Rhopalostylis sapida

That's a pretty 80s looking plant right there. Something about that shade of green, and the diagonal-ness of the leaves, straightaway suggests wine coolers, blonde mullets and those wayfarer-style sunglasses with the fluoro arms.

Family sheltering under tree during spring hail.

Tiny Universe

At the bottom of this little stream live billions of tiny things.

Water

Water is the lifeblood of the garden. It is also the gardenblood of life. There was a lot of water around today. The thunderstorm broke right on top of us, and the rain sounded like someone was tipping a truckload of stones on the roof. This water was going over one of the weirs that controls the level of Turtle Lake.

Context

This cute little flower was found in a part of the gardens that is really hard to get to, and is quite secret. I played with the image to see if I could get the flower to stand out a bit more from the background - but then I realised that God had meant this tiny thing to be appreciated 'in context'.

Soehrensia bruchii

Equus caballus

A denizen of the wild eastern reaches of Hamilton Gardens. While I was taking this photo, another horse wandered up and made as if I was to give it something delicious. But horses are quite big things and this was about as close as I was brave enough to get. (You can't see the sharp, man-eating fangs in this picture, but believe me, they're there!)

Cycad

Here's a Cycad doing its Cycad thing in the greenhouse. The wooly bit is the size of your head. Its neat to imagine the dinosaurs wandering around munching on these exact plants millions of years ago.

Camellia 'Volunteer'

Another interesting flower. This is up in the Hammond Camellia Garden (surprise!), a light, small shrub with these incredible flowers all over it.

Fuchsia excorticata

Here's an interesting plant for a first post; Fuchsia excorticata is a big straggly tree with little subtle flowers and flaky bark. I took this photo for the 'plant of the month' on the Info Centre kiosk (still figuring out how to use the camera!).