The Australian native Warratah

Thank you Carol. My father, who has now departed this world, grew up in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales. Things were apparently pretty tough when he was a young pup, and apparently he used to pick these wild flowers and sell them beside the roadway. It was always his favourite flower.

Grevillea is a genus of mainly Australian native plants most of which are beautiful. There are currently many hundreds of named varieties in the genus. Wilsonii is familiar to me, but I would have difficulty describing the variety off the top of my head, I would need to go to one of my plant books.

Thank you Catherine. They certainly are spectacular …, also the floral emblem for New South Wales if i am not mistaken! Warratahs are of course grown commercially. The one in the picture was in fact purchased from a “grower” for florists. I believe that warratahs gowing in the wild are protected. I don’t know if they were or not when my father used to collect them. This apparently he did when he was in primary school. Dad was born in 1910, so that would have been quite a few years ago. Dad lived at Lawson in the Blue Mountains, I have been back to where he used to live and have visited the area a few times, but not recently.

Thanks Raven, they are beautiful colours. There is no need to feel sorry about Dad. He died a few years back at the age of 92. I, along with one of my daughters and my sister-in-law were all at his bedside when he died peacefully in his sleep. The day before he died he had me racing around the Sunshine Coast to find someone to fix his hearing aid which had been playing up. Dad’s mental faculties were fine up until the day before he died, and he had continued to play indoor bowls up until a couple of weeks before his death. Dad’s favourite sport was cricket, and he used to always tell everone during the last few years of his life that he “had a good innings” ..., and he had!

Thanks mate. I don’t know whether I should admit it or not, but a lady I knew did all the arranging …, all I had to do was focus and click. But, you are right, the contrast of the colours with the green is effective, but I won’t take the credit for it.

Thanks Wanda.

Thank you Leslie.

Hello again Carol. A stunning and a very large and unusual flower. Notice how the curled up bits straighten out as the flower matures.

Hi Kate, and thanks for taking a look. The Warratah is in some ways reminiscent of the Protea. Both are very large strong striking flowers. The Warratah is however a flower which is native to Australia. It is in fact the floral emblem of the state of New South Wales. They are very attractive flowers, as are Proteas which are native o fSouth Africa. Proteas grow well here too by the way, both plants enjoy similar climates.