Much of Mum and Dad's garden is comprised of gum trees. They have lots of different types; short, tall, bushy, leggy, scented, flowering, old and young. Mum and Dad know the common and latin names of all of them (I think) but I struggle with even the common names, so you'll have to put up with my crude description of them and some guesswork instead. I'm hoping that none of my readers are avid botanists so it won't matter.
One of my favourites is this big old gum. He's a grand old gentleman sitting slap bang in the centre of the garden. His trunk is gnarled and full of character and birds roost in his craggy branches.
The gums were in different stages of flowering when I was there and here are some of them shown below.
This is the bud of the fuscia gum. Its flower, underneath the cap, is yellow and the gum is the same red colour of the bud.
Here are a couple of different types of gum nut. They're both so different in size and shape.
You can see flower, bud and nut in this picture
Another yellow flower but from a different tree. This might have been either a lemon scented or a lemon flowering gum, but that's just a big stab in the dark.
Yet another yellow flower. I have no idea which gum tree this is from. I like the shape of the cap which you can see just about to pop off the flower in the centre. It's rather phallic (teeheehee) but also very unusual.
And finally a pink one.
The bark is another awesome feature of gum trees and again can vary so much. This is a really cool white gum tree.
I'm pretty sure this one is the lemon scented gum.
The trunk is so tactile. You just want to run your hands over the smooth part and crunch the peeling bark between your fingers.
What does this knot remind you of?
Mum and Dad have a lovely rose garden in a sheltered spot in the garden. Usually I take lots of photos of the roses, but only a couple this time.
This is Samantha. A friend gave her to me as a housewarming gift once. I had her in a big pot, but when I moved again, she couldn't come with me to the flat with no balcony, so I sent her to the farm and Mum and Dad planted her out in their garden. She's flourished there.
This Agave is pretty old and fell over recently from the weight of the head. And now loads of babies are sprouting out of the stem. It's pretty amazing.
The foliage on this plant is a silvery colour and the new growth is purple. It's a very cool colour combination.
The Geraldton Wax was full of flowers.
Banksias are a really tactile flower. The flowers are so soft, like cotton buds and the leaves are so hard, crunchy and pointy.
This is a native hibiscus. It's very pretty and delicate and not the sort of flower you'd think of as a native.
These little purple flowers (of unknown name) were attracting quite a few bees. I only managed to get one in a photo though.
I have no idea what this bush is called, but it is seriously cool. The photo doesn't really do it justice at all, so I'll have to try and explain. All of the branches a curvy and they twist and turn in different directions. It's hard to describe, so you'll just have to trust me that it's a very cool looking bush.
Mum and Dad have recently planted some Yakkas. I hope they flower soon as they're very striking flowers.
There was a rainbow on one of the days I was down at Victor. It took me too long to get my camera, so it had just started to fade on one end before I could snap a photo.
I'm finishing with another of my favourite features of Mum and Dad's garden, the pond. Paul and I were married in front of this pond. It's changed so much since then. It looks more like a natural feature now as the pond weeds and grasses have established themselves and the lilies have multiplied.
The pond is home to plenty of wildlife; two turtles, one a murray river and the other a native long necked variety, many frogs and tadpoles, native fish, and a number of bugs and insects. It attracts wading birds and other wildlife. It's such a great feature.
