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Monday, 26 March 2012

Western Australia's amazing wildflowers

There is always something flowering in the Australian bush somewhere. There are actually over 12,000 known species in Western Australia alone - aren't I lucky! I just love getting out and photographing them.

Spring is when the main rush of wild flowers come on and we have done several wildflower drives throughout Western Australia at this time of year - of course our state is so vast you have to decide where you want to go this year! The locations, variety and density of flowers can vary from year to year depending on temperature and rain fall.

I have just completed Kim's colour week in here Beyond Layers e-course - how much fun that was photographing a different colour each day for the week. But as part of that I put together four collages of Western Australian wildflowers. I really enjoyed going back through my hundreds of images to put them together. What a wonderful opportunity it was to showcase Western Australia's amazing wildflowers.

So here I present to you - YELLOW! -
from the Kimberley in the north (the Kapok Bush) to Cape Naturalist in the south (the Yellow Tail Flower) and everywhere in between...........

From top left to right -
Goodenia, Casia, Yellow Plumed Grevillia, Yellow Tail-flower.
Ilyarri Gum, Podolepis, Feather-flower, Kapok bush.
Dryandra, Wattle, Munjina Yellow Grevillia, Silver Grevillia


PINK!  - stretching from the Kimberley in the north (the Kimberley Heath) to the south (Pincushion Hakea) and everywhere in between..........

From top left to right -
Kunzia, Painted Lady, Pincushion Cone Flower, Velleia
Pincushion Hakea, Pink Fairy Orchid, Mulla Mulla, Queen of Sheba Orchid
Kimberley Heath, Emu tree, Pink Tassels, Everlastings


BLUE! - Most of these ones come from the mid west (the Native Cornflower - see the red dirt background) or the south west (Hovea)....


From top left to right -
Dampiera, Blue Lady Orchid, Blue China Orchid, Sun Orchid
Hovea, Native Cornflower, Blue Squill, Scented Sun Orchid
Wild Violet, Blue Leschenaultia, Blue Fan Flower, Starflower

 and finally RED!  The ones you see below are found from the Pilbara (the Sturt Pea) in the north to the south coast (the Scarlet Banksia) and everywhere in between....

From top left to right -
Grevillia, Bottlebrush, Red Flowering Gum, Claw Flower.
Sturt Desert Pea, Eucalyptus Macrocarpa "Mottlecah" , Barrens Regelia, Federation Flame Kangaroo Paw.
Rose Mallee, Pea, Scarlet Banksia, Star Flower.



White wasn't one of the colours for the colour week - but here is one of my favourites - the Splendid Everlasting found in the Mid West.


And a carpet of yellow and white everlastings spreading through the bush at Canna in the midwest - a snapshot of what you can expect to see on a wildflower drive in Western Australia during spring.
It is autumn here now, but the project has made we want to start planning my spring wildflower drive now!


Thank you to Kim Klaeen for the Beyond Layers e-course and her textures. I am really enjoying learning about textures and other techniques, and opening up to the possibilities by looking, seeing and being inspired  "beyond layers".  To check out Kim's blog and classes click on the link - Kim Klassen Cafe

I am joining up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. To see her work and the work of other wonderful contributors around the world, click on the link - Mosaic Monday

Have a wonderful week. I hope you have enjoyed these beautiful blooms. I look forward to hearing from you.

18 comments:

  1. Splendid Jill. An overload of amazing images. Many flowers I've never seen here in eastern Australia. The Yellow Plumed Grevillia, the Emu Tree flower, the Macrocarp, Barrens Regelia and the Rose Mallee are all quite different - would love to see these (and others) in real life.

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  2. Jill, these photos are awesome. And I love the way you've block mounted them together. Stunning. I also like the way you weave your story around the photos ... not too much, not too little. Keep up the fabulous work :)

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  3. Just fabulous! I could look for hours and I'll probably return just to look again. That was quite a journey to take all these wonderful photos, too. Impressive!

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  4. Oh my these flowers made my jaw drop. Very beautiful you put it all in a collage. Thanks for sharing.

    Peach Blossoms

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  5. just stunning, wonderful presentation of beauty~

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  6. Gorgeous photos in stunning mosaics. I love the way you organized by color....they are just beautiful!

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  7. Wow! These are wonderful!
    Have a great week,
    Markus

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  8. OH WOW, JILL! The flowers are all gorgeous and I love the mosaics of colors. And the carpet of yellow and white is simply beautiful. Beautifully done and a great post.

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  9. I just adore your colour coded flower collages, what a fabulous idea. I might try this myself although I do not have access to so many stunning varieties of flowers.

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  10. I forgot to ask what programme do you use to make your collages Jill?

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  11. Hi Lindy, I use Picasa. The program is quite easy to make collages. Google it.

    Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments. I feel truly blessed to live in such a wonderful slice of the world, and to be able to go about and photograph it.
    Thank you

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    1. Thanks Jill both for your reply here and on my latest post. I have used Picasa in the past, then I swapped to Picnik when I started adding watermarks. Picnik is sadly closing next month so maybe I will try Picasa again.

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  12. WOW! Stunning images. Thanks so much. I live in eastern Canada, would LOVE to visit Australia just for the flowers alone...

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  13. OH SO VERY LOVELY!!! Wow the colours are so pretty and there are so many. If I could only choose one, even though it is not my colour, I love those shades of blue, they are heart touching beautiful~

    If you have not had a chance yet, I hope you can stop by and view my Mosaic Monday entry as well. Very much appreciated~

    Mary

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  14. Belo trabalho...Espectacular....
    Cumprimentos

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  15. Snap! I've just returned from WA and thought my wildflower pix would look great in - you guessed it - collage/mosaics!! But I don't know the names ...

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  17. I'm always trying to convince people to look at our native plants PROPERLY...ie not as 'those dusty old things'!!!! I too photograph the tiny flowers on plants we grow in our garden in the Eastern Mt Lofty Ranges(part of the Adelaide Hills) in my ongoing efforts to show others how stunning these tiny flowers are,if they'd only take the time to LOOK!!!

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