A weekend walk

I went over to the Sydney Botanic Gardens again this weekend, this time to see some botanical illustrations on some of the rainforest plants of Australia. While I didn’t take any photos of these great drawings, I took the opportunity to take some photos of my walk through the gardens.

First up is this hibiscus. I noticed this lovely red flower on the way out of the gardens and just had to get a photo!

This palm tree is a Bismarck Palm, which, unusually for me, I think is rather lovely. I think the colour and shape of the leaves is attractive. It also helps that this palm is kept clean and tidy, with not a dead frond in sight!

This flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos were enjoying a meal of seeds from a tree in the photo. These intelligent birds are a bit feral (like a lot of Australian wildlife), sound like a what I’d imagine dinosaur would have done and are good fun to watch.

Sulphur-crested cockatoo’s enjoying a meal

The next two photos are of Acacia baileyana ‘Purpurea’. I love the colour of the foliage, both new and old, along with the fact that it is feathery and delicate looking. The tree also has a nice shape to it (see the second photo).

Next, I have another wattle, this time it’s Acacia binervia ‘Sterling Silver’, commonly called the ‘silver coastal myall’. I was rather taken with the silver foliage.

Next, I’ve got several different coloured Echinacea (coneflowers) flowers for you. I think this genus is a rather attractive member of the Asteraceae, or daisy, family. They are colourful, interesting to look at and a good addition to the garden if you ask me!

I enjoyed looking at this garden bed, due to the different colours of the flowers, and a few different types of daisies. The pink flowers towards the back of the photo are Gaura lindheimeri flowers, which are always nice to look at.

I love the colour of this aloe flower. I have developed a liking for orange flowers over the past couple of years. Flowers of this colour always stand out against the background green of their leaves.

Ornamental grasses can look really pretty, just like this purple-leaved specimen. I think it is purple fountain grass, or Cenchrus setaceus. The purple leaves stand out against the green surrounds and also has a nice form to it that provides movement in the wind.

This next photo is a garden bed that I found rather attractive, just because of a group planting of the above ornamental grass. It proves that you don’t need brightly coloured flowers everywhere to have an attractive planting.

After a week of rain most days, this lawn area was a little damp. I found it amusing that the birds were loving life to the max sat in both sun and water in this area.

These three photos are of a rather interesting specimen of Brachychiton rupestris. This tree is also known as Queensland bottle tree, which is an obvious name when looking at this swollen trunk. This tree belongs to a favourite tree genus of mine, in this instance it is the trunk that I find full of character over pretty flowers or leaves.

This is a really pretty hydrangea that I haven’t seen before. I like the colour and how delicate they look.

This is Pinus roxburghii. I like pine trees like this one, with both bark and foliage being attractive. The species is native from Afghanistan to Myanmar and can live at elevations up to 2,300 metres in the Himalayan mountains. It is important here for it’s timber and is a source of turpentine,resin and charcoal for fireworks.

I’m not sure what sort protea this is but it looks really good where it is sat.

This delightful cycad is Encephalartos longifolia or Suurberg Cycad. I always enjoy looking at plants that have the room to grow as they naturally should, without taking off leaves or limbs to make them fit in a smaller space. This clearly is happy spreading out its leaves.

Fig trees are always fabulous trees to look at. This particular tree is Ficus virens and is a native of Southern Asia all the way south to north-eastern New South Wales, a state in Australia.

Palm trees are normally something that I really can’t stand. This little palm is the bottle palm, or Hyophorbe lagenicaulis is a rather nice one I do say so myself!