Category: Shade tolerant

  • Dodonaea Hedges

    Dodonaea Hedges

    Dodonaea is a very useful shrub, it grows in heavy to dappled shade and also in full sun, it is a fast growing species that prunes and clips well and it is thick and therefore provides excellent privacy. Dodonaea viscosa purpurea is seen above with its striking red foliage, the leaves turn this colour when…

  • Mt Keira: Site specific local indigenous species

    Mt Keira: Site specific local indigenous species

    There are two reasons why I am going to blog about this garden whilst it is still in the design phase, the first is that I am so excited to be designing a garden using local indigenous species to the Illawarra, the second is that this garden has a creek running through it! I am…

  • Shady Reds: Breynia ‘Ironstone’

    Shady Reds: Breynia ‘Ironstone’

    This is one of those special native plants that has deep red to burgundy foliage when it receives lots of sun, like Agonis ‘Burgundy’. It is  also one of those special native plants that seems to have no height restriction, or rather non that is published, therefore when I found one that is about 10…

  • Portfolio: Gordon Courtyard Garden Design

    Portfolio: Gordon Courtyard Garden Design

    This small courtyard garden is part 2 of a 3 stage garden design for clients on the upper north shore. This was a middle garden that services a flat/studio attached to the main house, to say it was fairly un-loved is an understatement. See the before image below.   It is a shady garden, dominated…

  • One for Brightening up Shady Hollows: Correa pulchella ‘Orange Glow’

    One for Brightening up Shady Hollows: Correa pulchella ‘Orange Glow’

    I was at an open garden today and the Grevilleas were in full bloom everywhere you looked, along with many of the Banksias and even some of the Wattles, however my eye was drawn again and again to this plant. Correa pulchella ‘Orange Glow’ had been planted throughout the garden in hidden shady spots and…

  • Portfolio: Gordon Garden Design

    Portfolio: Gordon Garden Design

    I am really enjoying watching the garden settle in, thank you for all your efforts This is Stage 1 of a garden I am working on in Gordon in the northern suburbs of Sydney. The front garden went in about 6 months ago and has flourished over the summer months with the loving care of…

  • Extremely fast growing screen: Homalanthus populifolius

    Extremely fast growing screen: Homalanthus populifolius

    You have to love a species that can pop up by itself, grow a couple of metres in a year and will do so in full shade. Well I do anyway, although it may appear uninvited in your garden (it is easy to pull out) I have had the experience of it growing in just…

  • Portfolio: Connells Point Consults

    Portfolio: Connells Point Consults

    I had the pleasure today of revisiting some regular clients in Connells Point for some follow up advice. I first began helping with this garden in 2013 and then planted and weeded some areas that were more difficult to get to. You see, this is an amazing garden, it has three distinct areas and is…

  • Portfolio: Garden Design Lillyfield

    Portfolio: Garden Design Lillyfield

    Thanks so much for our garden Kath, we love it! I love this garden too! I love its quirky, modern feel where details are appreciated, the client pushed me to think out of the box more than I normally do. This is a small garden by suburban standards but large by inner city ones. It…

  • One of the Best Street Trees: Buckinghamia celsissima

    One of the Best Street Trees: Buckinghamia celsissima

    This is Buckinghamia celsissima or the Ivory Curl tree, it is another small to medium tree that is in flower over the summer months, chances are you have seen it around, it is VERY hard to miss. I saw this one on a street in Mosman, I think it was planted by a resident as there…

  • Portfolio: Leichhardt Garden Design

    Portfolio: Leichhardt Garden Design

    This garden was finished yesterday (Hoooray!) except for three plants I am still waiting for to complete the front, then it will be something else front and back. This small terrace was renovated a year ago and after a much protracted waiting period for clean up we were able to start work on the garden…

  • Small Shade Tree: Tristaniopsis laurina

    Small Shade Tree: Tristaniopsis laurina

    I am often asked to recommend a small shade tree, something that can fit in a small garden and has a dense canopy which you can sit under. Most people also ask for a tree with lush foliage and showy flowers and perhaps decorative bark, plus they usually request it to be quick growing…..well this…

