Flowers, Weeds and Benji

I have often said that I like looking at photographs and the real closeness to actual   flowers. I like Coleus and grew them for a while until the jinx hit and things I bought and planted just died.. It became so serious that I really felt I should just buy plants, take them home and throw them in the bin to save all the trauma. I didn’t of course, but it was a thought. On the subject of plants and flowers one of the largest retailers in the country, and many others, are under fire from the State and Federal- Governments for selling what had been determined as an invasive weed. This will include many other garden centres as well. It is a very pretty flower, but it comes from South Africa and no one is sure how it got to Australia. The plant is called ” Gazinia” and it is sold in many places across South Australia. I don’t have any but I have taken quite a few photographs of the flowers. But it seems  they grow like wildfire and are a threats to the  lands of the farming industry. We had the same problem  with a Weed called Salvation Jane – but better known in South Australia as Patterson’s Curse. and  we are still trying to control it – without a lot of success. Salvation Jane was brought to Australia by Jane Patterson as seeds to plant in her garden.  She brought the first seeds from Europe to beautify a garden, and then could only watch helplessly as the weed infested previously productive pastures for many miles around.   Paterson’s curse is now a dominant broadleaf pasture weed through much of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania and also infests native grasslands, heathlands, and woodlands. We did the same in Scotland. The wealthy and rich landowners brought a plant  from Northern Europe to Scotland. It was used as a ornamental plant to line the driveways up to their mansions.  It  got out of control and spread but no one was too concerned because the they believed the snow and ice of the Scottish winter would take care of it. What they didn’t know ( nor did we for nearly a century) is that the plant has its own internal system in its sap for protecting it for such an event. It thrived the winter and when the sun came out it was ready to take off like a rocket covering  great areas of land before it was finally brought under control at the end of WW2. It is a most beautiful plant/bush and I love it – but there are islands in the North of Scotland where the plant is forbidden and pretty hefty fines.

What is the bush? Some may recognise the bush on my left – the Rhododendron Ponticum. It won’t grow in South Australia – I know because I tried and although I covered it with love and kindness it died. Of course, then I didn’t know about the problems it caused. I would never do the same again. It grows very well in New South and my sister lived  not far from Orlinda Research Garden and she had Rhododendron in her garden.

Change of subject:

I had Benji down at the Wetlands this afternoon. I saw three of the swans for a little while, then they seemed to in ( to wherever they go) and we never saw them again. Still it was a Reasonable afternoon and we enjoyed our walk. It made up for me abandoning the walk due to the  cold this morning.  I did take him out at 6an as usual but even with heavy jacket and gloves I was still cold – I mean very cold – 2c kind of cold, so I gave up and came home.  It had warmed up some so we went for a wander. I have been invited over to my son’s place for dinner tonight

Interesting discovery. Sometimes I forget things so these days I look up the name of the thing on the computer.  I used to ask Annabell now I have to find what  I want on line now.  It’s a bit of a pain and much slower  :o)  I have watched some of the Olympics – thought the opening ceremony was interesting but a bit too much to take it all in and the pouring rain didn’t help and I felt that actually getting finally to the cauldron to light was too drawn out with too many  handovers. I expect I’ll watch some but not a lot..