Tag: understory planting

  • Hot Candy!

    Hot Candy!

    This is my favourite Brachyscome at the moment, not for its tacky name (where do they get them from???), but for its running habit and thick leaf. Brachsyscome ‘Hot Candy’ is seen here growing in part shade and still flowering its head off.

  • My favourite Acacia cognata dwarfs

    My favourite Acacia cognata dwarfs

    I used to be completely devoted to Acacia ‘Mini Cog’, one of the many dwarf shrub forms of Acacia cognata or the River Wattle. This image is of ‘Green Mist’ weeping over the edge of a large stone retaining wall, I couldn’t think of a better use for it. Acacia cognata has very narrow long lime…

  • Illawarra dwarf bleeding heart: Homolanthus stillingifolius

    Illawarra dwarf bleeding heart: Homolanthus stillingifolius

    This is Homolanthus stillingifolius or dwarf bleeding heart, a reasonably rare shrub growing in the Illawarra area. I was given this as a seedling from a neighbour who was a bush carer and collected the seed. Its leaves look like miniatures of the regular bleeding heart, they are delicate and light up easily in the…

  • 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…

  • The benefits of salt bush: Rhagodia spinescens

    The benefits of salt bush: Rhagodia spinescens

    There are several species of salt bush that I like to put in gardens, this one is one of my favourites  Rhagodia spinescens, it comes in varying shapes and forms, some a little more silver leaved some a little more compact. It is growing here as a pathway and garden edge and does a great job…

  • Native ginger: Alpinia caerulea ‘Red Back’

    Native ginger: Alpinia caerulea ‘Red Back’

    This is native ginger, Alpinia caerulea ‘Red Back’, planted in an internal courtyard, doesn’t it look beautiful? It had been recently cleaned out and cut back as it was a bit too happy. It has naturally arching canes that form a vase like habit and can get a little burnt and ratty if left unaltered.

  • Themeda grasses

    Themeda grasses

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

  • shady planting

    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…

  • Mint Bush: Prostanthera rotundifolia

    Mint Bush: Prostanthera rotundifolia

      The Australian mint bushes really smell far superior to regular mint, not as sweet a bit more citric.

  • Super hardy Grevillea ‘Winpara Gem’

    Super hardy Grevillea ‘Winpara Gem’

    Grevillea ‘Winpara Gem’ is one of my favourite Grevilleas, I love the colour grey green leaves that are deeply deivided which look soft and feathery from a distance.

  • A Persoonia…

    A Persoonia…

    Persoonia pinifolia naturally grows in areas of sandstone, in sheltered positions with part sun.

  • Forked Fern

    Forked Fern

    This ferns is rather unlike other ferns. It grows branches stemming out from the centre in a hexagonal shape, it appears as though the the branchlets will keep dividing indefinitely.