The 10-Year Rewind – Part 12 – Gone Troppo

Every day this month I am looking back on the 10 years since I started this blog in June, 2008. Part 12 is this one — Gone Troppo — from January 2010, another traveller's tale, this time from one of our favourite destinations, Darwin in the Northern Territory. We've been there three times and would love to go there again.

January's almost half done and not a single blog posting! Well, this marathon bunch of holiday snapz will make up for that. Pammy and I have just got back from a week of foolish fun spent paddling about in the middle of the wet season in Darwin, in tropical far northern Australia. To cut a long story short, we want to go back! But as this is a long photographic story, it's on with the pix (as always, click on the photos to make them bigger) ...

Typical southern tourist me, wearing the new Panama hat Pammy gave me for Christmas, posing under a variegated pandanus tree. And that was one of the themes of this holiday. "You can't grow these in Sydney, Jamie, so if you like them you'll just have to come back for another visit, won't you?" Yes, mam.

More forbidden delights – the Bismarckia palm. These stately grey-leaved palms are everywhere in Darwin.

It's a good thing these cannonball trees aren't everywhere, as they're dangerous to stand under. This one is in the Botanic gardens and it's the only one we saw. It's a big thing, at least 25m tall.

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The cannonball fruit are like small coconuts and they are said to fall from the tree at any time, clonking passers-by on the head in the process. It's not an Aussie tree – it's a native of Guyana in South America, but it thrives in Darwin's tropical climate. Fascinating weirdo.

These tall, thin Indian Mast Trees are another import which are everywhere in Darwin. Growing to about 10m tall, they're just a metre or so in width, with elegant droopy green foliage. First time you see one you tap your partner on the shoulder and say "oh look at those".

However, my gardening discoveries weren't all of the "you can't grow these at home in Sydney" variety. We visited Jenny's orchid garden in Howard Springs where countless numbers of both bromeliads and orchids were on display, and some of these bromeliads could probably be grown in my garden (hopefully, fingers crossed, maybe).

Bromeliad flowers are nothing if not varied, and at times outrageous.

By comparison to the spotty space alien before, this yellow fellow is almost plain.

Ornamental gingers were in bloom everywhere. While I have seen many photos of beehive gingers before, none of them prepared me for the fact that the blooms poke up just a couple of inches above ground level. I had always envisaged these as being atop stately stalks.

This is another ornamental ginger, not sure what sort, but it's useful to include just because it shows how varied ginger blooms can be in both colour and form.

The heliconias were in bloom too, and like the gingers there are many colours and forms on show. This is the popular and striking crab claw heliconia.

Many other heliconias look more like this, in an assortment of colours, often red, orange or yellow, or a combo of any of these colours.

Foliage plants are the backbone of tropical gardens, and these crotons seem to do a lot of the technicolor heavy lifting in many tropical gardens.

Not sure what these spotty people are called, but they're pretty typical of many foliage plants here, which wouldn't dare limit themselves to just plain green.

One vivid exception to this 'not just green' rule is the ornamental sweet potato, a fast-growing groundcover that is so tough that it's used to fill in traffic islands on highways. Just looking at it is like enjoying a cool drink.

Of course palms are everywhere, and gardeners in Darwin seem smitten with these red-stalked beauties known as lipstick palms, for obvious reasons. And no, you can't grow them in Sydney, Jamie.

Speaking of Sydney gardeners on holidays, here is me in my Panama hat about to smile, but not quite managing to, while visiting Jenny's orchid garden. As well as the bromeliads pictured above, this remarkable spot is, of course, filled with orchids in bloom. 

In many sections organised simply into a series of tennis-court-sized enclosures, Jenny's orchids are hung in long rows of wire baskets, not planted into soil of any sort.

Everywhere you wander the orchids are festooned with air plants, tillandsias, better known as Old Man's Beards or Spanish Moss. Makes a nice, spooky forest, it does. 

The variety of orchids here is amazing, but they don't all bloom at once. Many plants were about to come into bloom, or had obviously finished blooming a few weeks ago. They just bloom when they want to bloom, and with the sheer number of plants grown here there was no shortage of pretty things to see, such as this one.

