[Hilary]

Beaucarnea recurvata, Ponytail Palm

One of our nephews had the occasion to visit the WOLLONGONG BOTANICAL GARDEN in New South Wales , Australia recently and he kindly sent me photos of three plants together with their information notices

I have tried in vain to find a reference to Ponytail Palm  in an article in THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN set in Australia. It is mentioned plenty of times in France, Italy and the USA but not Australia.

However, I found an article which I had not used before describing the difficulties of gardening in Australia in these years of climate change
A HARD TIME OF IT by Trevor Nottle
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 97, July 2019

[Alisdair]

Hilary, at yesterday's General Assembly of the MGS in Athens Trevor Nottle from Australia was mentioned by Sally Razelou (who of course you know well, as the custodian of the MGS Sparoza garden) as one of the people intimately involved in the founding of the MGS in 1994 - nice coincidence! (And so were you, as one of the pillars of our forum.... many thanks for these interesting notes.)

[Hilary]

My pleasure

[Hilary]

Furcraea foetida, Mauritius Hemp

Another plant from Australia

This plant is mentioned in GARDENING IN POTS IN MELBOURNE
 by Caroline Davies
THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN 43 ,January 2006

[Hilary]

Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle Tree

The last photo I have  from the Wollongong Botanical Garden

The Queensland Bottle Tree is mentioned in THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN number 92, April 2018 in
RIOT AND RESTRAINT – A GARDEN IN FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
By Margot Tobin
-