You know, I think it might be Jackaranda filicifolia also known as 'The Fern Tree'! Both filicifolia and mimosafolia are similar except that mimosafolia has much paler and slightly smaller flowers. The depth of colour in your pictures look to be nearer a deep violet blue, which is the colour of filicifolia. Mimosafolia is grown widely here along the east coast of New South Wales, Australia, and in fact my old hort. teacher reckoned they grow better here than in their native Brazil. The village of Grafton here has a 'Jackaranda festival' every year - they have avenues of them. I have one in my front garden and while the gound and lawn looks lovely covered in blue flowers around November/December, I certainly don't park my car under it. Not only do their mimosa like leaves fall and get into every nook and cranny just before flowering, but the sky-blue flowers, while they look lovely as a ground carpet, can make a mess of your car. There is also a white variety. All 3 are indeed lovly trees.

The property behind mine has gone into foreclosure and is now up for sale by the bank that took the loan through the FDIC after the previous bank (holder of the loan) went bust. To give you an idea of relative property values here since the crash, this 10 acre tract sold for $3.3 million about 4 years ago. That's $330,000 per acre. It had been a private residence and then a paso fino horse breeding farm for the years prior to its purchase by a developer who wanted to put a bunch of high price homes on it. The developer spent much money and effort trying to get the property re-zoned from Agricultural to Residential. After a two year fight, they succeeded in getting approval to put 28 houses on this property and its adjacent 5 acre tract on the corner of my street. .....only to be met with a market crash just prior to ground breaking. Now the property is listed for sale at $1.1 million or $110,000 an acre. I'm hoping the property doesn't sell as a 10 acre unit and the bank wants to carve it up and get it off their books, cheap. The back 2.5 or so acres is directly behind my property and would hopefully cost significantly less per acre than the going current rate since it would have no access to the roads. So, I am saving my pennies... Harry

A nice structure Bill,and will be a feature that will last.Too hot for almost any gardening here last week-4 days over 41c - but we are lucky we always get a cool change and the weather looks great for the next week. chas

Robert I think you're making an issue out of something that perhaps not many of the forum members think is an issue. There have been plenty of correspondants whose writings show that (like me) they enjoy growing exotics as well as natives. It's the "diversity = growing exotics" thing that is the sticking point. Growing exotics so often means just more of the world-wide sameyness of gardens. Like you, I see many interesting and beautiful gardens full of exotics, but I don't think they represent diversity. They look like so many pictures in so many books from so many parts of the world. Wouldn't it be fun to drive into an Australian town, look at the gardens, and say - well, here's a place where the gardens have CHARACTER! And it happens sometimes. For the most part, though, suburban gardens from one end of Australia to the other look much the same. And gardens in most parts of the western world are clearly planted by people who read the same books as we do. How disappointing I found it to walk down a suburban street in Germany and find that exept for their size, any of those gardens could have been in my home town. I saw a new daisy in the markets there, and wondered how long it would be before I began seeing it in Australian Gardens. (It was two months.) At least by growing natives (whether exclusively, or just by growing a few)- we are refusing to take part in the wholesale conversion of our landscape to something that could be anywhere in the world. Australian plants are so hugely diverse (especially if you move beyond the myrtaceae, proteaceae, and mimosaceae family members which are still the overwhelming majority of speces planted)that there is something for every style of gardening. Yes, there is a place for exotics. Surely that goes without saying. But this is a native plants forum, after all. And the introduded weeds issue is not just something for the old crusties. Here in SE Qld, an average of nine plants jump the garden fence and become naturalised every year. It's not just a matter of "what's here now is probably here to stay". It's that as a nation we are still refusing to take responsibility for a galloping environmental problem caused by an industry which refuses to take responsibility for it. And the industry is supported by many, many gardeners who think that "but I like it" is a good enough reason for putting in any plant they happen to take a fancy to. The assumption that anyone who sits up and takes notice of the disappearance of native species is some sort of bigoted "old crusty" who will "put people off" native plants is no help. Yes, there are old crusties in all walks of life, including gardeing, but the idea that the pro-native extremists are the only kind doesn't fit. Why should we be bending over backwards to protect the sensibilities of all those other "old crusties" - the ones who think that if a plant can't be found in a gardening magazine, and bought at a garden centre it must automatically be...