Remember the old surfing movie The Endless Summer, where summer is chased around the globe? Well, I do. My older brothers took me to all the surfing movies.
You can see where I’m going with this…it’s summer in Australia, and that’s a fact.
one of the grass trees of Australia, Xanthorrhoea australis, photo found here
photo from Botany Photo of the Day
Back to our regular hemispheric reporting (sigh…)
Yeah, Endless Summer. Ride the Wild Surf. Wasn’t it great when life revolved around going to the beach and getting sand in the burgers you bought at the joint along the strand ? Zinc Oxide on the nose and Noxema after after you got home.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden has a nice little stand of Xanthorrhoea -getting photos of this plant is difficult. Blown out sky etc. These are very nice !
Hi Denise
I’m impressed you found my picture of the grove of Xanthorrhoea australis! (It’s the top one.) It was taken at the Australian Garden at Cranbourne, which is part of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. This is an incredible garden displaying Australian plants but also giving a great sense of Australia as a continent. It recently won an international landscape architecture prize for Taylor Cullity Lethlean. I lead garden tours in Australia and Cranbourne is on one of our itineraries. I say nothing to introduce the garden on the way there so as not to take away from the Wow moment which is the first reveal of the garden. However, if you’re not likely to have a chance to see it live, make sure you have a look at the Cranbourne site – http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/visit-cranbourne/attractions/australian-garden!
Also, so glad to have found your blog!
Kathy, I never burned! Thanks for the tip on these grass trees at RBC. Seems like there’s always a new plant coming in on the radar.
Robin, that photo is amazing! So glad you found the blog. I’d love to hear more about your garden tours.
Thanks Denise. On garden tours, I work for an Australian garden tourism specialist called Ross Garden Tours. I take a few tours every year, which is great fun , and I also edit our blog called Postcards, which features stories (and gorgeous pix!) on gardens, and plants and our favourite hotels and whatever else we feel we just have to share. Have a look and leave me a comment! http://blog.rosstours.com/