Aeonium

i have seem to come across another of my mum's succulent plants, but this one has no medicinal properties that i would know of. instead, mum has kept this one because it is pretty and seem to look like a green singular flower on a stem.

in its pot, with the stem and the leaves

this is know as an Aeonium.
it comes from the Crassulaceae family and is known to be a succulent shrub and can handle temperate to subtropical climates. it is an evergreen and tends to have colourful leaves, from black, red, pink and purple.  it flowers during July and August and gives off  yellow flowers.
it is said to originate from Morocco and can be very easily propagated just by taking a leaf or stem cutting.

smaller rosette of leaves forming in the middle of the plant

it has grown from a small stem with a small rosette of green leaves making it seem like a flower and as the years have past, the stem has got longer and larger and well as the rosette of leaves. they have also grown to a larger size with more rosettes in the middle of the plant to continue to grow. this has been growing in a pot plant since we have had it and it seems to have been taking it time to grow. this plant is drought tolerant and also salt tolerant.

it is very green and vibrant

Source: The University of Melbourne Burnley Plant Guide

Aloe Vera

i took a walk in my backyard this afternoon and stumbled upon a plant with large thick leaves and seems to look spiky in a way. it was my mum's aloe vera. she has had this plant for years or as long as i can remember, sitting in a large pot. she really likes this plant for its medicinal uses. now days, you can find aloe vera as lotion, lip balms, creams, in lollies, foods and drinks.

inside the aloe vera, there are more leaves forming within the middle

it comes from the Xanthorrhoeaceae family and is known as a succulent plant. aloe vera can grow in just about any climate, from tropical to arid and all those in between. it can handle some shade and full sunlight as well. it deals with wind very well and is extremely drought tolerant because it usually stores most of the water it collects into its thick leaves and saves it for when it really needs to most. 

No one really knows where it originated from, but has been found in Asian, Europe, North Africa, Spain and the Canary Islands. it is stemless and grows in clumps with thick leaves arranged as upright rosettes and produces yellow flowers.

my mum's crazy collection, she use to have one large one and then the large one started forming more and now there are heaps of small ones living in a few pots

aloe vera also does come in different shapes and forms as a lot of other plants do, either being a lighter or draker green or even having spot along the bottom end of the leaves.

:)

Source: The University of Melbourne Burnley Plant Guide

Kaffir Lime

the tree/shrub in my backyard of the kaffir tree

the kaffir line tree is one of the most awesome trees to have. it has a very strong citric smell to it when you rub the leaves together in your fingers and the scent is very strong. this tree or shrub, has been here since we moved in and the previous owners use to use it as well and loved it and now it has been left to us.we like to use it in your spicy foods and the different asian curry's we make at home, only adding a few washed leaves into the pot.

the hourglass looking leaves

It is known as Citrus hystrix from the Rutaceae family. It is known to flower in the season of summer and gives white flowers. It is also an evergreen and does have thorns, so be aware of them. the leaves on this particular plant is quite unique. it is seen to have two leaves stuck together or an hour-glass shape. the plant also gives of fruit, lemoned shaped and bumpy, making it seem like a wrinkly lime.

the many sharp thorns along the stems

It is pretty good against salt and it is sort of a fast growing plant. it does not do well in drought conditions or being overly watered and does not prefer compacted soils.

This is a very good tree for cooking, especially cooking asian foods with and is very nicely scented as a tree.

:)

Pink Ice

there has been an old Protea shrub in the front yard since we moved in 7 years ago. our neighbours have told us that this shrub is the only one left on the street, since everyone else who have previously lived in the neighbourhood had cut theirs down and all the people on the street even had 1 or 2 of their own proteas. we decided since this was the last one on this street, we could keep ours and it bloom such pretty flowers, it was alright to keep.

Protea 'Pink Ice'

the bud

it is originally from South Africa, from the Proteace family and is an evergreen shrub. It is very drought tolerant and can handle a lot of sun. It is quite tolerant to salt and wind as well and does not do so well with a lot of water and can handle acidic soils It comes in a large number of colours but i specifically have the pink one in my front yard.

It flowers from February all they way to August and it is a pretty low maintenance plant.

it has been around longer then we have lived here and it is still a very strong and healthy plant that can take just about anything, with very pretty flowers!

this would be a good plant to get into if you're into evergreen shrubs that are low maintenance and have big flowers. There are many different coloured ones and they do some in different shapes and sizes with very different flowers.

:)

the Swan Neck Agave

Ever since we moved in to our house, there was a large Swan Neck Agave in the back yard.

Agave attenuata

new agave growing on the main agave

It comes from the Asparagaceae family and its latin/scientific name is Agave attenuata. I’m not quite sure what subspecies it might be, since there are many variations for plants, whether it is the difference in leaf shapes or even how thick or thin the leaf might be may indicate eve indicate a different subspecies or even a different species all together. This plant is known as a succulent plant because it has thick leaves and comes from arid or subtropical climates around the world and is originally from the arid coasts of Mexico.

root-like structures growing from a small agave on the main agave

This one at home has been growing for some time now and has started leaning to one side that we needed to hold it up with some string. On the stem of the main plant, there had been much smaller plants growing on the stem of the main plant, as well as root-like structures on the nodes of the main stem, underneath where the smaller plants were growing. They seem to look like green-brown looking worms growing out, but they may be adventitious roots for the new little plants and that they are ready to be taken off and replanted elsewhere, which is one way of asexual reproduction.

after a trimming, new agave's and stem

after replanting , red ribbon for luck

We needed to move it since we were fixing up the backyard and putting in some drains to prevent the backyard from flooding in winter, so we removed all the small new plants and cut the stem in half and moved it further away from the drain, and replanted it making it face the fence and hopefully it will bend away from the fence and face the sunlight like it used to.

:)

Sources: The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Plant Guide

that melon plant

while sitting at my desk and staring out the window wondering what to write about, i notice large leaves waving in the wind around

spaghetti melon

spaghetti melon plant

this plant has survived 6 long years with us and has been surviving well since its grown to my bedroom window.  one of my mum's friends had given her a strange melon and we cooked it up for soup and it was delicious, my mum kept the seeds to one day grow them and as you can see, we have. i have tried looking up this particular plant on the internet but nothing but spaghetti squash has popped up and spaghetti melon recipes.



male flower of spaghetti melon

 

going around the back of the shed

 i don't know what type of plant this is, except that it is a melon and produces long, large seeds and yellow flowers. i'm guessing the plant has male and female flowers because some flowers have shriveled up while others are waiting to bloom, which would also explain that this plant is cross pollinated since i only found open male flowers. it flowers from end of summer and through autumn for what i can see and they are easy to grow if you can get your hands on some seeds.

they seem to get out of control as well if you don't control where you want them to grow, because our spaghetti melon has made its way around the side of our house and into out next-door neighbour;s backyard as well as taken over some of our tree.

overtaking the kaffir tree

:)

helloooooooo

to the beginning of plant box! :)