The oldest Shady Lady waratah in the Waldorf patch
We have a small patch of waratahs at Waldorf and when they where looking their best we decided to visit Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens and check out the waratah collection there. Mt Tomah is on the Bells line of road which runs across the Blue Mountains from Richmond to Lithgow on the northern side of the Grose Valley. We drove from Leura along the GWH to Mt Victoria and crossed over to the Bells line via the Darling causeway and then headed back east to reach Mt Tomah. We were greeted at the entry by a very substantial “Shady Lady” waratah and came across some giants further down the slope.
Mt Tomah entrance Shady Lady
Waratahs further down the slope
We were advised to visit the Heath and Heather section as there has been much work put in there recently. On the way we came across a row of white waratahs and and an unlabelled red waratah with a spectacular flower.
White waratahs
Waratah
We made our way back past the Burnet garden and found a satin bowerbird in his bower. We took a long range photo of bird and bower and as the bower was just over a low hedge beside the path we could take a close look at both the bower itself and it’s decorations as the bird hopped a short distance away.
Satin bowerbird
Looking down into the bower with decorations in front
Our final waratah sighting was of the state emblem of NSW clipped into a lawn. In hindsight I wonder if maybe a dwarfing agent has been used. I am still puzzling about it.
Lawn waratah
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