Roaming around Roma St

A double baby shower on the weekend provided the perfect opportunity to check out the gardens at Roma St Parklands despite the heat.  The Parklands opened in 2001 and were developed from an old railway yard on a 16 hectare site.  They also provided a great location for a photos before our wedding reception at the cafe in the parklands.  Aside from the Spectacle Garden which is now called Colin Campbell Place the plantings are subtropical with a great display of variegated foliage with stripes, spots and purples.

Wandering through the subtropical rainforest planting, these palms provided a shady canopy for the underplanting.  I've never been a huge fan of palms but I think this is mostly due to their use as a sole feature plant or so often seeing them uninspiringly strung along a driveway.  (It may also have something to do with their fruit being enjoyed by noisy fruit bats outside my bedroom window for many of my childhood years). Leaving my prejudice behind, the use of palms in the Parklands seemed so natural and made more of a feature of the underplanting, providing a cool dappled light rather than stealing the show.

 

These prayer plants were arranged in a curved line between two slopes, resembling a stream.  A welcome sight in the heat and lack of rain.

 

A carpet of native violets

Swan river daisy

Two beautiful native garden fillers 

The glow of this grass caught my eye.  In the midday sun it gleamed like a long exposure photo of a sparkler.

The ginger was enjoying the heat and looking luscious.

Mass plantings of echinacea around the Parklands were islands of colour in the landscape.

Some great examples of hedging.  

Eventually, I hope to have neatly clipped examples like these as my front fence.

These fellows were hogging the limelight.  This one was quite the poser.

I seem to be stalked by the little trains wherever I go - shopping centres, Sydney Botanic Gardens, the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers and now Roma St Parklands.  Suddenly they appear behind me, ringing their bell while they trundle around.  Taking a shortcut via a narrow pathway to escape them is to no avail for when I finally relax, thinking I am no longer in their sites, they appear once more from around a corner 

- ding-da-ding!

This dichondra 'silver falls' works well as a tower with the flowers underneath acting like spray off rocks at the bottom of a waterfall.

A striking substitute for a water feature when every drop is precious.

 

This plaque is in memory of Colin Campbell, in honour of whom a section of the Parklands has now been named .  He was a great inspiration to gardeners of all ages and dedicated his life to it.  

May he rest in peace.

One of my favourite places in the garden is the topiary section.  Although the elephant was trying to regrow its trunk, the giraffe and kangaroo were in fine form and as cute as ever.  I have grand plan of one day having a giant topiary chicken in my garden.

This sculpture fits perfectly into the garden, acting as a three dimensional plant holder, and capturing the curves of the garden in a vertical axis.