Hip Hip Hooray! Celebrating 100 Posts with a Giveaway

Hip Hip Hooray! Celebrating 100 Posts with a Giveaway

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Back in January 2012, I wrote my first Swallows Nest Farm blog post.  I began blogging after having to seriously re-think the way I ran my flower farm business.  In 2011 I spent 5 months away from home with my little girl in hospital on the mainland of Australia.  With a sick baby to care for, changes needed to be made.  When I began, blogging gave me a way of focussing on strategies for the future of the farm while not being able to actually get much outdoor work done.  As time has passed, it has become an important part of my flower farm business both for the exposure that it provides, and also for the way it helps me to see where I need to go next.

So here we are, more than 3 years and 100 blog posts later and I'm surprised that I still feel I have so much to explore by way of blogging.  I'm even more surprised at the attention this humble blog receives, with well over 50,000 visits.  I would never have expected it!

So I feel that a celebration is in order!

I am giving away a little pack of celebratory goodness including a
Linocut Hand Painted Waratah Bookmark from trees4thewood
4 Packs of Swallows Nest Farm Seeds
(including Telopea Truncata,
Leucadendron Argenteum,
Conrymbia Ficifolia and
Dryandra Formosa)
A Blue Gum Linocut Notebook with a Myrtle Beech Twig Pencil from trees4thewood
and some Swallows Nest Farm postcards.

You can enter the giveaway by sharing your favourite Swallows Nest Farm blog post, or by visiting our Facebook page (while you're there, if you like what you see, you could follow our page too).
The giveaway will run for a week and a winner will be chosen at random at midnight on Monday 14th September.

Enter using the rafflecopter counter below.
Entry is open to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for visiting Swallows Nest Farm blog!

Hello Snow!

Hello Snow!

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After a cooler, wetter summer than usual, we are now experiencing a colder winter than usual.  Last Monday most of Tasmania woke to a blanket of snow.  It snowed in the capital city Hobart for the first time since 1986. With snow down to sea level in some areas, this was a newsworthy weather event.  

It's always a magical experience to wake up to a white winter wonderland and it doesn't happen very often here in, at least in the more inhabited parts of our state.  Even school was cancelled, and the kids went out to play in the snow.

Last time we had snow at Swallows Nest Farm was mid-September 2013.  The snow was beautiful but it did damage some of the early spring flowers that were just starting to bloom.  I lost a lot of my waratah crop that year as the early ones had all begun to unfold.  The snow left burn marks on their bracts and petals.  I was keen to check this years plants to make sure they were ok.  The Berzelia crop is coming along and I'm hoping theres no damage. 

Leucadendrons catch the snow in their bracts.  Most Leucadendrons, once established, are quite frost hardy.

The Leucadendron Tall Red is about to flower, but hasn't begun to open yet.  I hope they'll be ok! 

Safari Goldstrike captured the snow all along their stems.  In our last snow event, many of our larger Leucadendron plants lost limbs because the weight of the snow weighed them down and they snapped. This time, it seems to have been a gentler fall.  You can see in this picture just how extensive the snow fall was.  We are quite elevated but the hills across the valley in the picture are just over 100m above sea level.  

Leucadendron Safari Sunset look so "Christmassy" covered in snow!

The open flowers acted like cups for the snow.  These Leucadendrons are quite tough, and seem to have coped well with the unusual weather.

I was surprised at how much snow cover the Leucadendron Jubilee Crown had.  It completely transformed the look of the plant.  

The familiar intense winter colour of the Leucadendrons was softened with the white of the snow.  Such a pretty sight.

Richea Dracophylla are used to snowy conditions, being endemic to the higher, wet slopes of Tasmania's mountains.  You can see them growing on the slopes of Mt Wellington which are no strangers to snowfall, even in the warmer months at times.   

The other plants on the farm that are no strangers to snowy conditions are the Myrtle Beech trees.  They looked so pretty covered in snow.  This tree is one of the dominant species in the temperate rain forests of western Tasmania.  

Some of the Leucadendron Red Gem had already started to flower.  Their bracts were wide open and caught lots of snow.  I think the majority have yet to open, so I hope they'll be ok too. They're such pretty winter flower.

Of all the plants that worried me, these were the ones I was most keen to check.  They are some new Leucadendron Laureolum that had only been planted a week before the snow.  This is  the reason that we choose to use planting guards to give the baby plants a little bit of extra protection in case of extreme weather.  I'm hopeful these little babies will survive and thrive.  

A day or so after the big freeze, I had to fly to the mainland and saw the snow coverage across the state.  Tasmania looked white from above.  Amazing!  I wonder what spring has in store. 

Myrtle Beech Foliage - Nothofagus Cunninghamii

Myrtle Beech Foliage - Nothofagus Cunninghamii

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Lyell Highway Lake Burberry

I started the year with a short break to the west coast of Tasmania, my island home.  It was so nice to get away from home for a few days with the whole family.   We ate out every day for lunch and dinner, so no cooking or washing up (no small thing in a family of 7).  It was relaxing and fun and a great way to start the year.  

King River Gorge

It was also fabulous to explore parts of Tasmania that I've never been to before.  Tasmania's west coast is wild and largely uninhabited in the south which is almost entirely national park.  We stayed in Strahan midway up the west coast on the shore of Macquarie Harbour and had a great time exploring the region.  It was also a special experience for me, seeing the native vegetation in pristine temperate rainforest in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. 

Gordon River

Myrtle Beech, or Nothofagus Cunninghamii, is a beautiful tree that grows in Tasmania and in southern Victoria.  I grow it here at Swallows Nest Farm for its glossy green long lasting foliage.  I have seen it growing in the wild on Mount Wellington in Hobart, but in the temperate rainforests of the west coast, it is so abundant!  Around 50% of the trees in the forest are Myrtle Beech.  

Myrtle Beech - Nothofagus Cunninghamii

Myrtle Beech is slow growing and can live up to 500 years.  In the west coast rain forests, where the Myrtle Beech are the dominant species they grow up to 40m tall with nobly wizened trunks and a dense canopy high up the tree.

The west coast area has a high yearly average rainfall - between 3 - 4 metres of rain per year.  I heard it said that there is rain in the rain gauge 330 days of the year.  That's a lot of rain!  We were so lucky to be there for 4 consecutive sunny days!

The trunks of the myrtle beech are covered in mosses and lichen.  The dense canopy of the myrtle foliage creates a perfect environment for them to flourish in the wet, deeply shadowed understory.

Myrtle Beech Foliage

The foliage of the Myrtle Beech is really pretty.  It has small glossy green leaves that grow in a fanlike shape.  As a cut foliage they have a long vase life.  

Myrtle Beech canopy

It was great to see the trees growing in their native habitat.

Hogarth Falls

Hogarth Falls is a short, simple bush walk right in Strahan village.  Our kids really loved this walk.  The myrtle towered above abundant ferns and lined the banks of the creek and the waterfall.

The tree ferns are abundant in the west coast.  They are so beautiful!

The colours of new growth

 Early summer brings new growth on our Myrtle Beech at Swallows Nest Farm.  The colours of the fresh leaves are very pretty - orange, pink and red.  

New foliage in red

The new growth is very obvious on this tree.  Unfortunately, it is no good for picking as it wilts quickly.

Once the new growth turns green though, it can be picked without fear of wilting and it lasts really well.    

 In Tasmania, you'll see fresh bunches of myrtle foliage in the local florists.  It is brilliant for use all year round, except in its new growth phase.  It's nice to know a little about this beautiful foliage and its natural habitat, the temperate rain forests of the West Coast.  

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year 2014

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Just a little video that captures the whole year in 30 seconds.