Against all odds.

So what do you get when you have red and desolate and wonderfully salty blue, with the occasional downpour -  Plants that are adapted for the driest conditions and the harshest of climates. They are nothing short of stunning. Perhaps needing to be so to attract the insects and the bees.

The first three pictures were taken of plants near Lake Thetis and on Rottnest Island growing in nothing but sand.

The pictures which follow are all from Kings Park - probably the most stunning botanical garden in Australia with an abundance of eucalyptus and gums buddleias, and all sorts of banksias.

The need to keep these coming back every year in those stunning colours is as much in the hands of the rain gods as us.