Gardens from Eden

22/09/2026

🌸 Secret Orchid Country… somewhere near Munglinup! 👀🌿

There are some Western Australian wildflower locations that are simply too special to put on a map, and this hidden patch of bushland near Munglinup on Western Australia’s south coast is one of them.

Every spring, during WA wildflower season, what at first looks like ordinary bush becomes an extraordinary botanical treasure hunt. Slow down, look carefully and suddenly the native orchids of Western Australia start appearing. 🔍🌸

We discovered brilliant Purple Enamel Orchids, golden Cowslip Orchids splashed with reddish markings, elegant Spider Orchids, quirky Donkey Orchids and beautiful Sun Orchids, along with tiny terrestrial orchids so well camouflaged that you can walk straight past them.

And it’s not just the orchids putting on a show. Brilliant scarlet Lechenaultia stands out against the surrounding vegetation, while vivid blue squills, delicate sundews and other spring wildflowers add splashes of colour throughout the bush. ❤️💙🌿

Finding them is half the fun. One minute you see nothing; the next, your eyes adjust and there are orchids seemingly everywhere. 💜💛❤️

For anyone interested in Australian native plants, botany, horticulture, orchid photography or wildflower photography, spring on Western Australia’s south coast is something very special.

It’s also a reminder to explore carefully, and stay on existing tracks where possible, tread lightly, never pick wildflowers and leave every orchid exactly where you found it.**

📍 Somewhere near Munglinup, Western Australia, and that’s as precise as I’m getting! 😉🤫

👉 Which would you rather discover, an Enamel, Spider or Sun Orchid?

💾 Save this for your next Western Australian wildflower adventure
🌿 Share it with an orchid or native plant lover
➕ Follow Colin Barlow | Landscape Designer for more gardens, plants, wildflowers and botanical adventures from Western Australia and around the world.

18/09/2026

🌸 Orchid hunting in one of WA’s Wilflower hotspots!🌸

Blink and you could walk straight past some of the most extraordinary flowers hiding in the bush around Kukenarup Memorial near Ravensthorpe. 👀🌿

Spring in this part of Western Australia is something else. Kukenarup, about 15km west of Ravensthorpe, is not only an important place for reflection and reconciliation, but also a wonderful little wildflower and orchid hotspot. The short walk through the natural bushland can reveal an astonishing amount of botanical treasure.

And the orchids are the stars! 🌸🔍

Look carefully and you may discover Dancing Spider Orchids (Caladenia discoidea),Purple Enamel Orchids (Elythranthera brunonis), Lemon-scented Sun Orchids (Thelymitra antennifera), Cowslip Orchids (Caladenia flava) and the current stars of the show Red Beaks (Pyrorchis nigricans).

🔥 But here’s where nature gets really interesting…

Fire can completely change the display. In recently burnt country, the removal of dense vegetation and the ecological response to fire can create spectacular bursts of new growth. Around Ravensthorpe we’ve been seeing brilliant red Leschenaultia (Lechenaultia formosa) and vivid blue-purple Dampiera and rare kangaroo paws pushing through the regenerating landscape, splashes of colour against blackened stems and bare earth. Red Beaks are another fascinating orchid to watch for in fire-affected country.

It is a beautiful reminder that the Australian bush is constantly changing, regenerating and surprising us. 🌱🔥🌸

And Ravensthorpe certainly has the botanical credentials: the surrounding region is internationally renowned for its extraordinary plant diversity, with orchids, Banksia, Hakea, Grevillea, Acacia and countless smaller treasures appearing through the spring season.

📍 Kukenarup Memorial | Ravensthorpe, Western Australia

💬 Which would stop you in your tracks, a tiny native orchid or a mass of brilliant red wildflowers?

Save this for your next WA wildflower road trip and send it to someone who loves hunting for orchids! 🌸🔍

17/09/2026

🌸 Orchid Heaven, but only for two weeks!🌸

One of spring’s best-kept secrets on WA’s south coast is hiding near Hopetoun… and you have to be quick to see it! 🌿💜

The beautiful Springdale Courtyard Café, beside the Jerdacuttup River, opens for just two weeks each year, when the surrounding bushland comes alive with native wildflowers and some extraordinary terrestrial orchids.

And there’s not long left, this Sunday is the final day for 2026! ⏰🌸

Walking through the natural bushland around Springdale is a little like going on a botanical treasure hunt. 👀 Among the orchids recorded around the Springdale, Jerdacuttup area are the brilliant purple enamel orchid, cowslip orchid, white and reaching spider orchids, zebra orchid, dancing spider orchid, lemon-scented sun orchid,rabbit orchid and tiny mignonette orchids.