Or this one...

Or this one...

Or this one.

Some orchids were growing in pots, but the pots were just of gravel. Drainage, excellent!

If I lived in the tropics, I think I'd grow a lot of orchids.

But if I lived in the tropics I'd also spend a lot of time enjoying the weather there, too. We arrived at the same time as a monsoonal low pressure system did, and for the first three days there it rained and rained and rained, and the wind blew the rain into sheets that fell sideways – no escape for pedestrians! The constant rain dropped the daily max down to 29°C (84°F) – nice and cool – and we settled in well. To get around, all you had to do was wait for a squall of rain to pass, then walk about on the rapidly drying footpaths in the 20 or so minutes between the next squall. I found wandering home from restaurants late at night in balmy 25°C (77°C) air the really addictive thing about tropical living. Loved it. 

Towards the end of our stay the weather returned to the more normal wet season pattern of a hot, humid day (max 32°C or 90°F) with a spectacular thunderstorm around sunset to cool things off. Those tropical cloud formations are a nice thing to behold with a cool drink in your hand.

And of course the big thing about the wet season is water. Lots of water. This is the Florence Falls in Litchfield National Park, about 2 hours drive from Darwin. The sound of the falls greets you from far off, but nothing quite prepares you for the sheer force of water roaring over the edge. It's such a shame that the word awesome has been hijacked to now mean anything fairly impressive to a bored teenager, as these falls really did produce a sense of awe in all who stood on the viewing platform, feeling thoroughly insignificant in the presence of Mother Nature running her bath.

And so that's our holiday snaps. Or should I say "Pam's holiday snaps". Most of these photos were taken by Pammy, and she did a great job capturing our holiday in the steamy tropical north. And we're going back for more, too!

The 10-Year Rewind – Part 4 – Going Green

Every day this month I am looking back on the 10 years since I started this blog in June, 2008. Part 4 is this one — Going Green — from December 2008, a photo extravaganza of every different colour of green I could find in our garden.  

Several people have inspired this little blog about all the different colours of green here in my garden. First of all, it was Patient Gardener's fine blog from last June – 'How Green is My Garden' – which showed so many shades of green in just one garden. I read that post just today, and I had already been thinking of doing something along the same lines, prompted by kind comments about my blog from northern hemisphere gardeners who are a bit short on greenery right now, as the cold whites, greys and blacks of winter have a grip on their garden's palette for the meantime. So, as it's a horribly windy day that isn't much fun for gardening here today, I whipped around with the camera instead, looking for shades of green.

First up, the lovely blue-green of a gum tree's leaves. This is our street tree, Eucalyptus lexucoxylon 'Rosea'. It bears pink flowers from April to October each year, and right now it's wearing a new flush of beautiful leaves. This blue-green is the colour which says 'Australia' to me most powerfully, so I thought I'd start with it, as it's the green I love best.

Another blue-green native plant, this is a groundcover form of the Cootamundra wattle, otherwise known as Acacia baileyana. Golden ball flowers in midwinter, delicate fern-like foliage the rest of the time.

And a silvery-green native, Correa alba, which teams with the Cootamundra wattle in the front garden.

Not all Aussie native plants are grey-green, silver-green or blue-green. This fresh, tropical green colour belongs to a native fern, the bird's nest fern, Asplenium australasicum.

This richer, darker, deeper green belongs to my bonsai Port Jackson fig, another native. These also make the biggest, widest-spreading park tree Sydney has to offer.

The tenacious little native violet loves its green shade, and makes its own contribution there, too.

Another Aussie native, this is the foliage of a lilly pilly, most of which are from rainforest zones. This is a specially bred hedging plant which reaches just 1m tall. Great cultivar name, though – 'Tiny Trev'.

Moving on from the natives to backyard foliage plants in general for a while. This is Ajuga reptans, a compact groundcover that does best in semi-shade here.

