bobby's reflections

Mussenden Temple.

2010-05-03T08:12:00.001-07:00

Mussenden Temple.
Originally uploaded by bobby buckley plantplanner

grange ATHLETIC CLUB. spring 1966 showing off prizes

2010-05-03T07:09:00.001-07:00

grange ATHLETIC CLUB. spring 1966 showing off prizes
Originally uploaded by bobby buckley plantplanner

Just seeing if there is any reaction.

2009-10-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Flickr: Your Photostream

2009-10-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

Flickr: Your Photostream

HEAD GARDENERS RESIDENCE.

2009-09-25T05:27:00.001-07:00

HEAD GARDENERS RESIDENCE.
Originally uploaded by bobby buckley plantplanner

Wonderful Barn, Leixlip, Co Kildare, Ireland.

2009-09-06T03:51:00.001-07:00

Wonderful Barn, Leixlip, Co Kildare, Ireland.
Originally uploaded by Luath

view profile
bobby buckley plantplanner says:

Yes i agree . The barn is a focal point along the the now very grassy north-eastern avenue . That avenue is now stopped with the motorway and all its fencing which unfortunately has divorced this wonderful barn from Castletown estate. The other great Castletown folly ,the Connolly Folly , has also got disconnected from the estate,an inevitable sign of change. This is a wonderful picture . Here it is a remnant but it is also reminder of the grand vision of an Irish 18th century parkland.

Picasa Web Albums - masseys wood, dublin hills - masseys wood, dublin hills

2009-08-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Picasa Web Albums - masseys wood, dublin hills - masseys wood, dublin hills

2009-07-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

2009-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

2009-02-06T04:19:00.000-08:00

2009-02-06T04:18:00.000-08:00

starlings

2009-02-02T11:12:00.001-08:00

starlings
Originally uploaded by bobby buckley plantplanner

It is reported that the once common starling is reducing in numbers,so it is nice to see the starlings below voraciously pigging out on butter.

2009-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

The Wild Swans At Coole by William Butler Yeats: "Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?"

2009-01-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

Picasa Web Albums - Bobby - now connectivity

2009-01-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Picasa Web Albums - Bobby - now connectivity: "Gmail Calendar Documents Photos Reader Web more ▼
YouTube Sites
Images Maps News Shopping Video Groups Books Scholar Finance Blogs
even more »
robbuck60@gmail.com | New Features! | Settings | My Account | Help | Sign Out | ()
Picasa Web Albums

My Photos

Favorites

Explore

Upload

My Photos>now connectivity

Slideshow

Share

Download

Prints

Edit

Photo 1 of 1 View All

Loading…
No results found.
COLD JANUARY MORNING.2009
edit
Delete caption
Bobby Jan 7, 2009 12:06:15 PM delete

HERE THE CLOUDS PLOUGH ON
WARDS SLOWLY BEYOND THE STILL
LINE OF DARK HOUSES.
Add a comment

Photos by
Bobby
Jan 6, 2009
weston park,churchtown,dublin 14
photos: 1 – 317 KB
Unlisted
HERE THE CLOUDS PLOUGH ONWARDS,SLOWLY BEYOND THE STILL,LINE OF DARK HOUSES.
Link to this album
Paste link in email or IM
Reset unlisted link
Paste HTML to embed in website
Embed Slideshow
RSS
Photo information
Loading…
Feb 4, 2008
1600×787 pixels – 317KB
Filename: DSC_0005.jpg
Camera: NIKON"

2009-01-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

Glendalough, Wicklow

2009-01-08T05:52:00.001-08:00

DSC_0022, originally uploaded by Plantplanner.

View out to the irish sea from the uplands above Glendalough.

2008-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

2008-07-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

2008-07-10T08:39:00.001-07:00

2008-07-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

2008-06-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

2008-03-23T06:17:00.001-07:00

2008-03-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

A gold crested wren at my window, pecking at the glass looking for my attention ." I am ready for my close up" now preening and prancing from branch to branch . Persistent little thing . Ok I reluctantly pick up my camera and try to do you justice but you are too quick for me and the lens . Thank you for bringing a tiny gold into my life but I wish you better pickings at another window.But for the moment here is your muted immortality on my window.

