A Very Early Spring and other random things

I like to keep my blog uncontroversial so I won't talk about climate change but we have had a super short winter this year with a very warm and dry July.

Australian cuckoos don't make that sound and not many of the gardens round here have daffodils - locally the main marker of Spring is the star jasmine.

The first jasmine flowers appeared on the weekend - that's 27-28th July!!!

I adore Australia's native orchids with their delicate little flowers in all sorts of odd shapes ... we've had this Dockrillia teretifolia (used to be Dendrobium teretifolium) for just over 30yrs and this is the first time it has flowered in July!!! 

Audrey checks out the orchid flowers

First flowers burst open yesterday, 29th July.  This orchid has several common names: Thin Pencil Orchid, Rat's Tail Orchid (for the leaves) or Bridal Veil Orchid (for the masses of flowers spilling down a tree).  Ours is a NSW D. teretifolia with cream / lemon coloured flowers and it is growing on a casurina branch that is tied to the Moreton Bay tree - and I should add that the silver grey stuff belongs to neither the Moreton Bay Fig Tree nor to the orchid - that is "Old Man's Beard" or "Spanish Moss" a type Bromeliad.  The scent of this orchid is quite lovely - I wish one of the perfume companies could bottle it.

More flower photos?   Our camellias have been flowering profusely this year ... very proud of this plant and it's twin sister. 

Hubby rescued them about 15yrs ago - 2 pathetic sticks, pot-bound in ultra-dry, exhausted soil, a few yellowed leaves about to drop - I really didn't give them any hope.  Now they are healthy green bush/trees that give us lots of lovely blush-pink flowers.

"I think my bonnet needs a flower on it."

Our star magnolia gives us a few totally pretty and beautifully scented flowers every spring.

Spring-time weather makes me want to plant things and often results in a trip to the nursery.  Melville found the box I'd carried the new plants home in...

"As happy as a Kitty in a cardboard box"

And - just because I can - I'm going to confuse things with some photos taken weeks ago - on the 6th July when it still felt like we might be having a winter this year!

We took Imogen with us for some photos in the Royal Botanical Gardens ... Imogen was busy posing in the late-afternoon sunlight under some trees ...

 When I spotted some truly bizarre fungi.  The aged and collapsing ones looking like those forgotten carrots from the back of the fridge...

 

 A type of stinkhorn - possibly Lysurus mokusi.  See The Mushroom Expert website for more info on these amazing fungi.   Here is one just emerging - stinkhorns all start with an "egg".

Many stinkhorns have quite bizarre shapes - and at this point you might like to send the children out of the room - because in its 'prime' this particular fungus looks rather rude.

 La la 

dee

La la ...

One of nature's sillier jokes!