Rapidly covering the ugly brick wall of my neighbour's monstrous garage, this is the creeping fig, Ficus pumila. The pale leaves are the new season's growth.

The solid green of a geum's leaves are a classic shade of green.

Don't know what this plant is. Pam had it as a potted indoor office plant for a couple of years, but it grew straggly and so I planted it amongst the ferns. It has thrived there without misbehaving, or needing attention, for a couple of years, and it always looks interesting with its variegated green leaves.

My favourite hedging plant, Murraya paniculata, could have been included with the natives up at the start of this post, as it is listed as being native to Australia, as well as South-East Asia. The new growth streaking away from the hedge here is always the lightest green. Always seems a shame to have to trim it.

A festive New Zealander: Metrosideros, or the NZ Christmas Bush.

This green not only looks good, it smells wonderful, too. Well-named lemon-scented pelargoniums are one of the nicest plants to brush past, day or night.

This pelargonium has no scent, but it does produce pink flowers. However, its real appeal is light yellowy-green leaves, which seem to glow in the sunshine.

Succulents are an important part of the garden here, and their range of greens is not only pleasing but also varies as the seasons change. This is Crassula 'Campfire', which turns bright red in the winter cold.

Crassula argentea 'Coral' doesn't change colour through the year, but it's one of the larger plants in my succulent patch, and with its unusual hollow green leaves it always catches your attention.

Kalanchoe daigremontiana stands tall among the other potted succulents, its dramatic shape distracting you from noticing that its light green leaves are of a colour not found in any other plant in the garden. 

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' will, as its name suggests, flower in autumn. Until then, we're perfectly content to admire its foliage.

Sempervivums add little maroon tips to their pleasing rosettes of green.

The succulents are such a sea of varied foliage colours.

And finally, we arrive at the edible greens, of which there are many. Above, it's the classic evergreen goodness of bay leaves.

The newborn deliciousness of chervil, happiest in the semi-shade.

The golden oregano is never all that golden in December, but by the end of summer its colour does justice to its name. Right now it's just light green.

Rosemary is this same slightly silvery green all-year-round. Never changes, except for the appearance of the blue flowers in late winter and early spring.

Sage is a long way down the silvery-green end of the spectrum. Every year I cut it back in mid spring, after it finishes flowering. On the left are the new-growth leaves, although it's such a willing flowerer that a few late straggler blooms are continuing on on the right.

This is my neighbour Nick's grapevine, thriving as usual on his pergola of galvanised metal pipes. Nick's wife, Katarina, makes the nicest dolmades (meat and rice filling, Sparta-style) from the young new grapevine leaves. And in fact our neighbour on the other side, Soula, who is also Greek, makes terrific dolmades (rice and herb filling, Macedonia-style) from their grapevines, too.

What's a story about garden greens without a green bean plant included? Already started harvesting the Blue Lake beans, and very nice and crisp they are, too.

Green Jalapeno chillies, hotting up for summer.

It's hard to beat the glossy green of citrus trees. I'd grow them even if they didn't bear fruit (but thank goodness they do).

Lettuce comes in so many different greens I could have posted just about them.

Pretty curly parsley makes the best little green border you can find.

And silver beet merely asks what kind of green do you want? I had several to choose from, so I went for yellow-centred classic mid-green.

My hanging basket of strawberries was just a very pleasant green for a few months, but lately it has been pushed into the sidelines by the delicious red fruit which are coming on in a steady supply now. It's still a nice shade of green.

And finally, a green that I am hoping will soon turn to red. A Grosse Lisse tomato being coaxed slowly towards the salad bowl. Yes you can!

As I compiled this rather long parade of garden greens it has occurred to me that some winter-bound garden bloggers up north will probably just be calling out "boo, hiss, get off the stage". Sorry if I have rubbed anyone up the wrong way! 

However, my sister Helen has just flown over to Calgary in Canada, where things are around -20°C and getting colder, and there's definitely not much green happening outdoors. She's having a great time catching up with her daughter and her grandchildren, but she is missing a couple of things about home right now, so this blog is for you, sis!