Cairns Botanical Gardens

I took some photos of plants in the Cairns Botanical Gardens. This is a wet tropical garden. It has some of the most stunning plants and flowers I've ever seen. If you're ever in Cairns, make sure you visit this botanical garden.

Today's Flowers

Melaleuca diosmatifolia (Rosy honey myrtle) or Rosy Paperbark is a small woody shrub which can reach 2.5 metres in height. It has narrow linear leaves and dense terminal spikes of most ornamental pale to deep mauve flowers. It is native of woodlands in New South Wales (Sydney area) to SE Queensland. I have quite a few of these in the garden although they are still quite small, they begin to have these beautiful flowers. When they flower which can be several time during the year, they are a sight to behold. I will try to post pictures when the plant is a bit bigger and produces more flowers. It is so very very pretty.

Night Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) - as the name suggests flowers at night releasing the most wonderful fragrance which wafts through the window into your bedroom. If you could bottle this fragrance, I think, you would be a millonaire. The flower itself is trumpet shaped and very small, but there are literally thousands of these on a large plant which has a bushy habit, and at night every flower opens to release that gorgeous perfume.

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TODAY'S FLOWERS TEAM
LUIZ SANTILLI JR. - DENISE GULLICKSON -

LAERTE PUPO - DENISE B. CASTRO

Red Dragon Fruit Flower (Pitaya)

This is the spectacular flower of the Red Dragon Fruit or Pitaya which has just recently flowered in my courtyard. It is a night flowering cactus. The fruit has highly ornamental pink skin & red flesh fruit containing numerous small black seeds. Fruit can be up to 1kg with a melon like flavour. It is a native to Mexico and Central and South America, but it is also widely cultivated in South East Asia. In recent times, this fruit can now be often found at fruit and vegetable shops and supermarkets in Australia. Having said that though, it is best when grown in your own garden as the fruit when it is fully ripe splits open revealing the flesh inside, which is a sign that it is sweet and ready to eat. Generally when you buy them, they are a disappointment as the fruit has not split open and therefore is not ripe enough to enjoy its full and delicious flavour. Below is a picture of the fruit.

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Pampas Grass - Today's Flowers

This is a beautiful Pampas Grass growing in the neighbour's garden. It was flowering profusely three weeks ago. It was a real show.

Click on images to enlarge and enjoy these spectacular flower heads of Pampas Grass.

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Chestnuts in the Garden

I have one Chestnut tree in the garden. It is about 3.5 meters tall and this year it has had quite a few nuts, about 1.5 kilos. The sub-tropics is not really the most ideal climate to grow chestnut trees as it is too wet and too hot. But it is a little bit of fun to have one in the garden. Chestnuts are really popular in the Northern Hemisphere like Europe and North America, where I can remember eating them hot bought from a street vendor during the colder months.

The Chestnut tree (Castanea) belongs to the same Fagaceae family as the Oak and Beech trees. There are four main species, commonly known as European, Chinese, Japanese and American Chestnuts[5]:
Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) (also called "Spanish Chestnut" in the US) is the only species of European Chestnut.
Asiatic Chestnut species comprise Castanea crenata (Japanese Chestnut), Castanea mollissima (Chinese Chestnut), Castanea davidii (China), Castanea henryl (Chinese chinkapin, also called Henry's Chestnut – China) and Castanea seguinii (also called Seguin's Chestnut - China).
American species include Castanea dentata (American Chestnut - Eastern states), Castanea pumila (American- or Allegheny Chinkapin, also known as "Dwarf Chestnut" - Eastern states), Castanea alnifolia (Southern states), Castanea ashei (Southern states), Castanea floridana (Southern states) and Castanea paupispina (Southern states).[6][7]

Chestnuts should not be confused with either Horse Chestnuts (genus Aesculus), or Water Chestnut (family Cyperaceae); these are unrelated to Castanea and are named for producing nuts of similar appearance but of no notable edibility in the case of the former, and tubers of similar taste from an aquatic herbaceous plant in the case of the latter.[8][9] Other trees commonly mistaken for the Chestnut tree are the Chestnut Oak (Fagaceae Quercus prinus) and the American Beech (Fagus grandifolia).[10][11]The chestnut (Castanea) belongs to the same family of trees as oak and beech trees. There are four main varieties; commonly known as European, Chinese, Japanese and American chestnuts. Most of the major varieties in Australia are hybrids of Castanea Sativa (European chestnut).

Chestnuts have been grown in Australia for over 150 years. The first recorded plantings of chestnut trees in Australia were in the 1850s and 1860s during the gold rush. Some of those trees are still growing today, and other trees in northern Victoria brought in from Europe are around 120 years old and up to 60 metes tall.

Commercial plantings have occurred in the last twenty five years or so. The south west of Western Australia is very suitable for the growth of chestnuts as they need cold winter temperatures and warm to hot summers. Chestnuts have been part of the staple diet of Southern Europe, Turkey and Asia for centuries, and are now slowly gaining popularity in Australia.

The texture of a cooked chestnut is similar to a firm baked potato (quite unlike other nuts which are crunchy), and it has a sweet nutty flavour. Until the introduction of the potato, the chestnut was a major source of complex carbohydrate in Europe.
Alexander the Great and the Romans planted chestnuts as they went across Europe on their various campaigns.

Today's Flowers - Banksia Robur or Swamp Banksia

Thank you Luiz Santilli for having me as Guest today.

Few plants are as charming and striking as this beautiful banksia, which grows in my garden. This is a uniquely Australian plant. The Swamp Banksia as the name suggests is at home in damp and swampy areas. The flower spikes grow to around 18cm long starting as blue-green, changing to a gold colour and then to a rich rusty-brown. The plant flowers for long periods of the year from summer to winter preferring full sun for maximum flower development. The large serrated leaves grow up to 30cm long and 8cm wide and are a deep glossy green. It attracts lots of birds which feed on the flowers.

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Skywatch Friday - Full Moon

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