Today I went for a five kilometre walk around the neighbourhood and not for the first time it struck me what a beautiful place is Tamborine Mountain in spring. Flowers are on display everywhere and our upland subtropical climate means we can grow plants from all over the world. This gives us colour throughout the year – but it’s in spring that north meets south and east meets west because for this brief period when the southern hemisphere winter gives way to the warmer temperatures of early summer you can see daffodils and freesias blooming alongside bougainvillea and tibouchina. With azaleas nicely taking up the middle ground! It’s a riot!
So, having had my camera ever at the ready, I offer you this palette of floral spring colour. All the shots were taken along the way – by the footpath or in the sections of private gardens that abut the road, or on waste ground, nature strips, hedgerows and farm fields. All I had to do was “click”!
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- Abutilon
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- A common weed – Ageratum
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- This good old faithful Alphonse Anderson flowers well every year – for years now
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- Alstroemeria
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- Alyssum
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- White azalea
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- Bedding begonia
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- Bougainvillea making an early appearance
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- A little white rambling rose, blooming early
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- Bryophyllum – grows wild everywhere
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- Young callistemon flower
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- Canassia lily
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- Carolina jasmine
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- Clover covering the meadows and the nature strips – full of bees
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- A fine show of cosmos
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- Crataegus
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- Crucifix orchid near the cemetery
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- A common old dandelion glowing in the grass
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- Dianthus and petunias
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- Pink dianthus
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- Eranthemum nervosum
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- The erythrina (Coral Tree) flowers are almost finished and leaves are appearing
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- Freesias
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- Huge heads of gazania
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- More gazanias
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- The native vine Geitonoplesium – a clumsy name for a dainty flower
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- A geranium blooming alone in a patch of weeds
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- Grevillea “Dusky Pink” – it flowers all year
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- The first hibiscus are starting to appear
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- Jasmine is everywhere, like a scented shawl flung over the hedgerows
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- Lantana montevidensis
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- The last of the camellias are still on the bushes
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- I never CAN remember the name of this flower – anyone enlighten me?
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- Often ignored, the modest flower of the native lomandra
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- Magnolia x soulangeana varieties are always the first magnolias to flower
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- Another azalea
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- A rather blurred shot of this shy little succulent
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- Mesembryanthemums not yet open
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- Nasturtiums sprawl over gardens and wasteground
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- The native raspberry promises fruit to come
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- Rather poor shot of one of our worst but most decorative weeds – Ochna serrulata
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- Another mesembryanthemum-type succulent starts to bloom
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- Osteospermum daisies are everywhere
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- The delicate flower of a begonia
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- Another camellia – though they are all finished now
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- Pansies – the favourites of spring
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- Paulownia flower
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- Red geranium
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- Penstemon
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- Photinia – not often seen flowering because they are grown as hedges and throughly clipped
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- A pretty pink frilly azalea
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- The fading flowers of Pittosporum undulatum
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- Primulas
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- Another serious weed that puts on a good show – privet
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- Ornamental prunus
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- Raphiolepis (Indian Hawthorn)
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- The rhododendrons are starting to appear
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- Rocket flowers
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- This Rondeletia bush is always busy with birds and bees
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- Salvia
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- Miniature azalea
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- Snapdragons for a spring show
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- More snapdragons
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- This solanum is a straggling plant but pretty when in flower
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- Streptosolon jamesonii
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- A succulent bush!
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- One of the lovely telopeas (or waratahs) on a small but floriferous tree tree
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- Another weed – Thunbegia alata or Black-eyed Susan – it clambers everywhere in wild profusion
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- The tibouchinas flower in spring and autumn
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- White tradescantia – another pretty weed
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- I nevder HAVE been able to learn the name of this shrub – and I’ve only found two of them on the mountain
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- I have absolutely no idea what this is
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- Viburnum flowers just beginning to open
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- The common old vinca – though it has a new name now
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- A delicate spray of wistaria – which is draped over fences and pergolas from one end of the mountain to the other
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- Pink climbing geranium and Erigeron daisy makes a pretty partnership
Tamborine Dreaming 