Going through my photos of plants and flowers from Chile, I realized I have way too many for one blog.  So here is the first of a couple of blogs on plants from Chile, both native and introduced.  With its wonderful Mediterranean climate, Santiago boasts both tender and hardy flowering trees.  Outside of Santiago is semi-arid but in the city with water, hardy magnolias rub limbs with exotic flame trees

White star magnolia and pink magnolia with a weeping willow and below the flame tree in Los Dominicos.

Flame tree flowers

In the South American spring, cherries bloom together with jacaranda and paulownia trees, creating a vision of pastel shades.

Jacaranda tree draped over a wall and closeup of flowers

Paulownia tree and flowers

In my garden, the brazilian coral tree decked itself out in scarlet, complementing the native fuschia shrubs planted at its feet

In another part of my garden was the lovely native copihue or chilean bellflower shrub

As you can see, the colours and shapes of the flowers are meant to attract one of Chile’s main pollinators, the tiny beautiful fire crown hummingbird.

Stunning shades of pink are provided by the amazing Chlorisa or silk floss tree, and by the berries of the brazilian pepper tree

Brazilian pepper tree and berries

A flowering crape myrtle and to my surprise our own red flowering chestnut

Although Santiago doesn’t have a lot of parks, it is in many ways a giant botanical park itself and is well worth the visit to see wonderful plants from around the world.