Telopea Speciosissima

That's a very long way of saying Waratah!!

We are blessed to live on a large 35 acre bush block in the Blue Mountains and every year we experience the wonder of the Waratah (our state floral emblem).

Towards the end of the flowering season we have made it a tradition to pick three Waratahs and three only to display internally in a large vase. We try and go deep into our bush block to find our three specimens because we love to see the flowers when we look out of the windows during their flowering season. The other reason we don't pick dozens of them is because they are a wonderful food for the bird life and they just love them. The little honey eaters have an absolute field day working their way down to the nectar and it gives us great joy to observe them. It would be like telling a little kid they couldn't have an ice-cream.

When the fires stormed through Wombat Hollow in December 2002 I thought that would be the end of the Waratahs. Little did I know that in 2004 there would be literally hundreds of them in bloom. We could see them in profusion from every window in the house. So much so we decided to open the property with our Rotary club at the time and held "Waratah's in the Wild" for two years in a row. They have never been as spectacular as those two years but then I don't really relish the thought of another fire raging through the property.

Click here if you would like to get up close and personal with them!!