Flower Show, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne, bromeliad, fuchsia, oncidium

Carlton Gardens March 26, 2015

Today we had set aside for a visit to the International Flower Show held at Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. Its a hundred km or so but a pretty easy run through Geelong and up the M1 to the big-smoke (pretty easy for me, Judy was driving) and follow the GPS into the parking area under Etihad Stadium. Great plan; for $18 you get to park all day and a nice man drives you up to the show in a big orange bus, and brings you back again. Hard to beat.

Anyhow, the flower show was as good as the last time we were here a few years ago, at least Judy was feeling a whole lot better than then. What can one say about flowers? There are heaps of them to see, all the favourites: fuchsia, bromeliad, oncidium and the like. They even had tulips and stuff a la Floriade style.

Its just as well we are heading to WA, where they have this disposition at the border regarding fruit, vegetables, flowers, food etc and delight in taking it all of you, or else we'd be overloaded with new flowers and bulbs and seeds.

Part of the show is the gardens they make for the various competitions, the one that took our fancy was modelled on the Arid Desert garden in Alice Springs. It was probably too far out for the Melbournians as it didn't win any prizes, which went to the conventional concrete/water/outdoor room style.

No more to say, here are some snaps:

Water feature. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Lake. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad.  Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Paint pots pouring. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic