Anyway, with lots of time, a very active dog & all that state forest at the bottom fence.. who could resist exploring, not me thats for sure. It was here i reconnected with the australian bush as I had when I was a young kid on family holidays (there wasnt much in the way of bush in sydneys western suburbs during the 70's&80's). It is also here that i started collecting natives again & amongst them was a beautiful little local plant Flame heath (Astroloma as I now know).. I finally managed to get one to survive transplanting and it was coming on strong. Then i moved to the Yarra valley, it died not long after the move (most likely too damp & wet). On settling in the Hunter Valley it was only natural to start looking around at what was growing for me to play with. And I spotted my first Hibbertia, it was not in flower & at the time I thought it looked alot like the Astroloma I knew & loved from Vic. So I found a nice little one to try and collect .. well it not only survived but thrived. That was late summer, Astroloma should flower during winter and when it didnt i wasnt bothered, it was alive, i must have cut the waiting buds off when i trimmed up to collect.
Then a strange thing happened, I went out one morning to find some odd hairy little balls forming on my plant. Had it flowered & i not noticed (hard to believe but still possible). So over the coming months i watched & waited as those balls got bigger & bigger until they really looked quite silly atop that tiny foliage. It seemed like forever but finally somethings happening, its splitting, wil it be seed? what is it? WOW.. and I am hooked. Since then I have collected several more of the species and am always looking for more... This is the current lot that are on my benchs, with a few more not quite ready for that photo shoot yet. Matt
