BLOOMING BEAUTIFUL

Spring has been a pretty dull affair here in our suburb of Brisbane.

No decent rain for ages means lawns everywhere are brown unless devoted watering has taken place.

But as we move into November pops of purple appear all over Brisbane as the lovely Jacarandas burst into flower.

On Sunday the weather was great for an outing along the river to see some of these lovely trees around the city.

As usual we used the City Cat ferries to view the trees along the river.

There were plenty to see lining the river all the way into the city.

I'm so glad parks planners had the foresight to plant these lovely trees in all the parks.

The really good specimens have dropped all their leaves in the preceding weeks and are completely covered with flowers.

We moved from the ferry to walk along the riverside walkway under the trees?

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the day.

What a delightful place. When I win the lottery I might buy one of these units !

We found a lovely spot along our walk for lunch.

Breezes from the river kept the temperature pleasant and we could have sat there for quite a while but there were more trees to see on the other side of the river so we moved on...... 

And there were plenty there too.

People were out everywhere enjoying the weather.

Some doing some very odd activities !

Then it was time for a final coffee before setting out for home.

Another lovely day in our lovely city.

Cheers !

ON A MISSION - PART TWO

My mission today was to collect some Jacaranda seeds to send to my blogging pal Tom in Angola.

A few weeks ago I sent him some Ponciana seeds and blogged about it here.

 

Jacarandas produce lots of seeds but I had forgotten that the seeds were so high in the tree !

 

I had also forgotten that when they are ready the seed pods burst open and the seeds float away on the breeze !

 

Everywhere I looked the pods were open and the seeds were gone !!

High up in the tree I could spy a few green pods which hadn't opened yet but they would be very difficult to get at.

 

Like this one .

 



 

 so I began to search the ground under the trees for seed pods to take home.

 

 

It was obvious that the seeds were long gone from these ones.

The pods spring open with quite a lot of force and the seeds are expelled.

 

 

You can see the centre rib where they are attached.

 

These seed pods are tough - brittle and hard. I had to use a knife to prise them open - and I looked through all the ones I had brought home, ever hopeful that there would be some seeds still clinging inside..

 

 

I found a couple still attached to the pod.



See the little thin membrane attached to them?

It acts as a wing so that they fly away on the breeze.

 



 

Two seeds of questionable quality.

 

There were now three pods left but I was very hopeful as two were only just cracked open and one was completely closed.

 

 

One was empty but the next one had plenty of seeds inside

The last one took quite a bit to get it open as it was completely sealed up tight.

 

I cut away the edge then inserted a knife to prise it open a bit

 

Finally the pod snapped open and there they were !

 

Lots of them! Looking healthy too !

 



I've planted a couple to test them out.

The rest have been placed in a card addressed to Tom's brother in Germany who will, I hope, send them on to Tom in his next parcel.

It will be great to see these trees enhancing the resort that Tom is working hard to build.

Let's hope they like the climate.

 

Update 

 

Below are some photos I took today of the Ponciana seedling I planted a month ago.

 

 

 There are five of them.

Anyone want a Ponciana tree???



YES, IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

Yes, it's that time of year again.



The time when the beautiful Jacarandas all over Brisbane

burst into glorious purple bloom.

 

The ones above are on a golf club where they are able to water the fairways from the large dams they have put in for that purpose.

The rest are doing their best to make up for the lack of green grass as we haven't had a drop of rain since July.

 

Beautiful aren't they?

Cheers.