2008-03-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just like that . At one fell swoop tree lined Dund... ReQuiem for tree lined Dundrum
Just like that . At one fell swoop tree lined Dundrum is no more and another part of our little heritage is gone . We live in an age of thuggery . Trees are in the forefront of our battle to save the planet and now they are going to be replaced by another factory of carbon dioxide creation . It is sad to see a tree lined street reduced to a mono state of greyness.Ironically it is tree week so while our media give us lovely soft centred stories on the role that trees play in our environment and this message is emphasised in trees being planted by little children meanwhile the adults in power are removing these "arboreal nuisances". Was there any preservation order on these trees and where was Dunlaoghaire Rathdown' s officials ,busy creating another biodiversity park ?,while the living environment is literally being torn out under their very eyes .
Labels: ReQuiem for tree lined Dundrum

2008-03-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

Walk up Bray Head .
Preoccupied with granite forms ,rounded crags , piled up rocky tops, crumbling famine walls ,one is still surprised to come across a 17th Dutch pastoral scene as this . The cows stare serenely across a vast and eternal space .

2008-03-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

VENERABLE OLD TREE
Against the slope you lean
You feel more secure that way
Boughs greet the light
Bole stands behind.

Bald under the sky
all bark blemished
Moss moisturises your craggy features
like an old old woman.

Once again with day brightening
You will put on your new spring bonnet
And parade this little Road
with your finery.

Weary from the walk
I stand and admire you
and look forward to your green hat
topped with an orange bill.

2008-03-02T04:40:00.000-08:00

Very Many Congratulations

to Sabrina Dent

She is the Winner in the Best Designed Blog in
The Irish Blog Awards 2008.

Chapeau!

2008-03-02T00:00:00.001-08:00

Irish Blog Awards 2008 Congratulations to the Winners

2008-02-29T09:21:00.001-08:00

2008-02-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

Congratulations!

to All Bloggers

who have been

Shortlisted for

The Irish Blog Awards, 2008

Best Designed Blog Sponsored by BB Gardens

* Good On Paper
* Sabrina Dent
* Annie Rhiannon
* Clamnuts Rants
* Irish KC
* Ireland Logue
* The Menace
* David Behan
* magooo

Irish Blog Awards Best Designed Blog Sponsored by BB Gardens

Irish+Blog+Awards

2008-02-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

2008-02-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Irish Blog Awards » 2008 Irish Blog Award Sponsors: "BB Gardens have sponsored Best Designed Blog. BB Gardens is run by Bobby Buckley. BB Gardens will supply planting schemes, design and arrange borders, design and plant woodlands. BB Gardens are environmentally aware and their philosophy is: Gardening not for the moment but for the whole year."

2007-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Living in a virtual world of blogs and google ads awaiting a sign from the real world ,a human voice that says " I want you to execute your ideas in my garden" and when a couple of voices get in touch then goodbye to cyberspace and ego surfing.

2007-03-23T12:34:00.001-07:00

Technorati Profile

2007-03-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

delay delay, delay delay,

why so such a negative mindset,

a common robin trills outside,while my mind portentously drones on with images of whited animal skulls and the tedium of correcting r to t . I await the call to action and turn the radio off and follow my quite glorious destiny whenever the phone rings or in the near next futuristic email and a formal garden emerges that even a salad day garden designer would envy.

2007-03-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

2007-03-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

2007-03-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

Spring daffodils

2007-03-12T04:44:00.001-07:00

2007-03-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my spring garden taken on a sunnyMarch morning.With all those daffodils it gives a great link to the beginning growing year and also links me into that once great poetic celebration of the Daffodils by Wordsworth ,who saw them as a balm to the soul
" oft upon my couch I lie,
in vacant or in pensive mood
they flash upon the inward eye which is the bliss of solitude."

2007-03-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Many of the posters to Blather.net have contacts with
Australia. It's worth keeping an eye on that site.