The surrounding landscape is just as interesting, with eucalypt woodland, paperbarks and spring wildflowers creating the perfect backdrop for these tiny botanical jewels. 🌳🌼

What makes WA’s native orchids so fascinating is how easy they are to miss. Some are only centimetres tall, yet up close their colours, markings and intricate flower structures are extraordinary. Macro photography definitely recommended! 📸

Add a coffee, delicious cake or lunch at the courtyard café and this has to be one of the most unusual wildflower experiences on the Fitzgerald Coast. ☕️🌿

💜 SAVE this post for your next WA wildflower adventure.
🌸 SHARE it with an orchid lover who needs to see this.
👇 Which WA native orchid is your favourite?

WAOrchids WildflowerSeason SpringInWA SpringWildflowers HopetounWA FitzgeraldCoast Jerdacuttup OrchidPhotography WildflowerPhotography AustralianNativePlants NativePlants PlantLovers Botany Horticulture NaturePhotography ExploreWA WanderOutYonder SeeAustralia WildflowerHunting

13/09/2026

🌸 Welcome to one of the world’s great wildflower treasure chests! 🌿⛰️

If you think you’ve seen spectacular Western Australian wildflowers, wait until you explore Fitzgerald River National Park in spring. 💛❤️💚

Stretching between Bremer Bay and Hopetoun, “the Fitz” is an extraordinary botanical stronghold, with around 1,800 species of flowering plants recorded across its rugged landscapes. Dozens occur nowhere else on Earth.

And right now, spring is putting on the show! 🌼

⭐ One of the absolute stars is the remarkable Royal Hakea, Hakea victoria, a living sculpture whose spectacular cream, yellow, orange and red foliage looks almost too colourful to be real. Colonial botanist James Drummond encountered this extraordinary plant here in 1847 and named it in honour of Queen Victoria.

🔔 Then there’s the beautiful Qualup Bell, Pimelea physodes, with its pendulous cream, green and burgundy flower heads; the brilliant crimson Barrens Regelia, Regelia velutina; and the spectacular Showy Banksia, Banksia speciosa. Hakeas, Banksias, Melaleucas, Eucalyptus, pea flowers and colourful heathland species add layer upon layer to this botanical tapestry. 🌿

The scenery is just as impressive. East, Mid and West Mount Barren rise dramatically from the landscape, part of the rugged quartzite Barren Ranges. Despite their name, these mountains are anything but barren! In fact, their unusual geology and soils support an astonishing concentration of specialised plants. . Today the park is internationally recognised for its biodiversity and walking through it in spring makes it very easy to understand why. 🌏🌸

📸 SWIPE THROUGH and tell me: which Fitzgerald favourite gets your vote. Is it the Royal Hakea, Qualup Bell or Barrens Regelia? 👇

And save this post for your next Western Australian wildflower road trip. 🌿🚙

11/09/2026

🌸Where the wildflowers meet the mountains! ⛰️🌿

Spring in Western Australia doesn’t get much more spectacular than Stirling Range National Park or Koi Kyeunu-ruff.

Rising dramatically from the surrounding Great Southern plains, this rugged 65km-long mountain range is one of WA’s great botanical treasures. Its cloud-covered peaks, rocky slopes, sheltered gullies and woodlands support an astonishing 1,500+ plant species, with around 80 found nowhere else on Earth. 🌏🌼

And spring is when the bush really puts on a show!

Look closely and you may discover delicate mountain bells (Darwinia spp.), brilliant Banksias, Hakeas, Grevilleas, Kingias and an extraordinary assortment of terrestrial orchids hiding amongst the heath. In fact, around 138 orchid species have been recorded in the park. 🌸🔍

One of the stars is the spectacular scarlet banksia (Banksia coccinea), its vivid red flower spikes standing out brilliantly against the surrounding bushland. Eucalypts and wandoo woodlands add another layer to this remarkably diverse landscape.

⛰️ Then there are the mountains themselves, Bluff Knoll/Bular Mial, Toolbrunup Peak, Mount Trio, Mount Hassell, Mount Magog and Talyuberlup. Their differences in altitude, soil, exposure, rainfall and temperature create a patchwork of tiny habitats, one reason so many different plants have evolved here. But this landscape has a story stretching far beyond its wildflowers.

Known to the Mineng and Goreng Noongar people as Koi Kyeunu-ruff, meaning roughly “mist rolling around the mountains”, the range has profound cultural and spiritual significance. European explorer Matthew Flinders recorded sighting the mountains in 1802, while Surveyor General John Septimus Roe named them the Stirling Range in 1835 after Governor James Stirling. The area became a national park in 1913 and was added to Australia’s National Heritage List in 2006 for its extraordinary biodiversity. 📸 Which would stop you in your tracks first, rare orchid, a majestic Kingia or that incredible view across the peaks?

