The silver cascading Banksia ‘Roller Coaster’

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This is one of the most useful native plants around, a prostrate form of the coast Banksia, Banksia integrifolia. I like to use it for covering embankments like the one in these images at the Bulli Grevillea Park. It also layers upon itself giving it some height and density and therefore creating a useful mounding shape.

The lemon Banksia flowers appear in Winter and are excellent for attracting birds, the dense layering also makes it a great wildlife habitat plant.

However one of the main reasons I love this plant is not just because its a Banksia 😉 but for its contrasting foliage. Check out the silvery white on the under side of those leaves!  Banksia ‘Roller Coaster’ like its parent coast banksia likes a well drained soil in full sun or part shade.

Banksia ‘Roller Coaster’ does get rather large, left to its own devices it will get to 1.5 metres wide and about half a metre high, it can be pruned to keep it more compact or manageable in a smaller garden. I love its rambling, rambunctious shape and its ability to reduce soil erosion is also very useful, so if you have the space plant one and see what it would like to do in your garden.

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