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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…
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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…
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Lovely, Prickly…
There are many lovely pricklies, lovely because they are prickly and just lovelies that happen to be prickly, Acacia amblygona is both. This is a low growing sprawling wattle, that appears thick and luscious from a distance but then when you touch it you get a little shock, it is not as tactile as it…
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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…
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Soft, Luscious Screen: Acacia fimbriata Dwarf
Acacia fimbriata Dwarf has a puffy sort of look to it from a distance, it is a full bushy shrub with a cloud-like texture. One of the most useful plants that I use in a landscape, as it has enough interest to stand on its own by contrasting with other foliage and form around it…
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Ode to Banksia spinulosa
Banksia’s may possibly be my favourite Genus of Native plants and this particular species could well be top of that list. I was at a clients garden this afternoon and we were lovingly looking at his Banksia spinulosa and stroking the new growth and commenting on what a wonderful plant it is. There is something…
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Correa Tangent
Seeing as I have started on the topic of Correas I thought I may as well continue, here is another of my very favourite Correas that is such a useful plant in the landscape. Correa baeuerlenii or Chef’s Hat Correa is found naturally growing on the south coast of NSW on shady, damp sites, therefore it…
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Coastal Correa ground cover : Correa alba prostrate
I have been trying to wait until I have a photo of this useful low growing shrub in flower and I’m sure I do somewhere but I have become impatient! This is a ground cover form of Correa alba and I have been finding it to be a wonderful performer under the most difficult conditions.…
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Native Bees
All winter long, on warm sunny days I have been able to step into my garden and hear the low humming from the bees in my Eucalypts, at times the noise has been breath takingingly loud. It has been a wonderful reminder on another one of the roles that the indigenous trees on my block…
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The Wonder of Wildflowers!
This is a little class/chat/presentation I am giving in September, with Wild Rumpus all about Illawarra’s wonderful wildflowers that are starting to flower now! I will be chatting about where you can see a good range of spring flowers around Wollongong, where the best bush walks are, what you might like to try growing yourself and…
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Favourites for Shady Planting: Leionema ‘Green Screen’
I collect a lot of favourites for shady planting, it has become somewhat of a hobby to find natives that will grow in difficult shady spots. Dry shade, moist shade, windy shade, winter shade and summer sun…..screening for shade, you get the picture. So this is one of my new discoveries, Leionema ‘Green Screen’ I…
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Winter Reds
I have been away a little bit lately, well more away from my garden than anywhere else. So I haven’t been noticing all the details, just madly rushing about planting, watering and spending more time in other peoples gardens than my own. So when I returned home on the weekend I was greeted by the…
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Grevillea Park pipes
I went to the Grevillea Park in Bulli on the weekend, I haven’t been for over a year and was delighted to find something new and exciting as always! They have created a big impact planting with a dozen or so concrete pipes, which are overflowing with a beautiful selection of natives. In the centre…
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Black Stump
This is a native garden I visited when it was open in April 2012, it shows you what can be done when someone with a lot of drive and passion finds a blank canvas. It truly amazes me that so many beautiful garden are created by one or two people. Black Stump Natives is located on the…
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Some Favourite Late Winter Flowering Natives
The end of a very dismal grey wet period has come finally! and the sun is appearing ever so bright and dazzling, I have been to the beach 4 times in the last three days, rejoicing! So I thought I would focus on those wonderful winter flowering natives that always amaze me in the colder…
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White flowering Grevillea ‘Ivory Whip’
There is something pure and classic about white flowers, and I am one for a riot of colour most of the time, however I do think this white flowering Grevilleas is one of my favourites. It is a grafted specimen and one of the hardier species to withstand our humid east coast conditions.
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Daisies make me happy 2
This is the second instalment of my ode to native daisies, there are too many types and cvs. to choose from so I have grouped these together as they are more of a ground cover with a smaller flower. They are beautiful mixed together planted as a native meadow.
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Daisies make me happy
I went to the Blue Mountains over the long weekend and not only at Mt Tomah gardens, but also on the property I was staying, the paper daisies were popping up their sunny heads.
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Low growing shrub: Correa ‘Dusky Bells’
There are not too many low growing shrubs that look lush and green, yet grow in dry shade and flower their heads off regardless the weather, these are the reasons for loving Correas especially this one Correa ‘Dusky Bells’.
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Eremophilas as ground cover: Eremophila ‘Kalbarri Carpet’
I have been experimenting more and more with Eremophilas, starting off with the easy to grow ones like Eremophila maculata in its many forms, but this one here, that is super hardy even in humidity and clay soils, is by far my favourite.
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Dwarf Dwarf Dwarf Banksia: Banksia ‘Coastal Cushions’
Dwarf, low growing, ground cover, shrub or little Banksias are showing up everywhere, and there isn’t a plant I’m more happy to see coming into ‘fashion’.
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Acacia cardiophylla
I am always on the look out for small “feature trees”, something that can be planted in front of a hedge and still be walked under. Or to be placed in a garden bed and have enough space to have some underplanting beneath the canopy.
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Banksia as small trees: Banksia marginata
Every Australian Native garden should have at least one Banksia, even if it is a ground cover or low spreading shrub, they are a signature plant. Banksia marginata grows to be a beautiful small tree with a thick canopy and often very low lying branches, therefore they can make an excellent large screening plant. The…
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shady planting
This is a great example of colourful planting in shade, it is a simple combination of Baekea virgata dwarf, Indigofera australis and Thryptomene FC Payne. The Baekea is the lime green mound on the left which naturally looks like it has had a shapely prune, the Indigofera is above it with its arching branches and…
Category: Winter flowering