2007-03-07T01:31:00.001-08:00

2007-02-21T03:02:00.001-08:00

2007-01-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

ARTICLE 2 FOR IRISH GARDEN PLANT SOCIETY.
Maria and I arrived in Melbourne on October 12th after a fascinating flower adventure in WESTERN AUSTRALIA ( see July’s article). Western Australia is one of the most remote biospheres on the planet and its plants have largely remained in a kind of time warp . Eastern Australia with its two competing urban centres Sydney and Melbourne is much closer in feel to Europe than W.A. Our base was in the suburbs of CLIFTON HILL, a northern suburb close to the city centre, an area of early 20th century houses and gardens crisscrossed by motorways and railways. Within this once industrialised region parks and walking paths have been carved out often following the routes of rivers , such as the Merri , a tributary of the Yarrow , Melbourne’s’ main. River

From this very contained and urbanised vantage point we made our observations of the garden plants around us. The areas of observations were what people grow in their in suburban gardens, what was growing in the wild places adjacent to those gardens, what was being promoted in the public spaces such as new gardens in botanic gardens and who are the movers and shakers in the Australian gardening world. Beside these observations we managed to visit some famous private gardens.
1.Melbournes suburban gardens
The ordinary private gardens of Melbourne come straight out of European tradition . the picture of the formal chic garden in the picture is common in the wealthy suburbs of Toorak. The only native thing here is the bluestone rock of Melbourne. The box hedges , tumbling iceberg roses, privet balls, spiralling conifers are all part of the international formal garden palate. I have no criticism of this style . Here it is beautifully executed but it is not an Australian garden. It is a French garden.
Over a period of three weeks I saw no unique Australian suburban garden. They are there but largely to be found within the pages of Australian garden design magazines.

.

Figure 1 Melbourne chic front garden.
While the suburban gardens of Melbourne cling to their European parents the surrounding wastelands amongst these suburbs are welcoming with open arms any plant that wishes to escape from the confines of the picket fence or railing. A cycle up the narrow gorge of the River Merri and one finds oneself in familiar company. This cycle could be like a trip down the Dodder in Rathgar or Terenure on a spring morning . Both rivers flow through an urban landscape, are somewhat polluted and are dominated by willow . The willows proliferate rapidly along the banks of both rivers but in Ireland they are loved “ Down by the Sally Gardens “ and all that Yeatsian romanticism. In Melbourne they are an intruder, a destroyer of native habitats. On weekends” barbies” are organized for the many volunteer groups that try to eliminate this weed. To my mind it is all a little late . It is good to save native habitats but where they are gone it is futile to try and reestablish them . Nature is far too powerful. The Merri creek has changed utterly from the time that it was the meeting place of the Aborigine people .Crisscrossed by
Figure 2 fennel and friends
roads and bridges the resultant concrete debris now cascades down its steeps embankments and nature in a sense of decorum has rushed to cover the littering offense . It is ironical that it is the alien species from Europe that are to the forefront in doing such a wonderful cover-up; vincas, vetch, the perennial pea ,ivies and fennel in great swathes sprout in massive bunches sufficient for thousands of fish restaurants. The native species is represented in a token way by the zamnia. These plants are there to stay and the native species will be pushed further and further into the bush where many Australians in their gardening minds think they truly belong. This is maybe an extreme view but one founded on conversations with many Australians.
It is in the garden centers and nurseries that the public show their gardening tastes . Many garden centres carry a small section of native plants but they would not be amongst the best sellers . I asked in one garden centre about this . The expert in the garden centre felt that native species were “too bushy” Also he felt that Australians were a little unsure about how to garden properly with them . They are plants that need to contained by cutting them back , but most people don’t and they become far too dominant in the garden, like setting a wild thing free amongst the better garden worthy plants. One could appreciate this when one experienced the spread of tea trees in the National Park in Wilson’s
Figure 3Pimelea ferrugenea.
promontory
Figure 4Teatrees prime material for bush fire.
.

