Menu Index: Australian Plants
A Smoke Treatment To Stimulate Australian Plant Germination
Over much of the Australian continent Australian native plants have evolved to survive the regular bushfires that occur regularly, but particularly through the hotter months of the year. Over many thousands of years our First Nation people also developed cool burning techniques to manage Country. In all habitats but the rainforests of eastern Australia our…
Eremophila – The genus as a garden subject
Article by Dr Lyndal Thorburn Lyndal Thorburn is leader of the Eremophila Study Group (ESG), which was founded in South Australia in 1986, under the auspices of the Australian Native Plant Society of Australia (ANPSA). Lyndal is a Life Member of the Australian Plants Society Canberra Region Inc. and a member of APS NSW. She…
Renew Your Kangaroo Paw
A step by step guide on how to prune your kangaroo paw Kangaroo paws are very giving plants when they flower, but flowering comes at a cost to the plant in energy. So once the flowers die back, a plant can look sick or half dead, when in fact it is just full of dead…
Daisy Wood And Her Botanical Art
Born at Wallington near Geelong at the end of the 1800’s, at a time when this part of Victoria was still mostly virgin forest, some of Daisy Wood’s earliest memories were of roaming the bush with her parents and elder sister, revelling in the profusion of beautiful wildflowers among the wattles and gum trees. Her father was…
Boronias for Beginners
The star-like flowers of the boronias have long enchanted bush walkers in various parts of Australia from the east to the west coast. Add to this the delicate floral perfumes and cut flower qualities of species such as the brown boronia (B. megastigma) and you have a group of plants worthy of the attention of…
Establishing native shrubs in your garden
Establishing Native Shrubs and Plants In Your Garden The Australian flora has established a reputation as a tough, drought tolerant group of plants that are very low maintenance in the garden. Whilst this is generally true it is extremely important to realize that a bit of tender loving care during the first few months of…
New Waratah (Telopea) Varieties
New flower colours in waratahs When it comes to waratahs yellow is the new red. Passionate plant breeder Graeme Downe of Melbourne has used a rare yellow form of the Tasmanian waratah (Telopea truncata) to create a hybrid with the NSW waratah (T. speciosissima) called ‘Golden Globe’. Graeme has been breeding waratahs for about…
Angus Stewart’s Favourite Australian Rainforest Plants
Best Australian Rainforest Plants for the Garden Stream lily (Helmholtzia glaberrima) This is a strappy leafed plant that can fulfill the same role in the garden as the Clivea, namely a clumping habit that still flowers well in shady conditions such as at the foot of a large tree where it will also be…
Angus Stewart’s Favourite Autumn To Winter Flowering Australian Natives
There are a host of wonderful low growing natives that can add a splash of colour to even the smallest garden in the dead of winter. Almost all native plants are evergreen which means they tend to keep growing all year round and clearly many have found an evolutionary advantage to blooming in what is…
Conserving and propagating Sydney’s Cumberland Plain Woodland Species
Bush Regeneration in Western Sydney The western area of Sydney bounded by the area from Parramatta to Penrith is one of the most populous in Australia. It is also home to an ever diminishing population of plants and animals. By preserving and regenerating what is left of the Cumberland Plains woodland vegetation local communities are…