morning it was straight again.

A small interloper in a seedling pot!
This rather sweet little fungi/toodstool
and a few other little mates
has taken up residence with a seedling.

********

This beautiful orchid lives in the neighbourhood!
Along with approx another 60 -80 varieties grown
by a very nice man
who kindly let me photograph his flower.
He told me it was the National Flower of Singapore!

Honestly this photo does not do the flower justice... it is stunning!

The Vanda Miss Joaquim was chosen from among 40 flowers,
30 of which were orchids, to be the National Flower of Singapore.
This makes Singapore the only country to have a
hybrid as her national flower.
(if you google - lots of info available)
********************

The Tally
is the same.
66 seedlings in black pots.
6 in the garden. 2 in large pots = 74

Cheers Carol

3 comments:

Knitterary said...: 11 inches of rain in two days? Wow! A body could float away in rain like that. We heard about the fires in your country, but not about the rain.; February 19, 2009 at 1:37 AM
birdymunch said...: Is that much rain the norm or is it unusual?; February 20, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Carol said...: Hi Friends from the USA ...yes this surely is a country of drought and flooding rain!
Where I live in sub-tropical equivilent tin latitude to ...say Georgia, and we have stormy wet days this time of year!
The dreadful bushfire are approximately 1200 miles south in the state of Victoria.(big country)
There have also been terrible flooding further North approx...another 1000 miles and areas the size of from us
some of your States...

here is a link for you to paste to your google bar...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/02/19/2496350.htm

Luckily our house is built with ok drainage to clear the 11 inches of rain... and it is fairly normal to get this much in a usual season... we are greatly effected by the La Ninja and El Ninja across the Pacific Ocean from Sth America...
Thank you so much for your interest and I love to hear from you both ...Cheers Carol; February 21, 2009 at 4:56 PM

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Grass Trees… Xanthorrhoea

Grass Trees… Xanthorrhoea species only grow in Australia and developed early in evolutionary stakes for flowering plants.

They are very slow growing, but mature trees are centuries old, the lifespan can be 600 years! Unfortunately they have been reduced due to careless land clearing and land development. Respect for this species is easy when one considers also the valuable use to humans.

Without destroying the tree, Aboriginals ate the white, tender sections of leaf bases and roots, and collected the seeds to grind into flour. The resin at the base waterproofed their canoes, fixed their axe heads and spears. They also fermented the nectar to have a celebratory brew!

Early Colonists were also inventive, using the resin for their dwellings on floorboards and walls, stove polish, soaps, perfumes, incense in church and later in the manufacture of early gramophone records! Plant this Australian landscape icon.

It is fire tolerant, frost hardy, and drought resistant.

The flowering spear attracts honey birds and native bees and butterflies and provides a shelter for lizards. Of course the grass tree is agelessly stylish and a great investment for garden design

Native or Exotic Plants

#A Native plant means that it’s
endemic to this country – Australia.

*Exotic plant is one that has come
from another country - not Australia

? This means that I don't know if a
plant is N or E and will try to find out.

Weeds...
A weed is a plant that is growing in
the wrong place at the wrong time
therefore you can have a native
plant that is a weed.
For example the umbrella tree
is a native Australian tree
but should be growing in the
northern tropics where there are
insects etc. that will eat it
and keep it’s growth and spread
under control,whereas down here
in the sub tropic (Brisbane) they
tend to take over every thing and
spread like wildfire.

Rockpool

My generation is dying, after long lives
swung from war to depression to war to fatness.
I watch the claws in the rockpool, the scuttle, the crouch—
green humps, the biggest barnacled, eaten by seaworms.
In comes the biggest wave, the irresistible
clean wash and backswirl. Where have the dead gone?
At night on the beach the galaxy looks like a grin.
Entropy has unbraided Berenice's hair.
We've brought on our own cancers, one with the world.
I hang on the rockpool's edge, its wild embroideries:
admire it, pore on it, this, the devouring and mating,
ridges of coloured tracery, occupants, all the living,
the stretching of toothed claws to food,
the breeding on the ocean's edge.
'Accept it? Gad, madam, you had better.'

Judith Wright.
1915-2000