Day 262/366

I know spring has arrived when I see these little beauties in my garden.

I'd say at least seventy five percent of our garden is bush.

So when these Patersonia make an appearance they are like neon lights on a dark night.

I think this one is Patersonia occidentalis.  It flowers in spring through to summer and is one of my favourite naturally occurring native flowering herbaceous plants.

Unfortunately, I have found them impossible to transplant so as a result, they grow wherever they like,including amongst my Italian parsley. 

They are sometimes called native iris or flag iris.

The species Patersonia is named in honour of Col. W. Paterson (1755-1810) 

Paterson (a Scotsman) was trained in horticulture and spent time in South Africa as a botanical collector.

For a while he was also based at Norfolk Island and compiled information about flora and also collected seed for nurseries.