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