Category: Ornamental grass

  • Portfolio: Marrickville Sketch Design

    Portfolio: Marrickville Sketch Design

    This is a garden that I have been visiting for a couple of years now, each time I spend an hour or two doing some sketches for the owners to move to the next ‘stage’. It is a wonderful garden spilling over with healthy plants, edibles mixed in with exotics and natives all thriving and…

  • Native Plants at the Sydney Garden Show 2014

    Native Plants at the Sydney Garden Show 2014

    After a rather long shift at a stall in the Sydney Garden Show yesterday I got to have a very quick scoot around and check out some of the display gardens. I hardly need to say that I was totally biased and basically only the ones containing native plants caught my eye. The main garden…

  • Water Garden Planting

    Water Garden Planting

    Water is an important part of every garden, it encourages wildlife and can be a useful feature adding a tranquil peaceful element. Planting out a water garden is a great opportunity to discover some wonderful native plants, that flower and have striking foliage like other ornamental plantings, if grouped with some thought the plants will…

  • Portfolio: Bundeena Re-visited

    Portfolio: Bundeena Re-visited

    We really, really love our garden and are so happy to spend time in it…   When I walked up to the front gate of this garden last week I must admit I was quite moved, moved by how settled the plants looked, moved by the quick growth and the way the garden is beginning…

  • Eucalyptus ‘Silver Princess’ at Heide

    Eucalyptus ‘Silver Princess’ at Heide

    I accidentally visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art last month, WOW it was a pretty wonderful accident! They have the most beautiful sculpture gardens, which are expansive and great for kids. The art Gallery itself is also an impressive building surrounded in native gardens with a bit of an edge. I saw this wonderful…

  • WBG: Towrie Centre Gardens

    WBG: Towrie Centre Gardens

    Last week I went to a fantastic seed collection workshop held at Wollongong Botanic Gardens in their Towrie Centre, I had never really been to this part of the gardens before and was really envious of the great job they have done. There is a large part of the garden that was bush tucker but…

  • A little research….

    A little research….

    A little research can go a long way. Take some time to think about what you are putting in the ground, I love this photo, I took it several years ago and for me it tells a story. Someone thought it might be a good idea to match their planting with their paint work (nothing…

  • Shade-loving Ornamental Grass: Libertia paniculata

    Shade-loving Ornamental Grass: Libertia paniculata

    This is the first time I have seen Libertia paniculata growing naturally in the bush, I was quite taken aback to see it flowering and spreading out naturally almost like it had been mass planted. It truly is super hardy, even here it was looking lush and green, growing in full shade as an understory…

  • Australian Plants Society Open Gardens: Hogue Garden Jannali

    Australian Plants Society Open Gardens: Hogue Garden Jannali

    This was such a diverse garden, diverse in style with lots of different areas and plantings. When I saw the garden it was full of sun, enabling the owner to grow almost anything! The different areas were almost like little “rooms” and I can imagine moving about the garden during a day letting the sun…

  • Spring Yellow: Conostylis candicans

    Spring Yellow: Conostylis candicans

    What better colour to welcome spring with than yellow! Goodbye winter! However it is feeling a little bit like we have headed straight into summer here on the NSW east coast, which I find a little bit frightening, it is looking like a confusing time for plants at the moment, anyway thats another topic altogether… This…

  • Soft Feathery Grass: Baloskion tetraphyllum

    Soft Feathery Grass: Baloskion tetraphyllum

    I tend to use a lot of grasses in my gardens, I am not totally reliant on them and can manage without, however I mostly use plants with a weeping, soft appearance, and grasses are valuable in creating texture and contrast in a garden. This is Baloskion tetraphyllum, one of my favourites for its vibrant…

  • Portfolio: North Bondi Garden Design

    Portfolio: North Bondi Garden Design

    This is a very young garden, as it was planted out only 10 months ago, I think the establishment of the garden is amazing. This is a coastal garden, basically second line coastal, with strong salt laden winds and a very very sandy soil. The clients wanted a native ‘cottage’ style garden with plenty of…

  • Portfolio: Engadine Garden Design

    Portfolio: Engadine Garden Design

    I designed this garden in Sydney’s southern suburbs in the spring of 2010, it was built and planted shortly after and has flourished. Every time I visit I am amazed at how quickly the plants are becoming established. I love the garden, it is exactly what I wanted, I am so happy with it  …

  • Lomandra as a fence screen

    Lomandra as a fence screen

    When I planted these Lomandra hystrix I had no idea that they would work so well to cover the 1.8m high fence, now when I look at this area I realise how perfect they are.It is a difficult spot, fairly shady and not a great deal of soil but these Lomandras have filled out nicely…

  • Groundcover grass: Themeda ‘Mingo’

    Groundcover grass: Themeda ‘Mingo’

    I am slowly discovering all the different forms of Kangaroo grass, trust me there are more than you think! This is a blue form which is so weeping it is basically like a ground cover. Native ornamental grasses can fulfil so many rolls in the garden, they can be borders, edging, provide habitat, food for…

  • Themeda grasses

    Themeda grasses

    Themeda australis or triandra or any of the Themeda species have highly decorative seed heads and a soft weeping habit. 

  • Sesame Seed flavoured Flax

    Sesame Seed flavoured Flax

    This is Linum marginale seeds or fruit, it has a lovely blue flower but I am more drawn to the dried seed pods left on the stalks after flowering. 

  • Spear Lily: Doryanthes palmeri

    Spear Lily: Doryanthes palmeri

    This is Doryanthes palmeri or the Spear Lily, a striking feature plant similar to the Gymea Lily except that it has a flower spike that leans over and isn’t spherical and the foliage is less clumping and more linear. 

  • Favourite grass

    Favourite grass

    Ficinia nodosa or as previously known Isolepsis is one of my favourite grasses, it grows anywhere from sand dunes to swamps. 

  • Bold broad leaf “Architectural Plant”

    Bold broad leaf “Architectural Plant”

    This is Moraea robinsoniana in flower, to match its bold foliage it has this large striking flower head which is also then followed by decorative blue fruit.

  • Yellow and grey green

    Yellow and grey green

    This is the paper daisy Bracteantha bracteata growing amongst a bed of Themeda ‘Mingo’, the grass creates a beautifully soft looking ground cover that sets off the strong shape and colour of the daisy.