Perth - Wildflowers at King's Park Festival

Dear Wildflower lovers,
It is Wildflower season in WA! HURRAY! My hostfamily luckily wanted to swap some of my working hours, so I was able to attend the month-long King's Park Festival on Saturday the 13th of September. I got up early (before 8am!) to catch two buses to King's Park where I arrived at 9:30am on a fantastic sunny day. At the top of Fraser Avenue you will be greeted by a flower bed full of wildflowers in bloom.

I love my camera! It can take the most clear close-up pictures, so I went as close as possible to all these lovely and beautiful flowers.
This one for example is a Black Kangaroo Paw as it looks like the paw of a kangaroo!

I am not quite sure what the name of this one is but it looks stunning and smells very nice.

This is obviously one of many Banksias of Australia. There are lots of different varietes but this shape is surely unique, so you would recognise it immediately.

As I was there early in the morning, some of the flowers still had some dew on them.

Swan River Daisy! What a wonderful name for this bright-coloured flowers. There were nestlings amongst all other flowers.

On the main Aspects Lawn was a big air-filled plastic flower. I of course had to take a Selfie there :-)

At 10am I attended the FREE guided "Wilderness & Wildflower" walk. About 30 people joined and two volunteer guides took us along different paths.

This is the famous Mangles Kangaroo Paw. As you can see it is a fairly big green flower on a red hairy stem (to avoid the ants from crawling up). They were absolutely everywhere in the park.

We walked past a big field full of everlastings. This pictures can hardly give you an impression of how wonderful it looked in reality. You have to see it yourself.

Here the guide I was walking with (Jan) is pointing out a green Kangaroo Paw which has been cultured especially for the 50th anniversairy of King's Park.

We were guided into the native bushland parts of King's Park where the wildflowers were not as neatly and closely growing together as you can see in this picture.

Almost everyone stopped along the way to take pictures of any flower that the guide pointed out and explained. There were tini-tiny orchids and lilies in all sorts of colours and colour-combinations and big bushes full of blossoms.

But we got also more information about trees, like this Jarrah tree. The guide had examples of the wood of different trees and their seeds with them. It reminded me of the great Botanical Garden tour that I attended in Adelaide.

This is called a Blue Devil but unfortunately we were too early as the blue petals have not yet formed. But what a name, huh?

This Pink Gladiolus is actually considered weed in Australia as it is not a native plant. It looks so beautiful but it has been brought over from South Africa and threatens the native plants from the scarce nutrients of the soil.

And these Freesia are also introduced flowers with poisonous tubers!

This bright yellow flower which I have seen all over the place (along the streets in Perth but also on the West Coast) is also a weed introduced from South Africa.

This however is a very beautiful native orchid which I couldn't get a closer picture of.

 

But why would you give some plant the common name "Bacon and Eggs"? Does it smell, look or taste just like Bacen and Eggs??? I forgot to ask the guide.

This is a grasstree which can get to over 200 years old. Aborigines use all parts of the plant for different purposes. They make tools out of it or for medicine or similar.

After nearly 80 minutes of walking around and listening estonished at all the information that the guide Jan was happy to share with us we arrived at the backside of the Botanical Garden where we finished the tour.

I walked alone back to the Aspects lawn and took some more close-up pictures of lovely everlastings and of course another Selfie :-D

I forgot the names of these peas but they are really tiny. About the size of the nail of my little finger. Like REALLY small.

Some more Black Kangaroo Paws. I love them, honestly. They look so scary but through the comparison with kangaroos they seem all nice allover.

With so many flowers in full blooming there were of course heaps of bees and butterflies about. It was such a feast for the eyes.

Actually I had planned to attend the FREE guided 12pm Botanical Garden walk as well but then decided that I am fairly tired from all the working and especially late babysittings and I sat down on the lawn in front of the State War Memorial with view onto the famous Perth skyline to eat my sandwich lunch.

I then had a 1.5 hours nap in the shade and observed the surroundings and people around me until 2pm. To be honest, I had a strange feeling. You know, whenever I normaly think "GIRL! You are in AUSTRALIA!" I get totally excited and appreciate all the sacrifices I had to make to get here more. But this time I had the feeling of having come used to being in Downunder... After 9 months I have seen and done so much more than I thought I would and actually there is not a lot left on my Australia bucket list. So I started to think that it is indeed a good thing that this adventure of mine in a foreign country should come to an end in just two months. But NO! I am going to make the most of my time left here! On my way back to Manning I came past these Limousine Hummers in white, black and PINK! WHOA!

I was surprised at how much I had needed such a great day out since I started working so hard to earn more money. It was so refreshing to be out in the pure sunshine again. Winter isn't yet over but spring is almost upon us. And spring in Western Australia means it feels like a German summer :-)
I would definitely recommend to everyone to go and see the wildflowers at Kings Park. It was a wonderful new experience for me and it is so unique to Australia as well.
But now I am feverishly waiting for my hostmothers' baby to arrive! AAHHHH!!!
Yours wildflower-admiring Stefanie