2012 ...an update.

An Update at Last!

After ages I am finally updating this Grass Tree Blog!

My many plants have been happily growing  in

 their pots and I have just now planted the two

 I bought  at a garage sale into my garden.

These 2  plants were the ones  which originally

  gave me the idea to try and grow some plants 

from the seeds of  the already established

Grass Tree  No.1 growing in my front garden.

The plants to the left and at rear are GT No 5 & 6 

the one in front is a seedling I grew.

Grass Tree No.6 

Some sugar cane mulch around the base to keep the soil moist!

Grass Tree No. 5  planted in close 
proximity to Gt No. 6
 It seemed  right to keep these two together!

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The Seedlings ... 
As you can see they are doing OK in their pots!

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Grass Tree  No.1

Unfortunately Grass Tree No. 1 died  last year - 2011. 

The plant become scraggly and started to 
brown off, why it died is a mystery to me, 

 I was really sorry to lose 

such a lovely plant from the garden.

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The Tally

In the long interim between the last post and this, 
some little plants have failed to grow well! 
All  are housed in the same location and given similar care!

I guess this is nature at work! 
Some plants thrive and others do not!

Last year 2011 I planted approx  3 new seeds into  1 pot... 
3 germinated = 1 died and 2 grew so my total plants remains  at:

1 plant in a large pot
102 plants in small pots (pictured above)
7 Grass Trees planted in my garden

Cheers Carol

Grass Trees in the wild!
Thanks to my daughter for these photo's of a collection
of resilient Grass Trees living in central Queensland.
As you can see...a dry area, wooded with eucalyptus trees!

A pair if scruffy little ones !
However they have had flower spears and the new growth
in the center looks nice and healthy!

This lovely specimen has been effected by
fire, the old leaves have been cleaned up recently.
This could have been done by a naturally occurring fire
or possibly proactive trickle burning
by the forestry department!

Here you can see 2 old dry flower spears
standing tall above their wizened tree stumps!
Fantastic old warriors of the Australian bush!

A visitor to our suburban yard in North Brisbane!

Thanks to the North Brisbane Koala Rescue Group
who came out late at night (1am) to relocate this
lost and bewildered Koala.
The poor little fellow appeared not to know how
to negotiate the quagmire of suburban fences.
The two ladies who came, gave him an all clear for health
and said he would be relocated to the
closest stand of tall Eucalyptus trees!

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I have been very tardy with my blog...apologies!
My collection of baby plants (102) have all been
growing really well in their shelter,
no fatalities to report!
Cheers Carol

Grass Trees 5 & 6... an Update

I think these plants are now approximately

3 1/2 years old + maybe 1 year...

I'm not sure, I bought them at a garage sale!

These two little ones gave me the idea to try

growing some more plants with the seeds collected from

Grass Tree No.1 growing in my front yard!

An altogether successful venture, both in achievement and results!

This is Grass Tree No. 5 which is still slightly

smaller the the one below!!

Grass Tree No. 6

If you click on this photo to enlarge you can see it has really started

to thicken in the center!

The leaves are very strong and the same thickness as an adult plant.

I haven't decided yet when to plant these two into the garden,

maybe another 6 months!!!

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This beautiful Blue Tongue Lizard

lives just behind our back fence... and came visiting.

No doubt looking for snails, bugs and other garden pests etc.

To read more about these lovely animals click here

After having a look at him we let him go back under the fence

and have seen him a couple of times since going about his business.

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Another lovely Green Tree frog

perched on the spouting...

Nearby an outside light draws small flying insects.

An attraction providing supper!

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Seeds

I have collected seeds from my Grass trees No. 2 & 7 in late 2009...

and I have possibly 100 seeds to Give Away.

If anyone would like to try raising their own little plants!

I am happy to send you some. (Australia only.)

Bearing in mind people...these plants take a long time to grow!

(Although the seeds can be fast to come up - 2-8 weeks)

Perhaps 20 each or less ... depending on response!

(I have no idea about sending seeds OS quarantine etc. so I'll stay out of that!)

I can't guarantee they will be viable seeds,

however I have an idea which ones look goer's by now,

the big fat ones!

Send an email to me with your name and address

and how many you would like!

clockyer@tpg.com.au

Once I have run out of seeds to give that's it.... till next time I get a new crop!

It seems a waste not give these seeds to someone to grow as

I cannot house any more little plants myself...

although I would love to,

I have enough already!

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1 Fatality to report!
I accidentally pulled a little plant out of it's pot ...

The plant had lovely long leaves hanging down and

I caught it on the lid of my rubbish bin!

