AGAPANTHUS

Agapanthus praecox (Common Agapanthus, Blue Lily, African Lily, or Lily of the Nile) is a native of Natal and Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Local names for this species include agapant, bloulelie, isicakathi and ubani. Most of the cultivated plants of the genus Agapanthus are hybrids or cultivars of this species. The plant is reportedly naturalised in Great Britain, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Eritrea, Ethiopia, St. Helena, Victoria, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and Tristan da Cunha.

Agapanthus praecox subspecies orientalis (shown here) occurs in Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal. It has up to 20 poisonous, strap-like leaves per plant which are arching and are not leathery. These range in length from 20 to 70 cm long and 3 to 5 cm wide. Flower colour ranges from various shades of blue to white. Shiny black seeds are produced in three-sided capsules. These have perianth segments which are less than 50 mm in length.

Agapanthus praecox subsp. orientalis is highly regarded for being tough in sun and heat, long-flowering, and is a favourite for many councils in Australia for the landscaping of roads and other public areas which do not get watered. The plant is still widely planted but in some areas it is considered a weed, and planting has been discontinued, although it is not generally regarded as highly invasive. In Melbourne these plants grow luxuriantly and bloom for several weeks around Christmas. They are a common garden plant, but are also planted on nature reserves and verges along roads.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

IN CHURCH

A moment of quiet reflection in the deserted church.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

BRICK VENEER

A typical 1950s suburban blond brick veneer home in Thornbury, a northern Melbourne suburb. Many of these have been lovingly restored, and if one is lucky looking inside is like entering into a time machine, with period furniture, furnishings, appliances and wall decoration art.

The veneer part refers to the bricks that are built outside, onto a hardwood timber frame. Inside, plasterboards are attached to the timber and are then painted. The roof is of terracotta tiles. The windows typically are metal framed onto which glass is attached with putty.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

LOCKED OUT!

Well, you painted the town red last night, so no use looking like that now... 

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

DUSK

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DO NOT DISTURB!

A rather rude awakening for this little fellow who was enjoying a nap in the early morning Spring sunshine. He went back to sleep immediately after his photo shoot...

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

EVENING WALK

A leisurely walk on a mellow Autumn evening as the sun goes down in suburban Melbourne.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

STREET ART

A very special painted fence in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. The mansion in the background is a grand old Victorian home that dominates the hill.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 176 - TAMARISK

The genus Tamarix (tamarisk, salt cedar) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may have referred to the Tamaris River in Hispania Tarraconensis (Spain).

They are evergreen or deciduous shrubs or trees growing to 1–18 m in height and forming dense thickets. The largest, Tamarix aphylla, is an evergreen tree that can grow to 18 m tall. They usually grow on saline soils, tolerating up to 15,000 ppm soluble salt and can also tolerate alkaline conditions. Tamarisks are characterised by slender branches and grey-green foliage. The bark of young branches is smooth and reddish brown. As the plants age, the bark becomes bluish-purple, ridged and furrowed. The leaves are scale-like, 1–2 mm long, and overlap each other along the stem. They are often encrusted with salt secretions. The pink to white flowers appear in dense masses on 5–10 cm long spikes at branch tips from March to September, though some species (e.g. T. aphylla) tend to flower during the winter.

Illustrated here is a hybrid of the species Tamarix chinensis.  Tamarix chinensis is a species of tamarisk known by the common names five-stamen tamarisk and Chinese tamarisk or saltcedar. It is native to China and Korea, and it is known in many other parts of the world as an introduced species and sometimes an invasive noxious weed. It easily inhabits moist habitat with saline soils. It may grow as a tree with a single trunk or as a shrub with several spreading erect branches reaching 6 metres or more in maximum height. It has been known to reach 12 metres.

It has reddish, brown, or black bark. The small, multibranched twigs are covered in small lance-shaped, scale-like leaves which are no more than about 3 mm long. The inflorescence is a dense raceme of flowers a few cm long. Each fragrant flower has five petals which are usually pink but range from white to red. This tamarisk can hybridise with Tamarix parviflora. T. ramosissima may be treated in synonymy or as a separate species.

It has become an aggressive invader of wildlands in the southwestern United States, where it was once planted as an ornamental plant. It reproduces vegetatively from its roots and also from its foliage if it happens to be covered by soil, as in sediment-rich flooding. It also reproduces by its seed, which are tiny and tufted with hairs, easily dispersing on the wind. Despite its reputation as a noxious weed, the tree can be useful for wood, in honey production, and as a nesting site for various birds. In its native habitat in China the plant forms thickets that act as useful barriers on the margins of waterways, including saline ocean shores.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

ROSE TIME BEGINS

Rose time has begun in Melbourne, a little late this year, but nevertheless quite spectacularly in this case!

Rosa banksiae, common names Lady Banks' rose, or just Banks' rose, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to central and western China, in the provinces of Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Yunnan, at altitudes of 500–2,200 m.

It is a scrambling shrubby vine growing vigorously to 6 m tall. Unlike most roses, it is practically thornless, though it may bear some prickles up to 5 mm long, particularly on stout, strong shoots. The leaves are evergreen, 4–6 cm long, with three to five (rarely seven) leaflets 2–5 cm long with a serrated margin. The flowers are small, 1.5-2.5 cm diameter, white or pale yellow. It is amongst the earliest flowering of all roses, usually appearing during May in the northern hemisphere, though cold weather can delay flowering. All Lady Banks' roses are said to smell of violets to varying degrees. The rose is named after Lady Banks, the wife of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks.