There are native nurseries in the Melbourne region . There were two last October but now there is only one. We visited the Kuranga NATIVE NURSEY just prior to its closing down . The nursery was choc a bloc with native species and here with a few photographs, and since this is a plant magazine, let me show a few of the botanical jewels that make up the Australian flora.
Figure 5Kurranga native nursery a verysmall selection of native plants calllistemon on the left amidst the blues of lechenaultia and the pale blues of the trigger plants ,three very popular plants in Australia.
The owner , a friendly talkative woman in her thirties , looked sadly out at the passing traffic and reflected that the Australia public was committed to consumerism and was not interested in buying and celebrating native species in their gardens even though they were much more suited to the soil and the environment . They preferred the high consumption of scarce water resources in maintaining the traditional garden. That was why she was forced to sell up and embrace the hippy dream in the outback.
Further out from Melbourne was another more commercial successful native plant nursery, complete with coffee shop and all the ethnic paraphernalia that goes with the local . It was well supported and had only native plants so there is seemingly a future for the native species as garden plants.
I’ll end with a brief comparison of two contrasting gardens . One is the Robinsonian garden of Nooroo ,high in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney . Even though it is hidden away amongst the eucalyptus forests it is garden that could be an Australian Fernhill or Mount Usher .The roads and Gardens are filled with exotics from all parts of the world , all possible because of the cool climate and the high rainfall. Here glades and pathways are ablaze with the garlands of wisteria, the cherry pinks, the delicate leaves of acers and the voluptuous blooms of rhododendrons and azaleas. The woodland floors are carpeted with bluebells, bugle and spring irises. For us it was like home an irish garden but reproduced in an Australian way. Then we were biased
Figure 6 NOOROO GARDENS " a shady place" . This woodland gazebo view was made into an Australian stamp.
biased.
Figure 7Kuranga
Figure 8 The commercially successful native plant nursery.
The second garden is the Karawarra Australian plant garden found in the MT. Dandenong Range north of Melbourne. It is a woodland garden . Soil is clay ,an exception in this largely ericaceous area. To contrast with the rather smoky impression of the shrubs much use is made of the white bark of eucalyptus, and the use of rocks and seats and sheds and cut logs to create focus and context.
Only disappointment was the lack of plant identification as the tags were not replaced when the shrubs had outgrown them.
Australian gardens have yet to achieve their own unique identity but there is a sign that Australian art is ponting the way to a new Australian garden consciousness. In my next article I will explore the influence of Australian art on the new exciting project in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens.
Figure 9 These are all native plant species in the Australian plant garden . It has the same relaxed feel as the Nooroo garden but with native species, It shows the way to go for Australian gardens.

2007-01-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

VIEW FROM ABOVE.
On the atlas, there it is, Australia a vast island slowly floating northwards parting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A vast desert at its heart, while on its ocean coastlines a rim of diverse floral regions abound. If one was to build great garden reflecting the great diverse flora of the continent, how big would it have to be and would it be feasible?
This is, like one of those classroom projects where a project is trying to reflect a reality on a 1 to 1 basis e.g. having a map on a 1to 1 scale. Impossible and impractical I hear you say. What about some kind of reduced world?- a Lilliputian representation . Then we are merely moving into a disneyfication of reality . Disney World despite its charm and appeal to childhood does not make good gardens.
Great gardens are usually powered by a vision, an understanding of mans’ relationship to nature. Man’s power and control over nature is evident in the great gardens of France, Vaux le Vicomte, and Versailles …. , while the English Landscaped garden is reflective of a harmony between man and nature. Wordsworth and Capability Brown are kindred spirits.
In my two previous articles I explored the search by Australian gardeners to create gardens typical of an Australian flora .An Australian garden should only have Australian plants. What if one started from such an extreme premise?. It is not a statement of gardening jingoism but in these environmentally aware times it may be the right thing to do, right plant in the right place , a garden that recreated and represented the Australian species in their own habitats. Cranbourne is such a garden and is the brainchild of the director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens Dr. Phil Moors.
The Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne was opened in May 2006 to great acclaim, has won many architectural prizes and is now one of the most visited sites in Australia.
As a prequel to this great public success ,our own private odyssey through some personal contacts, found us as guests of Phil and his charming wife Debbie and were given a behind the scenes tour of the Cranbourne site in October 2005.
Six months away from a grand opening the main outlines of the garden was nearing completion ,the visitors’ centre , the vast red central desert garden, the spectacular Rockpool Waterway which has the greatest and longest sculptural piece ,standing like a great escarpment beside the waterway.
Now as I write on New Year’s Eve 2006 Cranbourne is a wonderful success and can be viewed, with wonderful descriptions of the design and plants on the very comprehensive website. Just load www.rbg.vic.gov.au/australian-garden and even on the internet marvel at the great achievement of it.
I was there before it was finally completed and I give only a viewpoint as a garden thinker reflecting on what I saw. Time has elapsed so therefore this piece will tend to be more reflectively intellectual rather being preoccupied with plant nomenclature. Those plants are on the website.