And hoicked it out of the pot...

broken clean off at the bottom damn!!!

So there are

110 Grass Trees residing at this house!
102 of them seedlings!

Cheers Carol

Illawarra Flame Tree (N)

This beautiful Native Australian tree should be the choice
of local Councils instead of the Poinciana, (E)
although it is lovely! (see previous post)

A link to that great site Wikipedia... here
for more info on the Flame Tree

Our own brilliant flowering red tree has even
inspired a fantastic rock song!
Flame Trees sung by Cold Chisel
A link to Utube here!

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Bougainvillea (E).
This very attractive plant look wonderful decorating
the back fence of a nearby neighbour.
Another link ...hope it works!

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Another neighbour...
this Brushtail Possum jumped off the fence to
escape the human invaders (us) in his area!
The rotten apple he/she dropped was rather horrible!!
A beautiful animal!

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Grass Tree No. 7
This photo of a new spear was taken on the 25/7/o9.
It has taken 5 months for the spear to
reach the seed state you will see in the following photo.

(Click on any photo to enlarge.)
Here you can see the little seeds
still sitting in the opened pods.

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No Fatalities to report!
I have collected heaps of seeds from the two prolific
flower stalks mentioned over the last few months!
111 Grass Trees residing at this house!
103 0f them seedlings!

Cheers Carol

Flowering Trees in the neighbourhood.

Delicate flowers on this flowering tree.
I think? it is an Acacia of some sort!
Lovely to see on a morning walk.

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This Lovely Tree is a Poinciana.

Planted many years ago in a nearby council park.
Not native to Australia and in fact now classed as a weed!!!
You can follow this link to read more about
these beautiful trees from Madagascar.


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My New Baby Grass Tree house!

My Man of Work (husband) made this fantastic
purpose built home for my numerous seedlings.
I have moved them to the side of the house so
they can experience more natural weather conditions.
ie. in Aus ...drought and flooding rain!!!
However they do have some shelter from the
worst nature can throw at them
with their own shade cloth covering.

Here they are all lined up, getting used to the elements!

The shade cloth goes across the top
and can be rolled up or down and fits
into metal slots in the front. (left side)

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New to the neighbourhood!
There is another Grass Tree lover in our area,
this handsome plant has recently been planted
in a local front yard.
A conservative estimate would put this
tree at approx 20-25 years old.

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The Tally.
I had a re-count and discovered that I have 103 seedlings.
I must have failed to count some of the new seedlings
which sprouted earlier in the year.
So...
103 seedlings it is.
6 Adults in the garden.
2 youngsters in large pots.
= 111 Grass Trees.

Cheers Carol

Seeds Forming!!!

Grass Tree No. 7 is forming a sparse array of seeds.
This may be due to the flower stem's growth in the
winter months here in Australia!
Perhaps there were not as many pollinators.
eg. native or non-native bees or flies.

Grass Tree No. 2
is doing much better!
Forming a lot more seeds
than than the aforementioned GT.7
This blasts my theory of less bees etc.
It is possible this plant is just better at seed production!!

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Hippeastrum
Another lovely plant consisting of many bulbs ...
given to me many years ago by
our old neighbours. Remembered
with great affection every year
when they bloom.
Auntie Tilly and Uncle Bill

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Green Tree Frog
Litoria caerulea
This little frog lives in our water spouting,
moving around from pipe to pipe...
we hear her/him croaking from different
directions around our house.
The last time we had a decent rain shower
I nearly stood on him/her! and was I thankful
the animal relocated to the garden instead of the patio!!

A closer view ... the flash has lightened the photo!
(click on any photo to enlarge)

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The Tally
No fatalities to report,
my 98 seedlings are doing fine...
fertilised today with a half strength solution of Seasol.

6 garden Grass Trees and 2 GT pot plants
Cheers Carol

4 Weeks On... GT.7

These 2 photos taken on the 19 of September
and show the delicacy of the
Grass Tree flower stalk!
At the side is the previous stalk still attached.
Fairly soon little native bees, honey bees,
ants and some wattle birds will visit and
help with pollinating the flowers.
In the early morning the flowers
have large drops of a clear nectar!
(Please click on the photo to enlarge)

This close-up photo shows each individual flower.

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Grass Tree No.2

7 weeks on... this Grass Tree's
flowers have a quite different
look from the photo's above.
The flowers are thick and almost tangled,
so far almost all of my seedling have
come from this most productive plant.
Photo's taken 6/10/09

A crowd of flowers!
(click to enlarge)

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Hippeastrum

I found this bulb dropped on the footpath
by a weekend gardener
on a morning walk about 3 years ago.
Since then it has excelled in
beauty and size!

