The following 4 photo's are from the www.

An Australian web page - The Brisbane Ranges in Victoria Here

These 4 photographs are of some weird

and beautiful flower stalks.

My favourite is the 3rd down...this plant is giving

us all the finger!!

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An update on my GT.No7...

Wow... It surely grew above the fence line!

This Plant has the smooth, very fine sort of flower stalk,

similar to grass Tree No1.

Most of the seeds I collected from GT No.1 didn't come up,

but I was quite a novice at collecting them back then.

So I hope to have more luck with this one!

I'd better start in on some more Yogurt for pots!!!

(*click on photo to enlarge*)

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The Tally...

88 in yogurt pots

+ 8 adults (varying sizes)

+ 1 seedling in the garden,
= 97 Grass Trees

(2 still doubtful)

Cheers Carol

I thought this was interesting...

An older article from the Magnetic Times Newspaper link

July 17th 2007Smoking grass trees
The "Stick lease," a 1538m2 tract of land formerly associated with an oyster lease and noted for its superb grass trees, Xanthorrhoea johnstonii, near Magnetic Island's West Point, was the scene last week for an unusual NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) activity.
The land is under Department of Natural Resources and Water management and is currently being used cooperatively by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Wulgurukaba., Magnetic Island's Traditional Owners, who teamed up with staff from QPWS and other government agencies to conduct a controlled burn. According to Wulgurukaba's Mr Michael Johnson, who is also a Magnetic Island based QPWS Officer, "Fire has been used by indigenous people for thousands of years to manage country. It's been very important for (government) agencies to come together, contribute and assist in this management."

The burnt results:

You can see a silhouette of the traditional owner/ranger in the smoke.

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Tally... I've still got 96....

(89 seedlings +7 plants =96)

Cheers

I Found these old,old black and white Photo's on the www

Here

(*click to enlarge*)

Gosh check out the size of these beauties!

The photo's are part of the Powerhouse Museum collection.

The date on the collection says these were taken in 1900.

The gentleman in the photo is holding a gigantic flower spear.

The format is *glass plate negative*

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On this one a couple of men are sitting up in the dead tree looking into the distance...

I wonder if there were more Grass Trees, These must have been really old trees in 1900, imagine how many seeds would have been in those flower spears.

These are wonderful photo's, it's so amazing being able to find this sort of info on the www.

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Another little seed popped up on Monday, that is No. 89

89 seedlings + 7 = 96

Cheers

This photo from the WWW is from Rockingham ...

The Grass Trees look as if they are dancing in tutu's

*click to enlarge*

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My neighbour - one week later...

more flowers have opened!

It's really hard to see, but there was a tiny native bee hovering on the left side.

*Click on photo to enlarge*

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Tally is still 95
88 seedlings+7= 95
(although 1 seedling is not thriving!)

Cheers

Information Links

I thought I would put some links to the websites I've found useful and interesting.

Sites which have helped me to grow my baby Grass Trees.

Monica’s site: Here

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YARRALUMLA NURSERY – GARDEN ADVICE SERIES

Here

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Australian plants On-Line : Here

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Parks Victoria Grass Tree, Fact File
Here

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Aboriginal Uses of Native Plants

Here

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Tally still 94

(although the one I'm doubtful about looks a bit sick!)
Cheers

Two new Sprouts... are 86 and 87

*click to enlarge*

1. Planted 5/Apr./08 - Up 3/May/08 = 29 days...gosh!

2. Planted12/Apr?08- Up 5/May/08 = 24...not as long!

It's is cooler at night now 10-16 C. so I think this is a fairly acceptable period of germination. I have been setting my seedlings out in the early morning sunshine for an hour (approx.) The plants normally live under my back veranda in the shade. I usually water them daily with a spray bottle or give them a tablespoon of water for a good drenching once a week. This is a hit or miss affair and I just go with how I think they are looking...maybe if they look a bit dry I give a few extra squirts!!

They are pretty cute though!

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This Photo from the WWW it's called Dancing Blackboys...sorry I've mislaid the link. Google 'grass trees blogs' and it's in there?

This one also from the WWW and called Persistance, see how the plant is growing out from the rock! Tough little dude!

This trio is clearly very old...

I wonder if they are ok... it looks as if there is a fence and concrete in the background of the photo so they have may transplanted to this site!! The one on the right looks pretty good though!

*Click to enlarge*

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Tally still 94 in total.

Cheers

Beautiful and Strange Photo's from the W.W.W

A forest of spears!

*click to enlarge any photo*

Now this IS the strange one !

John Waine's Link

In this one we can see the new plants growing around the base of these 'adult' plants. Some of the smaller plants in the area have quite large spears too!

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Cheers

More Photo's from the Net:

I forgot to get the links for these

so apologies to the original posters/photographers.

This one must be hundreds of years old! Probably half the size

when Captain Cook ran aground in 1770 in Qld.

(Nathan Johnson)

These ones have had a close shave with fire ...that's for sure!

Amazingly long flower spears!

(Thanks for the great Photo KellyMacDonald)

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This is a close up of the spear drying off in the center of Grass Tree No.2
You can see a few spines/leaves have been damaged by the spear and have turned brown. This spear first appeared in Mid August 2007 and it is now Mid April 2008 and it still is firmly fixed to the plant. I'll let you know when it falls off!

The tally for seedlings is 86 - 2 still doubtful, they haven't grown or died yet!

Total number of my GT's is 7 and 86 seedlings = 93!!

Cheers

And now I have 8 new tiny plants...the new tally is 86,

two of these doubtful, but still hanging in there!

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Some Unusual Flower Spears

Here are a few more lovely photo's found on the WWW.

this one is taken by Travis Easton ...link

Another link to this wonderful photo is here

this will take you to a red bubble site where there are other photo's as well.

This strange flower stalk would be an appropriate logo for the Australian ABC!

This one is clearly a non-conformist!!! link here

Cheers

As my Resident Grass Trees are just choofing along... hopefully just growing!

Here are two fantastic photo's found at other sites here on the net...

posted by Grass Tree devotees.

A group of lovely old Australian residents!

Their more likely predators would be land developers!!

See below for the second photo.

( I lost the photo and had to do this bit again ...still don't know how to rearrange the photo's after I've put them in the blog!?!)
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Another Interesting relative in the Xanthorroea Family...

also residing in my garden.

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Xanthorrhoea Species
Fire Spear (or Didgeredoo Sticks)
An Australian Native
A hardy and long-lived evergreen tree with a dense rosette
of narrow arching needle-like leaves of 60-90cm long.
Tiny white to cream, bird attracting flowers are clustered
on long “spears”, and usually appear in spring or as a
reaction to fire in the wild.
This plant prefers an open sunny position in well drained soil.
Benefits from burning off occasionally. Can tolerate dry or
wet periods in most soil types once established.
Fertilise sparingly using organic fertilizer for natives.
Minimise disturbance to root ball when planting.
An ideal feature in the garden or a pot.

Actually the plant looks similar to a smaller bullrush or a tussock bush!!

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2nd Photo

This one clearly has had a hot time of it...Still surviving though!

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Seedling tally still 80 - 77 healthy? 3 dicey?

Cheers

Yes! your eye's ARE ok!

this photo was so out of focus!

and it looked Great!

I like the little 1/2 moon shapes

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Grass Tree No.2

very plump seed pods, this photo was taken 1/12/07, some of these pods had 2 seeds inside.

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A Different Angle on Grass Tree No.3

Cheers Carol