This will be a short post as it is based purely on one of my un-founded theories and could potentially turn into a rant. I have a Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ in my garden, it is a relic from the original gardener whom we bought the house from. Upon seeing it my initial reaction was to pull it out as quickly as possible, however I placed this urgency 2nd to getting rid of all exotic species, so 7 years later it still stands. And I have come to have new respect for this 1970’s hangover, it stands proudly amongst the weeds and flowers non-stop feeding the many honey eaters and wattle birds that flock to it.

So here is what I predict to be its replacement, Grevillea ‘Lady O’, tough, reliable, flowers year round and is that perfect size of about 1 metre x 1 metres. Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ was planted everywhere and anywhere a staple shrub for most native gardens, it has gone out of fashion now but still sells to the die hards. I now see ‘Lady O’ going the same way and I wonder if I will become repelled by its growing prevalence. Does the fact that a plant is connected to an era and then turns out to be easy and rewarding to grow automatically send it to the service station plantings? where it is un-cared for and becomes a terrible advertisement for natives? I really hope not…