(what a find!)

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I have 6 Grass Trees planted in my garden.
2 small plants in pots (medium)
98 seedlings(no fatalities)

Cheers Carol

And then there were two! GT No.2.

Just after the last post we discovered there was another
little stalk on the way!! This little stalk took 9 days to
develop and emerge out of the center greenery!
(Please click in the pic to see an enlarged version &
another photo in the side column)

This is 3 days later than the photo in the side column.
You can see how quickly the stalk gets going once
it finally rises out from the center.

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Grass Tree No.7
is going well! Approximately 3ft or 90cm. tall in this pic ...
this was 8 days after being noticed!
The old stalk shows no sign of falling off!

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My two potted Grass Trees No. 5 & 6 are
here amongst the other plants in my garden!

The bird bath is a frequently visited by the local birds,
Turtle doves (non- native)
Little Wattlebirds (native...we call them - speedy gonzales!)
Butcher birds (pied-native)

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I have: 6 Grass Trees planted around the garden.

2 in medium pots.

98 seedlings.

Cheers Carol

July 2009 Update

Last year my GT No.7 produced this terrific stalk!
(photo taken 9th September 08)
At last something decent to post!!!

Now Again only 14 months later a new baby flower stalk has appeared!
You can see the old stalk still on the plant!
The photo taken 25thJuly 09 ...
I estimate 2 days after emerging.
(when I noticed!!)

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My seedlings are still chuffing along...
I have lost a few and a some late planted seeds have sprung up as well.
Totalling 98.
One in the front center is quite strong as you can see...
if you click on the photograph.

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Grass Tree 1.
The seeds on this flower stalk have still not opened and there are not many.
This is possibly due to the winter weather here in South East Qld.
Pehaps they will open when the the days are a fair bit warmer.
( I am just having a guess on this.)

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I have: 6 Grass Trees planted around the garden.
2 in medium pots.
98 seedlings.

Cheers Carol

Freshwater National Park Qld.
This National Park is 34 km north of Brisbane, an absolute treasure!.
Grass Trees by the hundreds, thousands even!
This small NP covers a small area of only 0.94 sq.km.

These photos were taken last week in the
south-eastern corner of this small park.
(please click on the photo to enlarge)

After such a rainy summer ...
the trees in this NP are looking so healthy!
You can see how the leaves are shining in the sunlight!
I noted the earth was a little swampy in this area.

It appears luckily no fires have burned through this area
in recent years, the older leaves were forming lovely skirts
around the plants. We had to be very careful not to stand
on any of the new plants hidden in the grass.

This pic shows the prolific tree growth in the Park.

These photo's also show that it is not necessary
to have fire the for germination of seeds.
A reminder too... that these plants only grow
approx 2 &1/2 cm or 1 inch per year!

Grass Trees of all sizes.
I will be visiting the Freshwater National Park again!

A delight for a Grass Tree lovers!

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The Tally 2009 seedlings = 34 (-4)
2008 seedlings = 64
6 in the garden and 2 in large pots.
Total = 106

Cheers Carol

Boars Head, Katoomba and Inhabitants

Recently my daughter went abseiling at this
wonderful Australian landmark!
The Rock so-called because of it's
likeness to a Boar.
And definately not a bore!

Katoomba is in the Blue Mountains
in the State of N.S.W

This lovely Grass Tree with a flowing skirt of old
foliage was growing half way up Boars Head!
Thanks for the terrific photo Joanne!

(Click on the photo's to enlarge)

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This Grass Tree is a lot closer to home!
In fact only 2 km from where I live.
I had never noticed it before although
I had passed by many times!
Possibly because of the recent
two lots of rain we have had,
It has sent up a very tall flower spear!

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Last year I posted the photo's of some caterpillars
pruning my Crown 0f Thorns plant!
Well! a relative is back this year!
This one has the same white dots on its head.
Croton Caterpillar - Achaea Janata
As you can see he/she has had a great chew!

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Orchids
Recently A neighbourhood couple showed me their
collection of 300 orchid plants

(amended from 80 plants -apologies)
This one was slightly damaged (a point made vigourously by the owner)
which I felt did not detract one bit from this lovely Orchid.

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The Tally

2009 Seedlings = 38
(2 doubtful - 1 frail & 1 whitish)
2008 seedlings = 64 seedling(2 doubtful)
6 in the garden 2 in large pots.
Total = 110 !

Note-It seems at any time these little plants can
up and die - basically they all are kept in the same
area and given similar amounts of sunshine,water
and fertiliser, however some die!

Cheers Carol