Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day

Before visiting my mother, I spent some time at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens (1 hour and 40 minutes, according to my son who was waiting in the car). There are some amazing trees in the gardens, but not many people on this cold and showery day. Quite a few of the trees are listed on the National Trust's register of significant trees.

Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii)
The trunk looks like a giant elephant's foot.

Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus)
Looks small in the photo but is a giant tree.

Black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica)
Beautiful autumn colour. This one was planted by the US Marine Corps to mark the time they spent in Ballarat in 1943.

Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Part of the garden's "Sequoiadendron Avenue" planted between 1863 and 1874. It is difficult to photograph such huge trees.

Echeveria x imbricata making a colourful garden bed:

The fernery would be lovely on a hot day:

A tiny orange fungus, possibly Jafneadelphus ferrugineus:

My third botanic garden in eight days!

2 comments:

Dee said...

I adore the texture on the Bunya pine!
I love your beautiful photo of the Echeveria x imbricata. It is glowing.

kaiteM said...

That elephant's foot is quite extraordinary. Lovely to see some of those big trees, we have a few similar out at Orange Cook Park.
Next time tell your son to bring his knitting!