Born Albino

I used to love these butterflies as a kid, to be honest Im sure I just loved butterflies. It is a Cabbage White Butterfly, a European species of Butterfly that was introduced to Australia in 1937. It spread rapidly and can be found in all states and territories, however it is more common in the Southern regions. It is distinctive white colouring makes it easily recognisable, and it has 2 black spots on the upper side of its wings. You can just see the staining of these spots in the photo. The catterpillars are just your typical green cylindrical green caterpillar, and feed on the soft leaves of cabbages, nasturtiums, and similar plants. The adults are nectar feeders.

If you wish to control these pests, it is best to do so during the caterpillar stage. If you are able to, pick them off and squish them. This is tedious, but effective and probably the most environmentally friendly way of doing it. I have found that if you put flour (plain or self raising) in a large salt shaker and dust the plants when they are still damp from due, this will help kull down the population of catarpillars. It worked wonders for my nanna's rhubarb.

If you have large areas to maintain, then there are some eco friendly sprays that you can try. Pyrethrum is widely available as a spray, it is derived from a genus of plants. The other solution I have tried is called Success, and it contains a bacteria that attacks the caterpillars. Both I have found to be rather successful, however they are contact sprays, which means you actually have to get the spray on the pest for it to be effective. So that means you have to be thorough when you spray, so get underneath the leaves and give it all a good coat.

Helix

Even the greatest walls must, in time, yield to the over-climbing ivy. - Robin Hobb

Ivy can be an unrelenting climber. Something you must always be aware of when you plant it, as commonly once it becomes established you will have great difficulty in removing. In my profession I commonly see it being used like a ground cover on sandy embankments. It will cover the ground in a loose carpet and constantly search for anything to climb. I quite like this look as it reminds me of European woodlands, and has a fairytale and timeless look to it. If this is the look your going for then please, keep an eye on it! I used to love using the English Ivy (Hedera helix) in flower arranging. The individual leaves work wonderfully in corsages and buttonholes, while the long tendrils can give your eyes something to follow in a larger arrangement.

Thirsty Little Carpet

In the hot weather of summer, these are one of the plants that so very often tend to fall to the wayside. They are a shade loving plant called Native Violets and unfortunately due to their short size (only about 10cm in height), they have shallow root systems to match. This means it doesnt take much for them to dry out and die off on hot days or heatwaves. That being said, they make a lovely lawn substitute in areas that that dont receive too much traffic and is too shady and damp for grasses to grow. They cover the ground and spread like a little carpet. Native Violets have lovely light green kidney shaped leaves with these beautiful, delicate purple and white flowers propped above the foliage. They flower prolifically durring the warmer months, and will throw up occasional flowers throughout the year. I find them a rewarding little plant that is easy enough to control if should get out of hand. Just make sure you keep the water up to them in the warmer months.

Daisy Magic

Daisies have got to be one of the easiest ways of adding colour to a garden. They are hardy plants that usually spread easily and almost always flower prolifically. The one in the photo has been recently planted in Memorial Park, in hopes of it spreading and adding some much needed colour. Commonly called a Blanket Flower, Gaillardia x grandiflora "Fanfare Blaze" is the botanical name. When ever you see a little 'x' in the middle of a botanical name, it means that the plant is a result of Hybridisation. So two simmilar species have been bred together to produce the plant you see now. Growing to a height of only 30cm and as the common name suggests, these plants tend to spread and cover the ground like a blanket. They grow best in full sun and slightly damp soil with some organic matter added to it. It struggles in clay and barren soils. They are unusual and beautiful. Great for attracting butterflies, and a magnificent touch for the festive season.

Have a Safe and Merry Christmas to all the Ninja Readers out there.

Flowering Fruits

Ornamental Pears are deciduous trees. So their leaves turn yellow/orange/red and fall in the Autumn, have bare branches in the winter, burst into bloom around September in the lovely white flowers you see in the photo, then grow branches thick with bright green leaves through the Spring and Summer. They make excellent shade trees in the Summer if you can get a species with a decent canopy. They are forgiving plants, fairly drought tolerant when established, and will cope reasonably well in wet clay soils. Just make sure you have the room for them to grow and spread, so do your research. Read the labels, ask the sales assistant, google it if need be. If you have a courtyard and *need* a tree, Id actually recommend growing a Flowering Plum as opposed to an Ornamental Pear. Both are non fruit bearing species of fruit trees, with similar looking flowers and growth habits, except that Flowering Plums tend to grow an average of about 5m, as opposed to around 10m with the Ornamental Pear. The catch 22 I guess is that the Plum isnt as hardy as the Pear, so it wont be so forgiving if you forget about it.

Empty Nest

From time to time I come across the occasional birds nest. This one had been abandoned as were no signs of any recent activity to show it had been in use (eg, egg shell, feces, parent birds, chicks etc). My knowledge on birds is limited, I can identify bird damage and can tell you the common names most of the birds about the park. Knowing the nest types of species is a bit beyond me. I know the very basics, so if I were forced to choose, I think this is made by a wattle bird or a dove. I actually like finding nests, I hate disturbing the parents if they are still using the nest though and make note to avoid that area where I can.

Cultured Boo

Most days, graffiti is a bad thing. More often then not, I see ugly scribbles or scratches all over the place in some meat heads attempt to show people "i was here, look how I ruined this lovely thing". I have never understood the logic behind it really. Pointless destruction. When I do find clever or nice looking graffiti, well, it warms the little cockles in my heart. This sticker did just that. It reminds me of a Boo from Mario Brothers, one that has traveled the world and became a French painter. It made me smile. 