Rosa banksiae has likely been grown in the gardens of China for hundreds of years. The species was introduced to Europe by William Kerr, who had been sent on a plant-hunting expedition by Sir Joseph Banks. He bought the first Lady Banks' Rose, subsequently named the white Lady Banks (R. banksiae var. banksiae) from the famous Fa Tee nursery in 1807. A number of other forms were subsequently discovered growing in China, including R. banksiae var. normalis, and R. banksiae 'Lutea', the yellow Lady Banks' rose (brought to Europe in 1824 by J. D. Parks). This cultivar has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

WILD WEATHER

Melbourne has a reputation for changeable weather and extremes of meteorological conditions. This year, our Spring has been late in arriving, relatively cool and wet. Last week we had a couple of days of good weather as you can see from the first shot in the Darebin Parklands.

Last Sunday wild, windy weather belted Victoria and Melbourne, pulling thousands of trees from the ground and slamming them across roads and into homes and cars. A woman, believed to be in her 50s, was killed when the extreme wind storm cause a tree to rip out from the ground and come crashing into her property in Millgrove in Melbourne's east.

In all, the wind brought down 2000 trees and at least 400 power lines, damaged dozens of homes and turned a house fire in Aspendale Gardens into a dangerous blaze that threatened nearby properties. The fierce winds also caused traffic chaos in the air and on the ground and sucked the power from about 83,000 properties, mainly in Melbourne's outer east. AusNet Services had 75 staff working through the night and called in dozens of extra workers on the field on Monday morning but 42,400 homes are still without power.

A tree in our front yard lost a big limb as you can see in the second photo, and further up in our neighbourhood in Rossmoyne St in Thornbury a tree came down as you can see in the third photo (by Mathew Lynn). Rain followed the windy conditions and fortunately that stopped the wild weather...

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

AGAVES IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

Agave attenuata is a species of agave in the Asparagaceae family, sometimes known as the "lion's tail," "swan's neck," or "foxtail" for its development of a curved stem, unusual among agaves. Native to the plateau of the State of Jalisco in central Mexico, as one of the unarmed agaves, it is popular as an ornamental plant in gardens in many other places. It is reportedly naturalised in Madeira and Libya.

The stems typically range from 50 to 150 cm in length, and eventually old leaves fall off, leaving them visible. The leaves are ovate-acuminate, 50–70 cm long and 12–16 cm wide, pale in colour, ranging from a light gray to a light yellowish green. There are no teeth, nor terminal spines, although the leaves taper to points that fray with age.

The inflorescence is a dense raceme 2.5 to 3 meters high, with greenish-yellow flowers. Specimens were sent to Kew by the explorer Galeotti in 1834, from an unspecified location in central Mexico. More recent study has reported it from Jalisco east to Mexico, in small colonies at elevations of 1,900 to 2,500 meters, but there have been few sightings, suggesting this agave is rare in the wild.

In cultivation, Agave attenuata is said to prefer relatively moist loamy soil, although it can cope with poor soil and dry conditions. It should be protected from direct sunlight in summer and from long periods of frost. It grows extremely well in Melbourne and is very common in gardens. Flowering specimens are also commonly seen, such as this magnificent specimen in a neighbour's house. After flowering the flower spike will die but suckers from the new plant will form at the bottom of the old plant meaning it will continue to grow in the garden. The plant forms seeds readily so could also be grown readily from seed.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

SUBURBAN SHOP MURAL

This neighbourhood milk bar and corner shop is found in Thornbury and close to a primary school. The mural that adorns the side wall is certainly eye-catching and on closer inspection seems to have been drawn so as to appeal to the young customers from the nearby school...

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

CHURCH OF ST GEORGE, THORNBURY

The Holy Church of St. George, situated at 66 St. David St, Thornbury, Vic. 3071, is a Greek Orthodox Church. Commencing its services in the inner suburb of Carlton in 1956, The Holy Church of St. George served the religious needs of post-war Greek migrants of the area. Its first ten years saw church services held in a rented property belonging to the Methodist Church on the corner of Lygon & Queensberry streets Carlton, with plans to move into a permanent residence later on.

The Holy Church of St. George relocated to Thornbury in 1966. Initially operating from the corner of Martin and Armadale Streets, the church in Thornbury later relocated to its current site at 66 St. David St, which was purchased in the 1970s. Today it still serves local parishioners every week.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 88 - PURPLE-LEAF PLUM

Prunus cerasifera, or the purple leaf plum is a small deciduous tree commonly planted for its deep reddish-purple leaves and white/pale pink flowers that are among the first to appear in spring. Although it is short lived, it is fast growing and great for use as a specimen or shade tree.

It is in the Rosaceae family, and this like many of the stone fruits are part of the Prunus genus. Purple leaf plum grows to approximately 4-6 m tall and wide at maturity, and has a rounded shape. It should be planted in a location with full sun. The leaves will turn green if grown in the shade. Most cultivars for sale have the reddish-purple leaves, there are ones with green foliage also available.

Flowers are small, fragrant and either white or pale pink. Purple leaf plum is one of the first trees to flower in the spring, with the blossoms appearing before the leaves. Although the fruits are small at only 3 cm, they are edible. These little gems can be yellow, purple, or red, depending on the cultivar chosen. Birds love to eat these fruits off the tree, too.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.