Most great gardens have one viewing point be it from a terrace or great windows looking south or from some great height where the maker looks back at the great achievement of it all. Cranbourne doesn’t disappoint on the viewpoints. It has many.
The central viewpoint is from the VISITORS CENTRE, not a great house but having more the look of a stockade. The publicity states that the “weathered timbered building has been designed to give tree top experience for visitors” It is now among the trees , probably a reference to those frontier days. The wooden building is louvered throughout keeping it naturally cool thus saving on expensive air conditioning plant already anticipating the immanent era of low carbon footprints.
From parapets and windows one looked out on a mini botanical Australia stretching to a blue horizon. The Red desert Garden , seemingly natural, was as deliberately constructed as an Elizabethan knot garden . Carefully built sand crescents , presumably made of man made materials and then encrusted with sand . ON the plains were salt ceramic sculptures representing the salt lakes of dry regions. The artist worked from templates informed by aerial pictures. Here was art taking a lesson from nature. The space was drawing literally from something Australian _ an Australian sensibility once rooted in a European view of nature, now turning to an Australian vision.
While visiting the NGV Art gallery in Melbourne I discovered the landscapes of the Australian Artist Fred Williams. The garden before me had the same feel
Williams has been described “as Australia’s greatest landscape artist. Williams clarifies our vision develops our understanding, defines our land” Here is a landscape reminiscent or maybe informed by Australia’s modern artists, a garden that in its own mission statement has a touch of that visionary approach.
Where are the plants? They are now there and here I am merely repeating the website.
“ –mass plantings of Acacia binervia and spinifex sericeus are used to stabilise the sandhills. The lower slopes are covered by a carpet of muntries (Kunzea pomifera), the fruit used for food by the Aborigines.”
The description continues with a plant inventory of the red rockery which overlooks the desert space on the west. I include these plants since this is garden plant publication.
“ planting in this area includes the Albany Daisy, Kangaroo Paw ( a plant that can be seen in the car park of Fernhill Gardens Co. Dublin) , Pincushions, Pineapple Bush, Rope rush, Grass tree and other rockery plants.”
When we were there this central Red Garden was devoid of plants and could only be viewed from the terrace of the Visitors’ centre. It was a space for reflection, a necessary quiet moment before one began to explore the garden.
From this initial quiet we turned to the spectacularly active ROCKPOOL WATERWAY, which is representative of the river landscapes of Eastern Australia .Framed by a slope of newly planted Australian red smooth-barked Apple( Angophora costata) , three fountains bubbled up in a great white spume of water . The resulting stream gushes down over a computer designed surfaced stream made up of square concrete pavers. These are of three different thicknesses Some are seemingly level with the water level, others are submerged and some pavers stand above the water , inviting a child or even an adult to walk across, but then like an 18th century garden joke the water increases in flow and the unsuspecting sojourner turns and runs to the bank with their feet wet. “No worries” .It is Australia not Ireland.
Stone seats provide a chance to enjoy the stream but there is more, much more. The river is dominated by a monolithic iron cliff. This is an iron sculpture stretching the length of the stream. Here one moves into superlatives. It is reported to be the longest and largest sculpture in the world. It seems like a large Redstone one sided canyon something that Ned Kelly might have spent along lifetime forging. It is a tour de force of sculpture within a garden setting. When one arrives at the source pool one looks back up the stream
Figure 1 ceramic tiled flat sculptures representing salt lakes.
Figure 2 Spumes of water herald the beginning of the stream. The Visitor’s Centre is in the background.
Figure 3 The monolithic sculpture overlooks the computer driven stream.
Figure 4 The end of the sculpture. Note the fine finishes to all the surfaces: the waterfall, the copper pipes in the sculpture, the steel decking and the gabions at the end of the slope
Figure 4 The end of the sculpture. Note the fine finishes to all the surfaces: the waterfall, the copper pipes in the sculpture, the steel decking and the gabions at the end of the slope
Figure 5 Master of all he sees. Director Phil Moors explains the concepts of the project.
.
Figure 6 A grass tree (Xanthorrhoea) is nurtured by a little copper piping back to robust health.
Figure 7 The already maturing rock garden representative of the flat land river environments.
Figure 8 The garden's burgeoning nursery .There are over 100,000 plants in the planted up garden.
, it is cascading in a loud torrent down its course and then it slows to a quiet flow and the final waterfall caught by the wind collapses into a small wave. Silence.
Now we climbed onto the northern hills (man made) to view the central Red Garden from the other side the native saltbush was planted into hessian to contain sandy soil. The hill was topped by a deep recessed waddi complete with a termite mound.
There was a constant reminder that this was garden in the face of nature’s incompatibility to any plant imposition on it. Trying to shape dry river beds on slopes with plastic edgings ended with the plastic fraying buckling and breaking. Ancient transported Grass trees and patently very expensive found it difficult to adapt to the sand. Luckily they were saved by gentle watering. When we were there, there were coils of fine water tubing at the base of each Grass tree. To make sure every tree was at home all the trunks were fire blackened.
From viewing the website all these adaptation problems seem to have been successfully sorted. We turned toward the Visitor’s Centre and we were now passing through the well planted Western Australian Rock Garden and like a home key in a piece of music we were returning to the familiar flora of our first few weeks ( see article in July edition)Darwinias , boronias leschenaultia, melaleucas and so on ----. Seeing these flowering plants one had a sense of seasonality not that emphasised in Australia’s flora .
We were fortunate to experience a great gardening project near its completion – the creation of a unique Australian gardening aesthetic- sustainable and ecological.
Is there a lesson for us here in Ireland? Could one foresee a great Irish Garden project representative of all our unique habitats bog lands, woodlands, fields, hedges mountainsides? The Botanic Gardens have an educational mini version, but for the present let us protect and cherish our own native habitats.

