Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Sturt's Desert Pea

Things have been very quiet here, so I have nothing current to post so I thought I'd show you one of our gardening exploits. Over the summer, we tried to grow some Sturt's Desert Peas. The state flower of South Australia, this stunning flower grows in the desert, but only if conditions are right. It is very short lived, and grows, flowers, goes to seed and then dies in just a few days, with the seeds then staying dormant until the right conditions happen again. this may be a month later, a year later or in extreme times maybe a decade later! Ours flowered over a weekend, and not expecting things to happen quite so quickly, I missed the buds only photo!! On the Sunday morning, the first red started showing. By Sunday evening the flowers were opening And on Monday morning the flowers were fully open

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful Tony. I have tried to grow them a number of times but our soil in the hills is too acidic for them. In the desert they flower for weeks on end and keep reseeding to continue the process if the water is available. I have seen ingle plants reach an 8' diameter.

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  2. Thanks Arija

    I grew these in a 50/50 mix of sand and succulent potting compost in a tall terracotta container. The secret is not to get the leaves wet when you water them as this triggers them to go to seed and die. - we had rain shortly after they flowered!!

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  3. How delightful! Great captures.

    You have a wonderful site.
    Have a great weekend ahead.

    Regina

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  4. Hi Tony
    Just been catching up with all your posts over the last couple of weeks, and some wonderful images there.
    Also mant thanks for you kind comment during a difficult time it was greatly appreciated

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