Clare Florist Blog

Happy Australia Day - Weird and Wonderful flowers of Australia

Australia is a country that has many weird and wonderful things, poisonous beasties, giant creatures and many, many interesting and bizarre plants. With its warm climate and wide variety of soils many species of plants are found only in certain parts of Australia.

Red and Green Kangaroo Paw

The floral emblem of Western Australia this strikingly odd plant is one that is endemic to the region. Found primarily in Southwest Australia in regions with white, yellow or grey sand this plant can have flower stalks that can grow up to 1.2m in height with the its striking flowers. These unique bird attracting flowers are tubular in shape and densely coated in tiny hairs which trigger an opening of the claw like structure that gives the flower its name.

Albany Bottlebrush

A shrub also found in similar conditions to the Kangaroo Paw, this pretty normal looking plant for the majority of the year produces bright red toilet brush like spikes between September and December.

Common Catspaw

Part of the same family as the Kangaroo paw this plant grows in similar conditions as well. It produces long strap like leaves at its base with a long stalk where the flowers appear at the terminus giving the plant an overall height of around 1m with Its flowers have a stunning blend of yellow orange and red and like the kangaroo.

Scarlet Banksia

Scarlet Banksia is the common name for the Banksia coccinea a quite unique looking shrub endemic to the south-western parts of Australia. Growing up to 8 metres tall (26ft) its red and white flowers are usually arranged in a spiral up the spike of the flower but look like they are arranged vertically due to gaps between the columns.

Wispy Spider Orchid

This just look really damn creepy.

January 25th - Burns Night

  Robert Burns,  born on 25th January 1759.  Rose from humble beginnings to become 'Scotlands favourite son'

His work is celebrated worldwide and today (25th January) get your self some haggis, neeps and tatties, pour yourself a wee dram and sing loud to celebrate a nations favourite.

 

Heres a classic Burns poem to get you in the mood

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Flowers of the Lunar New Year

This Monday is the 23^rd of January, a Monday I imagine similar to many others, the weather will no doubt be cold and bleak and those bitter northerly winds will remind keep us longing for the milder months to come. To many people however, this Monday is a cause for celebration as it is the beginning of a New year in the lunar callender which is also know and celebrated as Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Tibetan New Year as well as many more. One of the main traditions of each one of these festivals is flowers, in particular the Chinese new year celebrations wouldn’t be complete without an array of flowers all with their own meaning.

 

Plum Blossom   Symbolises luck, perseverance and reliability.
Peach blossoms   Symbolize growth, prosperity, long life and romance. Single people will decorate their homes with them in the hope of find love in the coming year
Kumquat   Popular at new year due to the Chinese name Kam Gut Shu sounding like the words for gold and luck
Peony   Called the flower of riches and honour, it is a symbol of feminine beauty, love and affection. Red peony’s in particular are used to decorate homes to bring luck and good fortune.
Oranges and Tangerines   Abundant happiness is symbolised through a bag of oranges or tangerines.

 

Facts, Jokes and Trivia

Need your factoid and new information fix for today? we have got you covered. Here are some facts, figures, challenges and general fun to keep us all occupied for one more day.

1. A pineapple is a berry.

2. Americans eat more bananas than any other fruit: a total of 11 billion a year.

3. Almonds are the oldest, most widely cultivated and extensively used nuts in the world.

4. Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, like all herbs do.

5. Ginger has been clinically demonstrated to work twice as well as Dramamine for fighting motion sickness, with no side effects.

6. Banana oil has nothing to do with bananas; it's made from petroleum.

7. One pound of tea can make 300 cups of the beverage.

Riddle

Q: Red, purple, orange, yellow, blue, and green - No one can touch me, not even a queen.

 (Highlight the text below to reveal the answer)

A: RAINBOW

Joke

This time it comes it the form of a animation

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/574717

Pretty funny!

The Night Flowering Orchid

In all the bedlam that is the Christmas period we missed a pretty interesting piece of news. Researchers in the Netherlands have discovered the very first flower know to science that does something truly bizarre, it flowers exclusively at night!

The Bulbophyllum nocturnum orchid was discovered by Ed de Vogel during an expedition to New Britain, an island near Papua New Guinea. Upon taking the specimen back home he found that as the buds reached a size where they would normally bloom he would find the next day they had withered. He soon discovered that the flowers opened for a single night only shortly after sun down and closed and withered just after sunrise.

Even though there are species of orchid that are known to attract nighttime pollinators the B. nocturnum orchid is the first to flower exclusively at night. The reason behind this behaviour remains a mystery until further field studies but one proposed explanation is that the orchid are mimicking fungi with the orchid releasing a scent humans cant detect which attracts flies and other pollinators.

Bizare, but i have to say its not the prettiest of orchids !!

2012 Rose Parade - Flower Floats

A selection of some of the 42 parade floats at this years rose parade, some are incredibly cool!