2006-09-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

bobby's reflections

2006-09-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Western Australia is famous for it's unique flora, with over 6000 species endemic to the region.Maria and I arrived in mid-September,springtime downunder.On the drive in from Perth airport one's eyes greedily devour the new flora.This devouring is confined, at first to the embankments and roadside margins of the motorways.Later we discover that roadside margins are a rich souce of native flora in W.A.
One is struck by the strange and exitic , at least to our eyes, the emerging tall spikes of the grasstrees,Xanthorrhoea preissii,and the exhuberant palm like fronds of the Zamnia. The ground is carpeted with cape daisiesArctotheca calendula, a weed from South Africa,now as common as our daisies and spread throughout Southwest Australia,causing many problems for livestock.
Another outsider but this time a welcome one to Australians is the large trellis type tree, the Norfolk Island Pine,Araucaria heterophylla,which has been adopted by the Australians as a symbol of their past maritime history.George Seddon, the well known writer and commentator, suggests it's popularity was due to "its striking verticality in a mostly flat continent , together with dark green foliage that reads well in the strong light intensities of most of Australia."While we were there a relation of this pine ,the Wollemi pine was found in some remote valley in South East A
ustralia . It is now being launched on the gardening market.For patriotic reasons alone it should prove popular in Australia.
Green is a colour that we take for granted in Ireland. One can imagine the sense of longing Europeans had for this colour amidst the bright grey greens of Australia.Any way all along this coast on the beach esplanades ,in suburban gardens,in municipal parks the green distinctive Norfolk Island Pine stands as some kind of antipodean symbol.My sister's front garden has one.This became our landmark when ever we might feel lost.Here it is known as a christmas tree and it is used as a christmas tree in December.The nostalgia for green European forests must be very strong.
The flora of Perth's suburban gardens seems to be of Mediterranean or South African origin,that is on first observation.Nearly every garden has Osteospermum spreading out to its manicured lawns.It seems because South Africa and S.W. Australia have a similar geology and climate that plants in one region will do well in the other.This is true but with a an ecological health warning .Many of South Africa's bulbous species have become S.West's worst weeds.When we continued our journey further south towards the more temperate humid regions around Busselton and Albany we often found the fields and woods over grown with Watsonias,freesias,Arum lilies and Lupins. When we were there the weather was as cool as any cool Spring day in Ireland.One begins to wonder that with global warming how many of our tender and well behaved plants will grow robust and play truant across the Irish countryside.Rhododendron Ponticum and Gunnera have already shown the way. Last summer in the West of Ireland's most prominent garden I saw gunnera for sale in pots while along Connemara's coastal roadways they are spreading unchecked.
Australia has a unique flora and fauna and is becoming rapidly aware of how much it is threatened by cavalier introductions of foreign species.Introduced species can have a catotrosphic effect on a native ecosystem.Little grows under Rhododendron on a western hillside .
W.Australia has a about 1000 weed species all brought in by European methods of agriculture and horticulture.Often where the plough went the weed followed .Some weeds are a nuisance .The capeweed mentioned above is unpalatable to stock and spreads aggressively suppressing native plants.But the case against introduced weed species is not conclusive.Willows which populate many of Melbourne's streams can retain more sediments and nutrients than native euclypts can. Yet the argument against willows seems to have been won as on a walk along the suburban River Merri in Melbourne notices were announcing that the willows were to be removed by the local council.
In W.A. another strange proactive strategy is taking place to combat the destructive influences of introduced mammals,like foxes and cats.It was discovered that the gastrolobium plant , a member of the pea family,is poisonous to mammals but not to the native marsupials .So the government department of Conservation and Land Management"C.A.L.M."has dropped many carcasses containing a poison called 1080 [ an extract from the gastrolobium plant] within their extensive national parks.The fox population has dropped 40% since the programme has started.At every national park path or carpark the public are warned not to bring their pets into the park because of the 1080 project.So the native plant species are striking a blow in defence of the native marsupials. I trust that the native bush will once again be teeming with tiny or even big marsupials.
