The lens is interesting because it can focus as close as 0.96 m; this makes it interesting
for taking macro photos. Here my mystery tree with the yellow
flowers; the individual flowers are about 5 mm across:
Leaves are bright green, about 6 cm long, with roundtoothed edges and grow
opposite one another along the stem.
Flowers vary in colour from pale cream to yellow, white, pink, orange, red,
lilac and purple, about 2.5 cm in diameter.
Fruits are glossy, rounded, fleshy, purplish-black when ripe.
I've tidied up the punctuation somewhat, but there are a couple of differences here: the
stems of my plant have no prickles, and the plant has no fruit. But prickles in themselves
don't seem to be a very good indication of the genus, and elsewhere I read of
“sterile” Lantanas. That might sound like we're out of the woods, but then I
found an ASGAP article which
states:
The Newsletter of the Environmental Weeds Management Group (EWMG) (Oct. 2001) notes
evidence of even so-called 'sterile' garden varieties of lantana producing pollen which may
cross-pollinate wild lantana and produce new varieties in the wild.
Did a bit of thinking about that. We don't seem to have any wild Lantana in the area, and
even if there were, wouldn't the chance of cross-pollination tend to produce more sterile
varieties? Thought about that for a while, without coming to much of a conclusion. Then read
Allan Seale's “Australian Gardening”, a book which dates back to 1985, and which
states:
Lantana. Long-flowering and drought and heat-resisting shrubs for all but the coldest
regions—easily managed and should not be confused with the noxious wild L.
Camara.
So what to do? While I was thinking of this, Callum came back with another suggestion: now
it's a Buddleia (or is that Buddleja?),
and indeed that looks likely. Here's a photo from Banwy Valley Nursery, which
describes it as a Buddleia ‘Sungold’, followed by one of the photos
I took yesterday:
More investigation of the Buddleia
issues today. Yes, there's a Buddleia Davidii that is considered a noxious weed, but
that appears to be quite different from the one I have, for which I still haven't found a
name. Mine is not on sale in Australia; I wonder if that is an indication that all Buddleias
are considered dangerous. I don't see any reason to believe that mine is. The June 2007
newsletter of the Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust
states:
There's a lot of confusion about Buddleia. Ask for it at your local garden centre, and
they'll probably tell you “no, it's a weed”. But it is only the B. davidii that
is listed as a plant pest — and even there, only the mauve flowering version that
causes the damage as it multiplies in bright profusion.
B. davidii has been declared a danger to our primary industry, as it breeds
prolifically, creating problems in pine forests. But there are still several Buddleias that
are permissible and don't create problems (they don't seed, they are sterile). They are
great nectar plants.
In fact, the MBNZT has been entrusted to trial a new cultivar, B. Silver Anniversary, to
be released later this year; we have been asked to measure how successful it is providing
nectar for our butterflies — and bees too. “Silver Anniversary” has
clusters of white flowers with mustard coloured eyes and a sweet honey scent.
Of course, the Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust has vested interests, but they can't be that far
off the mark.
Didn't do much else during the day. I've established that the irrigation system in the
garden does need two separate sections for the eastern part, as I had originally planned.
Annoyingly, the pressure drop in the system means that I can't use up the supply capacity of
the pump and still have adequate pressure, so it cycles anyway. I can't see a good solution
for that one. Maybe I should turn both solenoids on at the same time.
More work in the garden, in particular the slow and boring digging up of all the garden
soil. I can't make up my mind whether to spray the weeds and let them die first, or just dig
them up. One way or another, it looks as if we're going to be busy with the project for
months.
Chris Yeardley left for the Gold Coast this morning, and we had been intending to go to
Melbourne for some time, so took her to the airport, then on to Palm Place Nursery, not far from the airport, to
buy a Bottle Tree:
The one we bought wasn't the one in the middle, nor even one of the little ones in front
of it, but an even smaller one on the other side of the display. In about 10 years it might
be interesting. Also bought a Cycad for Yvonne and a Bird of
Paradise flower for myself.
Did some inevitable work in the garden, including planting two of yesterday's plants (the
Bottle Tree and the Bird of Paradise flower). We're still
trying to work out where to put the Cycad.
Somehow, despite its size, our garden is filling up.
The kangaroos are back, and they've been chewing on our plants. For some reason they like
Heartsease (the remains of which are
shown above). They also like acacias, and
they've had several attempts at a couple that are still barely surviving. Decided to put some
old plastic drink bottles to good purpose:
Finally chopped down the fruit tree to the north-east of the house, the one that was
too cramped. It's a pity; the fruit must have tasted
wonderful, and it's sad to have to chop down something of that size, but it really didn't fit.
Now we have to decide what to do with the area.
Today was the day I was supposed to finish my draft for “Beautiful
Architecture”, but somehow I didn't even get started. Instead spent most of the day in
the garden.
We've made some progress in identifying the plants in the garden. CJ's friend Sue
yesterday identified the orange flowers as marigolds, and also the blue daisy-like
flowers as everlasting
daisies. On examination of the evidence, I think she's mistaken on the latter, though the
stuff is tough as old boots. Last month I dragged out some
of them while reorganizing a garden bed, and left them lying in front of the bed:
The second tree (flower detail, then larger view) is covered in buds, and it has
been for almost as long as we have been here. I wonder if the flowers will get more
interesting when they all come into bloom.
Further discussion on IRC about the mystery plants we have. Came to the reasonably good
conclusion that our mystery daisies are Osteospermum, particularly since
I can find both the colours of the cultivars we have.
Up this morning to find some of the sprinklers dribbling, which they must have been doing
for 10 hours—I had set the system to sprinkle at 22:00 to keep the soil moist in case
of frost. Further investigation showed that the solenoid in question, the last I had
installed, had failed. Damn! I hope the others last longer.
The acacia is the tree at the left in the picture. In the process we found another plant,
probably a eucalypt, which had been completely hidden by the acacia. Many of the plants in
this garden were planted far too close to each other. We should trim the acacia back, but
it's full of buds, and I'd like to leave it to bloom first.
That, of course, reminded me that I've been meaning to write a mystery plant page with photos of what we have here. That took
a lot of work without being finished.
We have still more ! This time it's not difficult to identify
them—they're
Amanita muscaria:
CJ back again today to help with the paddocks, and finally got things finished, including
cleaning up a considerable amount of cut and fallen branches. Our hidden acacia tree is now
visible:
What is it? CJ's friend Sue thinks it's poisonous, but she doesn't know what it is. On the
face of it it looks pretty enough, and though there's some growing in the paddocks, the
horses don't go near it.
One thing that is becoming clear is that it can be worthwhile to procrastinate. I've taken
a bit of a pause from digging up the entire garden, and now I discover that it doesn't have
much effect on the amount of weeds. Left a dug up and planted area, right one nearby that I
had just sprayed a couple of times with glyphosate:
It's been a year since we first saw our house, a good time to compare what's happened in the
garden. I took a number of photos from the same
angles as a year ago, but this one shows the most difference:
Presumably the difference in the daisies is due to the irrigation we installed.
What those photos don't show is the amount of work we were doing exactly in that area: it
was far too densely planted—for example, I found a rose planted 30 cm from one of the
daisy bushes. Trimmed back the hibiscus and removed two sorry-looking roses; had to cut
through the roots, so they'll probably die, but replanted them anyway to give them a
chance. Yvonne tackled the lilac (the bare tree in the middle of the
photo), which really needs a lot of trimming back, but I'm not sure how best to do it. That
took us most of the day.