  • The Very Loveable Parsley Bush: Lomatia silaifolia

    The Very Loveable Parsley Bush: Lomatia silaifolia

    This is Lomatia silaifolia or Parsley Bush, a very under-utilised plant in most native gardens, I include Lomatia in many of my gardens as it grows in shade or full sun, it is a reliable when it comes to flowering and grows very quickly. Many people look at Lomatia and think it is a Grevillea,…

  • Wombarra Sculpture Gardens

    Wombarra Sculpture Gardens

    The Wombarra sculpture garden is best described by the owners own words below …a distinctive Illawarra rainforest native garden in harmony with sculpture. Gaby Porter and John Haymes bought the four hectare property in 1997 and have lovingly transformed it into a private oasis to share for art and garden lovers alike. http://www.wombarra.com The garden is…

  • Native Lawn Substitute: Dichondra repens

    Native Lawn Substitute: Dichondra repens

    I paid a visit to one of my old garden designs last week and discovered that since I had last seen the garden it has become completely lawn free, as in grass lawn. The owner has been busily dividing up tube stock of Dichondra repens in order to give him green pathways throughout the garden,…

  • Blue Tongue: Melastoma affine

    Blue Tongue: Melastoma affine

    This showy little shrub is Melastoma affine or Native Lasiandra, it really does look like a dwarf form of the incredibly popular south American Tibouchina, which lights up the streets of many inner western Sydney suburbs. However, this is not only an Australian native Lasiandra but is also a bush food. After the flowers finish…

  • Another Favourite Grafted Grevillea: Grevillea candelabra ‘Pink’

    Another Favourite Grafted Grevillea: Grevillea candelabra ‘Pink’

    Grevillea candelabra Grafted is another grafted Grevillea that I am rather fond of, it is not as showy or unusual as some of the other grafted species, but it has proven to be an incredibly versatile and useful plant for me time and again. There are a Pink and a White form both of which…

  • One of my Favourite Grevillea Groundcovers: Grevillea curviloba

    One of my Favourite Grevillea Groundcovers: Grevillea curviloba

    I have been waiting a long time to be able to photograph Grevillea curviloba in full flower, it is a favourite of mine even when not in flower. Finally, I came across two specimens in a private garden that were both covered in blooms, and full of native bees, mind you. Introducing Grevillea curviloba! Hooorah!…

  • Exotic looking native: Rhododendron lochiae

    Exotic looking native: Rhododendron lochiae

    There are several native plants that I like to use when either designing a planting that already has some exotic species established or when trying to convince people that not all native plants are straggly, open and dry looking. This is one of them Rhododendron lochiae, isn’t it beautiful? It has dark glossy green leaves and…

  • Shade Tolerant Grevillea: Grevillea oleoides

    Shade Tolerant Grevillea: Grevillea oleoides

    There aren’t that many Grevilleas that grow well in shade, let alone also flower in positions with limited sun. Grevillea oleoides is one of them, along with Grevillea sericea,  sherissii and rhyolitica then you have a small group of faithfully. I love the shape of oleo ides the best though, it is un-usual how the…

  • Easy to grow WA species for the East Coast

    Easy to grow WA species for the East Coast

    Another one! and this one is a winner, it ticks so many boxes and it is hard to believe it comes from southern WA. Gastrolobium celsianum or Brachysema celsianum is a wonderful native plant, it is relatively easy to source, grows quickly and flowers in shade. It has beautiful grey green, foliage and plenty of…

  • Shady Winter Purple: Hovea acutifolia

    Shady Winter Purple: Hovea acutifolia

    Hovea acutifolia always takes my breath away when I see it in full bloom, it is quite something. For most of the year it is an almost nondescript medium sized shrub that is useful for filling shady spots in the garden. Then BAM it covers itself in these happy little purple flowers that are almost…

  • 4 Reliable Shadies

    4 Reliable Shadies

    I have been visiting many shady gardens lately, where there hasn’t really been much scope for planting anything besides ferns and their relatives. This has made me stop and think about tough, reliable shade plants, natives for ground cover, lower layer and upper layer, that can co-exist underneath the canopy of large rainforest trees such…

  • Bush Food Spheres: Citriobatus pauciflorus

    Bush Food Spheres: Citriobatus pauciflorus

    I was quite taken when I saw these well clipped Orange Thorn a few weeks back in the edible section at Mount Anan Botanic Gardens, this section of the garden is kept quite manicured, bringing out the ornamental potential of all of the local Bush Food plants. And lets face it, I am a sucker…