10/09/2026

🌸 From whales to wildflowers….Albany is full of surprises🌿🐋

You might come to Albany’s Historic Whaling Station for the whales and maritime history, but right next door is another Great Southern treasure, the Regional Wildflower Garden. And in spring, it really comes alive!

Set against the dramatic coastal landscape of the Torndirrup Peninsula, overlooking Frenchman Bay and surrounded by Albany’s ancient granite country, this remarkable garden showcases thousands of native plants from one of the most botanically diverse regions on Earth.

🌿 Wander the boardwalks and you’ll discover plants representing the coastal regions around Albany, Bremer Bay, Ravensthorpe and Esperance. Keep an eye out for some of the Great Southern’s wonderfully distinctive flora, including Anigozanthos, Banksia, Hakea, Grevillea, Melaleuca and Eucalyptus species.

There are around 8,000 plants in the main Walken Djet, meaning Rainbow Flower garden, with special areas representing approximately 50 species, including rare and endangered plants. A restored wetland adds yet another habitat, attracting birds, frogs and other wildlife.

Right now is a particularly good time to visit. Spring 2026 is bringing the garden back into colour,

📸 For plant lovers, gardeners and photographers, this is one of those places where you need to slow down and look closely, sometimes the smallest WA wildflowers are the most extraordinary.

💬 Which Great Southern wildflower would stop you in your tracks?
Save this for your next Albany adventure and send it to someone who loves WA wildflowers. 🌸👇

07/09/2026

You don’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres to experience Western Australia’s incredible spring wildflowers. Just minutes from the city, Wireless Hill Park at Ardross is putting on its annual botanical show. 🌿📸

This beautiful pocket of urban bushland is one of my favourite places for a spring wander, particularly when you slow down and start looking at what’s flowering beneath your feet.

❤️💚 One of the stars is WA’s floral emblem, the red and green kangaroo paw, Anigozanthos manglesii. Look a little closer and you can discover an extraordinary miniature world of cowslip, donkey, spider, sun, rattlebeak and greenhood orchids, along with colourful triggerplants, fringe lilies, sundews, catspaws and native shrubs.

Among the species recorded here are the carousel spider orchid Caladenia arenicola, blue sun orchid Thelymitra macrophylla, banded greenhood Pterostylis sanguinea, purple tassels Sowerbaea laxiflora, pink triggerplant Stylidium brunonianum and the wonderfully architectural grass tree Xanthorrhoea preissii. 🌱

And Wireless Hill is about much more than flowers.

For thousands of years this elevated site has been significant to the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, including as a lookout and place of communication. Then, in 1912, the Applecross Wireless Station opened here, using an enormous mast to communicate by radio with ships. The station went on to play an important role in Australian communications before being decommissioned in 1967. 📡

Today, nature has reclaimed centre stage and the reserve is a wonderful reminder of just how much biodiversity can survive within our suburbs when remnant bushland is protected. 🌼 August to October is prime wildflower time, so September is a great time to explore the trails, camera or phone in hand.

👉 SAVE this post for your next spring walk and SHARE it with someone who loves WA wildflowers.

14/08/2026

Who would like to join me on a tour of English gardens in spring and the opening day of the Chelsea Flower Show with Ross Tours in 2027?

08/08/2026

06/08/2026

🌿 A midsummer masterpiece in the heart of Edinburgh.🌿

Early summer is one of the most rewarding times to explore the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where over 350 years of botanical history meet world-class horticultural design. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden for growing medicinal plants, it has evolved into one of the world’s leading botanic gardens, blending scientific research with stunning ornamental displays.

At this time of year, vibrant herbaceous borders are bursting with colour from elegant Delphinium, Salvia, Persicaria, Echinacea and graceful drifts of Astilbe, while magnificent specimens of Hydrangea add bold splashes of blue, pink and white throughout the landscape. Towering mature trees including majestic Sequoiadendron giganteum, stately Fagus sylvatica, elegant Acer palmatum and the iconic Araucaria araucana provide structure, texture and year-round interest.

Every garden room has its own character. The intricate rock garden recreates alpine habitats with remarkable precision, the tranquil Chinese Hillside celebrates the beauty of Asian landscapes, and sweeping lawns, carefully framed vistas and expertly layered planting demonstrate why this garden continues to inspire gardeners and landscape designers from around the globe.

Whether you’re fascinated by rare plants, inspired by exceptional planting combinations or simply searching for your next favourite garden, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a place you’ll want to visit again and again.

Which part would you head to first, the Rock Garden, the Chinese Hillside, or the spectacular herbaceous borders? 🌿👇


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