Windows of Cobh, facing the sea (and cabbage trees). #FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #Ireland
@ThymeFlies all I see are cabbage trees! (ti koura).
@feijoatrees @ThymeFlies
That was my first thought. 'They have cabbage trees in Ireland?'
@BobLefridge @feijoatrees I never heard of cabbage trees! Thanks for enlightening me.

@ThymeFlies @feijoatrees
Cabbage trees are suffering from some sort of blight and have been dying from Northland downwards.

It hasn't reached Otago yet and I still have several fine specimens in my garden. Here's a photo of the tī kōuka at my back door, taken just now.

#CabbageTree #TīKōuka

@BobLefridge @feijoatrees What a lovely photo of the tree in your garden. I just read online that they were introduced to Ireland from New Zealand in1823. Another article (Smithsonian Magazine) says the cabbage palm became popular in Irish gardens and eventually spread to the wild.

@ThymeFlies @feijoatrees
I know they also grow in the south of England and in parts of the EU. And they all began in little old Aotearoa.

When they're in flower the scent is divine.

@ThymeFlies @BobLefridge apologies, I got the Māori name for them wrong - it’s tī kōuka, thanks for the correction. I saw them all over the place in Cornwall when I was there and always wondered when/who bought them back to the UK.