Wishing you all a very merry Christmas.
There's a Mistletoebird?
The latest bird to be identified in our garden is indeed a mistletoe bird. I had no idea this bird existed until my husband took an early morning snapshot of it. Unfortunately, his image was not clear enough to post, but was good enough as a means of identification.
As is always the case, one thing leads to another. More research on the mistletoebird revealed that it is also known as the flowerpecker bird and is native to most of Australia. It feeds on insects and berries, especially the fruit of the mistletoe. Now the mistletoe is a parasitic plant i.e. it attaches itself to shrubs and trees, and I have seen a strange mass hanging from one of our large gum trees. On closer inspection, not from a ladder but using binoculars with both feet firmly on the ground, it is definitely mistletoe. A great discovery and apt for this time of year.
A search on the internet produced this image of a mistletoebird:
By JKDw (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
As is always the case, one thing leads to another. More research on the mistletoebird revealed that it is also known as the flowerpecker bird and is native to most of Australia. It feeds on insects and berries, especially the fruit of the mistletoe. Now the mistletoe is a parasitic plant i.e. it attaches itself to shrubs and trees, and I have seen a strange mass hanging from one of our large gum trees. On closer inspection, not from a ladder but using binoculars with both feet firmly on the ground, it is definitely mistletoe. A great discovery and apt for this time of year.
Today from the Orchard and Vegetable Patch
These plums had fallen from the tree. They are very small (approximately 20mm each), I think due to the tree not being pruned adequately and the lack of watering. However, tiny the plums may be, but the taste is there.
I also harvested a green capsicum. It was juicy and flavoursome. Hopefully when the others turn red they will taste just as good.
The roma tomatoes are ripening. It won't be long before they are picked and eaten, unlike the other tomato plant that has lots of flowers but, as yet, no fruit.
I also harvested a green capsicum. It was juicy and flavoursome. Hopefully when the others turn red they will taste just as good.
The roma tomatoes are ripening. It won't be long before they are picked and eaten, unlike the other tomato plant that has lots of flowers but, as yet, no fruit.
Mystery Iris Identified
Another plant has flowered and though I knew it was an iris I did not know its name. Now, thanks to browsing through images on another blog Diary of a Suburban Gardener, I have identified this as a large wild iris or fairy iris (dietes grandiflora).
According to Wikipedia this iris is a native of South Africa and flowers in abundance in summer, especially after rain. It loves full sun or dappled shade and is also frost and drought hardy: a perfect plant for my garden. Sadly, in some states of Australia, it is considered an environmental weed.
Flowering in the Garden Today - African Daisy
The osteospermums, better known as African daisies, are coming into flower again. All except one of the ten plants growing in my garden were given to me by a neighbour and I'm happy to see they are thriving. In full sun until late afternoon they are fed and watered regularly. Spent flower heads are removed to promote flowering.
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| Osteospermum (syn.Dimorphotheca) Shadow Red |
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| This plant has only one flower so far. |
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| Lots of buds on this one. |
A Wattle, Seed Pods and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
Noisy sulphur-crested cockatoos have taken a liking to this wattle. The tree is full of seed pods, so that would explain their presence usually in the morning and late afternoon. Sometimes they are joined by galahs, but on this occasion it was just the cockatoos.
Sweet Briar Rose - A Relic of the Goldrush
Looking for inspiration for my first blog post I decided to take a stroll around the garden. Not long into my walk, I spied a little pink flower that I hadn't noticed previously. There, nestled among the bottle brushes and blocked from view by a prickly
kangaroo thorn, was a rose bush: a sweet briar rose.
Introduced to Australia in the early years of European settlement, this rose bush is now considered a weed, due to its ability to clump and spread quickly. Its seeds are spread by animals and often lie dormant in the soil until disturbed.
However, this weed has historical significance. Back in the 19th century, scurvy, a disease caused by the lack of Vitamin C, was still prevalent. Most of us associate scurvy with sailors who did not have access to fresh fruit and vegetables on long sea voyages, but scurvy also afflicted those on land.
Briar roses, hardy and good hedging plants, were often planted around homesteads. They were also popular as ornamentals and their berries (hips) were considered a good source of Vitamin C, which could be eaten raw, but were usually made into a syrup.
Miners may have planted these roses around gold diggings to augment their poor diets to protect themselves against scurvy. I haven't found any articles to support this, but have read descriptions of old cemeteries and house sites with briar roses still growing in the grounds. This is often explained by other roses reverting to root stock, but I like to think otherwise.
My garden was once part of gold diggings back in the 1850s when thousands of tents and ramshackle buildings covered the hills. It would have been an ugly sight, denuded of vegetation, and, in my imagination, lacking in colour except, perhaps, for the pale pink flowers of the roses. Therefore, I look upon my briar rose, not as the result of random animal droppings, though this may be the case, but as a piece of living history: a pretty relic of the gold rush.
Introduced to Australia in the early years of European settlement, this rose bush is now considered a weed, due to its ability to clump and spread quickly. Its seeds are spread by animals and often lie dormant in the soil until disturbed.
However, this weed has historical significance. Back in the 19th century, scurvy, a disease caused by the lack of Vitamin C, was still prevalent. Most of us associate scurvy with sailors who did not have access to fresh fruit and vegetables on long sea voyages, but scurvy also afflicted those on land.
Briar roses, hardy and good hedging plants, were often planted around homesteads. They were also popular as ornamentals and their berries (hips) were considered a good source of Vitamin C, which could be eaten raw, but were usually made into a syrup.
Miners may have planted these roses around gold diggings to augment their poor diets to protect themselves against scurvy. I haven't found any articles to support this, but have read descriptions of old cemeteries and house sites with briar roses still growing in the grounds. This is often explained by other roses reverting to root stock, but I like to think otherwise.
My garden was once part of gold diggings back in the 1850s when thousands of tents and ramshackle buildings covered the hills. It would have been an ugly sight, denuded of vegetation, and, in my imagination, lacking in colour except, perhaps, for the pale pink flowers of the roses. Therefore, I look upon my briar rose, not as the result of random animal droppings, though this may be the case, but as a piece of living history: a pretty relic of the gold rush.
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