The streets of Windsor

I recently started an Environmental Horticulture course at the Uni of Melbourne, with the knowledge I have so far gained from this course I find myself in a very different frame of mind when walking the streets of Windsor. Once upon a time I would have walked passed the gardens in the street and would have been oblivious to what was in them. The street trees, well they were just some trees planted in a tiny bit of dirt that was a good spot for dogs to do their thing, of course not the dogs fault.

Now when I walk in the streets I notice gardens, plant varieties that are in those gardens and I look at street trees. I was out on a walk recently when this was pointed out to me, apparently it had just come into flower I thought it was magnificent.

I thought well I must find out what it is, as luck would have it.... in a lecture a couple of days later it cropped up, Dahlia imperialis AKA Tree Dahlia. It's an herbaceous perennial that grows on these tall bamboo like stems and this one is about 2.5-3 metres in height. It requires a decent amount of sun and the stems can be brittle, so a bit of protection from the wind is advisable. But if you want to have a magnificent looking cold weather flowering plant get yourself some of these, either buy yourself a tuber or established plant. Alternatively if you can get your hands on a stem you can cut it into pieces (leave two nodes) and then plant these pieces during winter at about 15-20cm depth.

Well I was going to talk about the street trees of Windsor, but I got sidetracked with the Dahlia, so that will be next posting. In the mean time for a great read check out Michael's Long Live the Tree's article, which is a bit of a lead in to my next posting.