Untrue Breeding

Caught red handed. This is an ant stealing nectar from a Western Australian Red Flowering Gum. Plants much prefer visitors like the little bee in the second photo, as they also help pollinate the flower, rather then just steal the nectar. WA Red Flowering Gums are currently a popular street tree. The flowers range from red, red-orange to red-pink. The blossoms are quite showey and the tree is a mass of red this time of year. They are great for encouraging birds into the garden. Wattle birds and other nectar feeders love to feast on the flowers, while parrot species will quite happily chew on the gumnuts. Just dont plant them next to the house, or you will have the constant sound of gumnuts being dropped onto the roof. They are reasnoble shade trees, and rewarding plants if you have the room for them. They grow readily from seed, however it is difficult to maintain the flower colour, as with each generation colour will vary to the parent. They are relatively slow growing trees, taking 7 years to mature from seed, and will grow to a height of about 10m.

Tasty Hedge

These dainty little blooms are the blossoms of a Lily Pily, if you wish to track it down, look for the tag name Syzygium Bush Christmas. Believe it or not, these plants are more commonly grown for their lovely glossy green leaves and easy hedging habit. If grown in a hedge, the pruning means that the flowers are mostly hidden underneath the foliage, and you only catch glimpses of the bright reddish pink berries when they form. I can vouch for why they make lovely hedges though. They dont like being dried out, however they are a lovely deep green, very thick foliage and are fast growers. If given enough nutrients and water, you will have a solid hedge within a year of planting them (however it will take longer if you buy the smallest available pot plant of them).

Street Tree

The good old Queensland Box Tree. How I loathe thee some days. Particularly this time of year. They shed leaves alot and due to the waxy coating on the leaves, they dont break down particularly well, so have to be raked up a lot to keep the parks neat. They are used in Memorial Park around the playground and are magnificent shade trees, I had to take this photo on a walk the other side of town, as the trees in Memorial are far too tall to get a shot of the leaves or the flowers. Mind you they have been growing there for well over 50 years.

Queensland Box trees were extremely popular street trees, due to their high pest/disease tolerance, low water requirements, good shade qualities and are less likely to drop large limbs like Eucalypt species. They have lovely rich deep green foliage to them, and get these fascinating white flowers on them, which turns the ground around them into a carpet of white when they begin to fall off. The nuts can be a bit of a pain if you arent wearing shoes, but their usefulness far outweighs a mild inconvenience of having to wear thongs outside. One word of caution, dont plant them near a pool or gutters, as when they do drop leaves, you will forever be picking them up.

Re-classified

 

Back in the 1700's, a chap by the name of Carlus Linnaeus invented binomial nomenclature. That I know doesnt sound very exciting, and I can remember studying at tafe thinking "Why do I need to know this?". Binomial nomenclature is the naming system we use today when we formally name a species. You may have read in previous blogs, me using the botanical name (or species name) of a plant. Prior to the invention of this naming system, a species name would contain a description of the plant/animal and as such could be several words long. This is an example I have ripped straight out of wikipedia:  Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatus pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti (Plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and a terete scape). A bit ridiculous, dont you agree? So Mr Linnaeus invented Binomial Nomenclature, where a species is given 2 names in latin (the first name is the genus that the species belongs to), the second is a brief description of the species. This made things much simpler, and you can tell how successful the system is as it is still in use today.

Now, why do I have a picture of a WA Red Flowering Gum up the top? Well when species are discovered they are studied, classified and named. Further on down the track, species are re-studied so as to better understand them. When this happens, we sometimes discover mistakes that have to be corrected. For example, in the 1990's the genus Corymbia was created to classify a heap of plants that were classified somewhere inbetween the genus Eucalyptus and Angophora. All 3 genus are commonly referred to as Eucalypts or Gum Trees, but scientist like to be exact. WA Red Flowering Gums were one of those species that were reclassified into the new genus and went from being called Eucalyputs ficifolia, to Corymbia ficifolia.

I appreciate your patience with this blog. It is difficult to explain and telling you that naming happens by "Witchcraft" kinda just raises more questions. I hope this has helped a little. If you have any questions or I havent answered your question properly, feel free to ask me for more details in the comments and I will answer what I can.

Christmas

This is a plant that always makes me think of Christmas. It is a Western Australian Christmas Tree. My mum would always point them out to me when I was little and tell me their name. I began to associate the bush exploding in these visually stunning trees, with a big fat man sneaking down chimneys and leaving a hoard of gifts in exchange for bickies, carrots and a year's worth of good behavior (even though my house never had a chimney, and I'm sure I wasn't the best behaved kid this side of the black stump).

These trees are quite special. They are a member of a mistletoe family, Loranthaceae, and are hemiparacidic. In layman's terms that means that they are capable of photosynthesis and tend to steal nutrients and water from a host plant. They do this through specially adapted roots, that seek out other plant roots in which to pilfer from. I guess that is why they have such a long flowering period. It starts around the beginning of November, and can carry on until the beginning of January. Due to them being parasites, it is extremely difficult to have them in cultivation. So far I have never seen a nursery stock or sell them. 

They are absolutely stunning trees when in bloom, and are synonymous with the bush land around Perth and the south west.