What would an Australian garden be without a wattle or two?
This is Acacia floribunda (also known as the 'Gossamer wattle' or the 'Sally wattle') in full bloom.
Its branches gracefully droop to the ground, and are laden with pale yellow finger-like flower spikes. An extra bonus is its beautiful fruity scent that pervades the garden.
An Austrian work colleague told be that the smallest slip of acacia costs a fortune in Europe. How we take them for granted here! Since roughly 1000 of the world's 1350 species of wattle are native to Australia, it is hardly surprising we consider them just part of the landscape.
However, we are immensely proud of our stunning national flora. This dress perhaps epitomises our pride!
Jan Taylor, Australia's representative at the Miss International beauty pageant in California, 1964, wore this dress as her 'national costume'. It was designed by Beryl Jents, a leading Sydney designer of the 1940s-60s, to promote Australia and Australian fashion to overseas audiences. The dress is embroidered with state floral emblems and wildflowers, including wattle. (Source: National Museum of Australia).
Lovely. I miss my too big and two thirsty Cootamundra's but have managed to sneak one with leaves very much like the one you have here...I am not sure it came with a tag...but I put it on the new nature strip and risked the council pulling it out. They planted a spotty gum in the middle of the space and left it and the sapling liquidambers that are there because all the roots were not removed. And because I am tired of trying to convey that fact to them.....I am letting a little forest of about 5 trees grow. I wonder who will give in first!
ReplyDeleteI think that dress is a fair bit nicer than the one that the Australian contestant wore in the Miss Universe contest this year! :-) (high heeled ug-boots..??)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the beautiful wattle! -it is now adorning my desktop! It is really a lovely reminder that Spring, in Melbourne, is not far away!
ReplyDeletebeautiful dress. I did my first machine embroidery lesson the other night and it is not easy. Practice will make progress but soon decided to stay with applique and quilting. Charmaine
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