Open Garden

We drove to Uralba today (1/2 hour away), where an  impressive private garden was open for inspection. My main is a flowering Guzmania - a type of Bromeliad. 

In the first extra, Rana points to a Red Cedar tree (Toona ciliata). I imagine it is hundreds of years old, and pre-dates colonial settlement. Such trees are now rare. They were once common, but the colonists valued them highly for timber and almost logged them to extinction. This one may have escaped the slaughter, because its multi-trunk growth lessened it's usefulness for fine timber products.

The second extra is a Costus flower. The last is the garden's frog pond, with shelter built from bamboo grown on site.

What an impressive tropical garden!