The fascination that West Australians have for flora swings from the giants of the forest to the tiniest spring flowers that grow all over the forest floor ,the wheatbelt and the bush.Throughout much of the southwest stand the last remnants of ancient forests which escaped the axe and chainsaw of the loggers.The greatest are the Tingle trees found in the Valley of the Giants ,near Walpole.These are regarded as the tallest and greatest of the eucalyptus trees.they have a rough reddish bark and the oldest have like some old , very old granny developed pimples and carbuncles which give them a somewhat comical look.These trees soar up to 75 metres and are 400years old.Why have they survived for so long ?A miracle of nature?Partly.They lie in a protected valley open to the prevailing rain laden winds from the cool south,remember this is in the southern hemisphere.So if Australia is becoming drier this little enclave still recieves enough rainfall to ensure the survival of these few hundred arboreal giants.How long will they survive?W. Australia'sC.A.L.M.hopes for a very long time, because they have invested in a spectacular tree top walk .For some reason that I cannot fathom Australians love viewing nature from above and so their tree top walk soars 40 metres into the canopy of the forest.Itis about 600 metres in length . It is an exhilirating experience, that is if you dont suffer from vertigo.I found it a little unnerving when the metal walkway began to throb .Some nervous walkers were forced to crouch down on the walkway .The source of this shaking was a forty year old male, who should have known better, try ing to frighten his teenage daughters. His wife arrived with younger children and with one withering look all silliness ceased.One arrived at the end of the walk with a sense of satisfaction and relief .The other arboreal challenge in a nearbye Karri forest is to climb the 100 metre Goucester Tree.I was relieved to find that all climbing on the day that I arrived to climb was not allowed because of high winds.I even took a photograph of the notice of high winds,to prove I was prevented from realising a cherished ambition.!
A few days after being in the dizzying heights of the Tingle Trees we turned our attentions to the tiny orchids of the Stirling Ranges.The Orchidaceae is the world's largest plant family ,containing over 30000 species.We usually associate orchids with the epiphytes of the tropics, but all of the orchids of S.W. Australia are terrestrial ,that is they grow out of the ground.There are about 200 species, mostly found in dappled woodland and as we found they are discovered very close to roadside verges at the edge of woodland.In these woodland habitats the orchids are found throughout S.W. Australia but in the Stirling Ranges we took a guided tour .At 9a.m.on Weds Oct. 2nd we found ourselves in a minibus with 20 other flower "bods"many totally conversant with the minute differenttiations of the Orchid world.The prima donnas of this orchid world are the Spider Orchid s, who boast such names as Dwarf, Zebra,Wispy,Purple-Veined,Fringed Mantis, King, and many more esoterically descriptive names.Our guide ,Aileen , was good humourously accepting of all nomenclatures,thinking it was all rather arbitrary since nature in the work of the European bee was now cross pollinating most of the orchids ,leading to unknown and spectacular looking Spider Orchids.Much debate was spent on whether a certain orchid was a Leaping Spider Orchid or a Broad Lipped Spider Orchid or some such conversation.However on our tour we came across a possee of excited photographers all gathered around a spot ,complete with tripods and massive lenses.This must be important.The rare King Spider Orchid was found , a wonderful discovery, but growing beside it was The Esperance King Spider Orchid.Esperance is over 300 kilometres away .How did the seed come this far? One of the most acceptable theories was that it came on the wheels of the huge roadtrains that pass by every few minutes.Who were we to suggest otherwise?
The orchids are found all over the bush like woods of S.W. Australia in spring.They are wonderful to discover and one feels priveleged to be in their company for just that on e flowering moment in their short lives.

