I'd moved in loads of new soil which I've mostly spread out now. So with the rains we've been getting it seemed like a good time to start planting. There were lots of plants accumulated, as they tend to do, just from buying what looked great at the time but no time or room to plant out just yet. Some of them have been sitting in odd corners the past couple of years or more and looking a bit neglected. So with my garden area enlarged, armed with a shovel, fertiliser (slow release and monsoon tablets) I set out at first light.
Seeing that my main garden is a rainforest setting one of the priorities was to get trees in to extend the canopy. There's already a good canopy from the existing garden so shade loving plants can go in there. The new trees will take several years to add their bit.
Here's a list of the plants, first lot are the trees.
Sterculia quadrifida
Syzigium suborbiculare
Allosyncarpia ternata
Buchanania arborescens
Phaleria clerodendron
Bauhinia sp.
Michelia (Magnolia) alba
Gardenia Vietnam
Adonidia merrillii "Golden"
Socratea exorrhiza
Calyptrocalyx spicatus
NOID palm
Bowenia spectabilis
Lepidozamia hopei
Sterculia quadrifida is called Peanut Tree because of the edible small peanut sized nuts it produces. It can grow into a good sized tree with spreading canopy.
Syzigium suborbiculare, common name Red Bush Apple, is not at all related to apples. Even the similar looking fruit is totally different in taste, texture and internal structure. But it can also grow to a decent sized spreading tree with dark green glossy leaves. The large white flowers are very attractive too.
Allosyncarpia ternata, common name Allosyncarpia, grows to a much larger size. It gets covered with small white highly fragrant flowers.
Buchanania arborescens, grows as a medium tree along watercourses and produces a small black edible fruit.
Phaleria clerodendron, a small tree producing flowers and small inedible fruit along the trunk. I saw one fruiting in the botanical gardens in Cairns and some of the fruit accidentally fell into my pocket. So I now have 2 seedlings.
Forgot to get a photo of this one.
Bauhinia sp. Not sure which species, it's the one often called Orchid Tree, and produces a lot of seed. It grows into a medium tree. These are multiple seedlings but I'll thin them back to one later.
Michelia (Magnolia) alba. Called White Champaca, this variety has white flowers with the most exquisite fragrance. Even at its small size it flowered for me this last winter.
Gardenia Vietnam. That's all that was on the label when I bought it. It has fared badly from the neglect but hopefully it'll come good now that it's in the ground.
(Forgot to get photos.)
These are the palms.
Adonidia merrillii "Golden", Christmas Palm, was given to me by a friend who is really into palms. I already had the common 'green' one.
Socratea exorrhiza, Walking Palm. If it doesn't like where it is it just moves. The trunk is always above the ground so it stands on its roots. It grows more roots on the side where it wants to go and the roots on the other side wither and break away. Just hope mine don't decide to walk off up the road.
Calyptrocalyx spicatus, was also given to me by the same friend. Didn't realise it grows so big. I may have it too shaded, so might have to move.
A NOID given to me again by the same friend. She told me the name but I've forgotten it.
Some Cycads.
Bowenia spectabilis, one of my favourite Cycads. I've got a whole lot from seeds I planted last year so now it's time to plant them out. They're a rainforest species and should look great when they get a bit larger,
Lepidozamia hopei is another rainforest Cycad. It can grow up to about 20 metres tall, not that I'm likely to still be around to enjoy it. These are also from seed planted last year. While they're at planting out size, there's still about 15 that haven't shown any sign of wanting to germinate.
They're all still a bit small, but as they say, "From little things big things grow".
