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Portfolio: Gardening in Wind
This is my sisters garden on ‘Windy Hill’ as we like to call it, it gets so windy here the rubbish bins get blown down the street, gates are blown off their hinges and plants find it tough! Her front garden bears the brunt of the Westerlies and southerlies and used to be bare lawn…
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Small Scented Shade Tree: Leptospermum petersonii
I finally found a mature Lemon Scented Tea Tree to photograph which shows off its stunning weeping habit and shapely trunk and branches. Leptospermum petersonii really does make a wonderful small feature shade tree in the garden, the strong thick branches spread the canopy wide making it an excellent climbing tree! The soft, pendulous branches…
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The densely layered Leptospermum rotundifolium ‘Julie Ann’
It’s no secret that I love tea trees, I forgive them for their short flowering periods and sometimes sporadic and un reliable floral displays, and this particular Tea Tree has really tested my patience. This is Leptospermum rotundifolium ‘Julie Ann’ a low growing spreading shrub form of Leptospermum rotundifolium from Jervis Bay. It grows to a…
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Dainty and Delightful Fringe Myrtle: Micromyrtus ciliata
This sweet little native shrub is in full bloom at the moment, it started in late Winter and can continue until Summer in some cases. Micromyrtus ciliata is one of those species which gets so covered in flowers that you can barely see the leaves! The shrub only reaches half a metre high by upto…
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Trialling Banksia ‘Sentinel’
This is a favourite coastal hedging plant of mine which I have been including in my planting designs for the past 7 years or so….sorry, I’m finding it difficult to keep track of time đ I say it is on trial or has been on trial for a while as it does have a couple…
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Luscious green screen: Myoporum acuminatum
Some native plants are just so useful and practical I really don’t understand why we don’t see them being utilised everywhere…. and Myoporum acuminatum is one of them. It is a mystery to me why this very fast growing , dense small tree or large shrub is not used more often in our residential streetscape…
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An under-utilised native tree: Glochidion ferdinandi
This is the ever adaptable Cheese tree Glochidion ferdinandi, I would love to see these used more widely in our streetscape as street trees but also as shade trees in gardens or parks. They have the same glossy luscious look as a Lilly Pilly or Waterhousia but with the added benefit of being semi-deciduous in…
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The small tree Emu Bush: Eremophila longifolia
This is another Emu Bush to add to my database, Eremophila longifolia is classically not so bushy in habit but more upright and weeping. I think it makes a lovely small feature tree with its long, droopy leaves and clusters of pink bell flowers. It can be pruned into other shapes if needed but the…
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Drought Hardy Emu Bush
In this post I am adding to my Eremophila database and also trying to increase awareness of native plants which I believe have proven to be reasonably drought hardy. As a genus Eremophilas are very tough native shrubs, they will grow in a well drained soil in full sun to part shade and although they mainly come…
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Are native plants really drought tolerant? Casuarina ‘Cousin It’
When someone tells you they want a drought tolerant garden, what comes to mind? or you may be told a certain plant is ‘water wise’Â what does this really mean? As the current drought wears on and wears thin and watering your garden becomes something you can only do under strict regulations many people are looking…
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Level 2 Water Restriction friendly plants: Calothamnus quadrifidus
Yesterday NSW moved into level 2 water restrictions, it has been a long time coming, with bushfires still burning up and down the east coast and dam levels at an all time low. The hardest hit are out west where they have been buying in drinking water for most of the year, smoke and dust…
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A spikey, perfumed tangle of Grevillea flexuosa
This is a wonderfully messy Grevillea that likes to sprawl all over the place. Its stems literally get tangled in themselves and the leaves are stiff and spikey so they can almost grab onto other plants to hoist themselves towards the sunlight and as its name implies it is so very flexible đ Grevillea flexuosa…
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Last Wattle for the Season: Acacia argyrophylla
OK I promise this is the last Acacia profile for the year, usually I try and mix it up a lot more on my blog. I am well aware the page is now aglow with lovely yellow ball flowers which may look all the same to some people. But I just can’t help it, the Acacias…
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A multi-purpose favourite : Acacia baileyana Prostrate
What can this wattle not do?! it can be a dense ground cover, a spillover for a retaining wall or garden edge, a low mounding feature shrub and a lovely soft border plant. On top of all that it flowers like nobody’s business in the middle of Winter! Acacia baileyana Prostrate is a low growing…
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Yum Yum: Acacia cardiophylla
This is a wattle close to my heart, it is one of the most strongly perfumed Australian native flowers I have come across, but not in a over-powering sweet, honey-nectar way, it is more of a Boronia type scent…yum, yum… This is also a very useful Acacia for its capacity to withstand strong winds, I…
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Wonderful Winter Wattles: Acacia iteaphylla
I love wattles, they are so useful for quick screens, winter flowers and perfume, they grow quickly and can act as a coloniser for a new garden giving it almost immediate structure. The older I get the longer lived Acacia species seem to me too, they can last 8 to 10 years sometimes 15 if…
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The flexible Pennisetum alopecuroides
Pennisetum alopecuroides is a striking native grass that makes a bold statement planted independently, as a border, backdrop or en masse. This is commonly know as Foxtail grass not to be confused with the South African Pennesetum which has become a weed in some parts of Australia. However, in some parts of Australia this native grass…
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Pretty in Pink: Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’
There are so many varying coloured Callistemons available now, there isn’t really any reason to only associate them with the traditional red anymore. I am a big fan of the softer coloured bottlebrushes, the greens pale yellows and pinks, the soft pinks in particular are some of my favourites. This is Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’ a…
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Native Plants in Fiona Brockhoff Gardens
I went to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria in January this year to see three gardens designed by one of my favourite Landscape Designers and of course they did not disappoint. In fact  I realise now that I took so many photos and was so inspired that I have been a bit overwhelmed by how…
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Another Callistmon for the resurgence: Callistemon subulatus âBrogo Overflowâ
I have written before about my love of bottlebrush and how I wish for a resurgence in their use in garden design and the general landscape. There are many new interesting forms and cultivars that are a far shot from the ratty, sparse unloved street trees we all know. They come in soft pinks, deep…
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The long lived Acacia pendula
We all know that wattles get a bad rap for growing quickly, becoming sparse and also attacked by borers, many people won’t plant Acacias purely based on their shorter lifespan, not me I plant them whenever possible and to be honest 8-10 years feels like a pretty long time to me right now đ However…