Tuesday 29 April 2014

DESKTOP 270 - DAMPIERA

Dampiera linearis "True Blue" is a Western Australian native flower.  Evergreen herbaceous perennial, flowering early Spring to early Summer. Needs watering over long dry periods and light pruning annually.

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Floral Macros meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.


Saturday 26 April 2014

DESKTOP 267 - MONTSALVAT

Montsalvat is an artist colony in Eltham, Victoria, Australia, established by Justus Jorgensen in 1934. It is home to over a dozen buildings, houses and halls set amongst richly established gardens on 48,562 m2 (12 acres) of land. The colony of Montsalvat has a detailed history that reflects the life of Jörgensen and his friends and family; there is also a legend behind its name, while its buildings and gardens are steeped in the art and culture of Melbourne and its surroundings.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

Thursday 24 April 2014

DESKTOP 265 - EUPHORBIA

Euphorbia x martinii is a natural hybrid of Euphorbia characias and Euphorbia amygdaloides. It grows to around 90cm and like most of the genus likes a dryish soil in a sunny location. The attractive small flowers are composed of lime green bracts with wine-red nectar glands in the centre. It blooms from spring to early summer. As all spurges it produces irritating milky sap and the plants should be handled with caution.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Sunday 20 April 2014

DESKTOP 261 - KANE'S BRIDGE KEW, MELBOURNE

Kane's Bridge over the Yarra River in Kew, Melbourne, Australia. A pedestrian bridge originally opened in 1928 and destroyed in the 1934 flood. Rebuilt in 1935.

This post is part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme,
and also part of the Weekend in Black and White meme,
and also part of the Sunday Bridges meme.

Thursday 17 April 2014

DESKTOP 258 - JULIA'S ROSE

Julia's Rose is a Hybrid Tea Rose bred by Wisbech. It is a rose of most unusual colouring, similar to that of parchment, with a mixture of copper. It has nice buds, opening to shapely rounded blooms; thus, it is beautiful at all stages. It is much sought after by flower arrangers. Quite good as a shrub, growing to about 1.0-1.5 metres.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Thursday 10 April 2014

DESKTOP 252 - SPIDERWORT

Tradescantia 'Concord Grape' (Andersoniana group - 'spiderwort') is an attractive plant in the Commelinaceae family. It has triangular violet blue flowers with fuzzy purple stamens tipped with golden yellow pollen. It is a bright addition to the part shade garden for summer and blooms all season long. Arching blue green foliage stays cleaner if soil is not allowed to dry out too much. A late summer cut back will encourage a second round of flowering.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Monday 7 April 2014

DESKTOP 249 - GRAFFITI IN IVANHOE

This is on a wall behind the shopping strip in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne.
 

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

Thursday 3 April 2014

DESKTOP 245 - YUCCA

Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry (arid) parts of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
 

Early reports of the species were confused with the cassava (Manihot esculenta). Consequently, Linnaeus mistakenly derived the generic name from the Taíno word for the latter, yuca (spelt with a single "c"). It is also colloquially known in the Midwest United States as "ghosts in the graveyard", as it is commonly found growing in rural graveyards and when in bloom the cluster of (usually pale) flowers on a thin stalk appear as floating apparitions.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

DESKTOP 243 - IN CODE

An image of Dietes iridioides (African iris, Cape iris, fortnight lily, Morea iris, wild iris, dietes), an ornamental plant in the Iridaceae family superimposed on the jpeg code of the image file. For the geek botanists...

This post is part of the Nature Footsteps Floral Macros meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.