W.Australia is full of wonderful wild flowers but are many of them garden worthy ? As I stated earlier their gardens tend to be still very influenced by European tastes,with a great longing for the English garden evident everywhere.This fashion for a non - native garden leads to a high water , high fertiliser regime in gardening .Water is a precious commodity in an arid environment and fertilisers have proven to be toxic to many native plants especially to the Protea family.If gardeners in Australia could be persuaded to grow native it would save water and do much to conserve the environment.
The Perth Botanic Gardens ,situated in the picturesque King's Park, have taken a lead in returning to the native habitat as a source of inspiration for Australia's gardens.
One of it's recent projects was to return all bush in it's grounds to it's native plantings by removing all "foreign" plant introductions.
On Sept. 21st -24th 2005 The Kings Park Native Wildflower Show is its great garden event which broadcasts its advocacy of growing native species.When we visited the show the sun was shining down on a huge tented village ,resplendent with flags, set on the edge of a bush area with a vast colourfully planted native garden.This garden was a mix of many different styles cottage, formal,herbaceous borders,coloured pots and stone mulches. There was a missionary spirit about the exhibition .In the gardens there were large notices explaining how to garden native species ,while in the tents we explored exhibits about such subjects as how smoky water encourages plant growth ,how trigger plants grow in containers ,even in boots,the dangers of die back in the bush due to backpacking, and how native trees can remove harmfull toxins from the ground.
We were to see many of the plants in their native habitat in the ensuing weeks.The plants that caught our eye were the Kangaroo Paws, the floral emblem of W.A. ,Anigozanthus manglesii ,the prairie fields of everlasting flowers Rhodanthe manglesii, the charming little triggerplants Stylidium, and the brilliant blues of the Leschenaultia.

The shrubs were represented by a huge display of Geraldton Waxes ,Chamelaucium ,a popular shrub in W.A. so much so that it is now becoming invasive far from it's usual habitat.
Returning to the question of Native garden worthy plants .Yes it is an ideal worth aiming for the sake of the environment ,but will the gardening public be won over ?
From my point of view it will take a lot of persuasion .The native plants give a wonderful display in the down under spring ,but only in the spring . There are very few plants to carry on the baton in to the hot summers ,except those foreign thirsty exotics and it will be a long time before the public will give them up.
Untended native gardens revert quickly to looking very "bush" like and the Austrlian psyche has an inherent fear of the great beyond of the bush .
As we left the show the native gardens stretched in great stretches of colour across the bush area and the eye was caught by a little shack nestling in against an old sheoak.Maybe it is through such sentimental scenes as this the native plant argument will be won. More on this when we continue our garden oddyssey to Melbourne in the next article.

2006-05-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Tulips are at that fully giving stage, their petals wide open with stamens fully revealed to rvery passing eye and bee.

2006-05-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Melbourne garden portrays French chic with neat box hedges planted above native Melbourne bluestone rock. White roses tumble, probably Rosa Iceberg, through the black railings.There are two other companion houses done also in a black and white theme.

2006-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

This an untypical front garden in the Churchtown area of south Dublin . Is it the way of the future front garden ? There is no lawn thus no unnecessary grass cutting and the owners having been weaned from the obsession of a lawn will save much pollutants from the lawnmower. The garden is pleasant and interesting , extremely low maintenace ,as the ground cover Geranium Phaem excludes all weeds .On a sunny day the garden will be alive with bees while the shrubs around ,many non-natives will each in turn strut its stuff in the appropriate month.

2006-05-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

2006-05-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

Interesting list of plants at :

http://photographedublin.blogspot.com/