Why not plan to add varieties that will provide a ready source of cut flowers for your home? Plants such as Geraldton wax, Philotheca, kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos), everlasting daisies will all provide flowers throughout the warmer months of the year, to name but a few suitable varieties.
-
Chamelaucium uncinatum 'Sweet Rosie'
-
Xerochrysum bracteatum 'Sundaze White'
-
Kangaroo paw 'Landscape Lilac'
To make your flowers last longer indoors change the water every few days and recut the stem bases at the same time. Picking from your garden ensures that you have the freshest material for your flower bunches, rather than buying something that may have sat in buckets for days.
-
Bunch of Australian native wildflowers picked from the garden
Flowers are not the only decorative elements that can be harvested from the garden. Cast your eye around for interesting and beautiful foliage too, as this can be just as attractive as flowers. Shiny camellia leaves, fine leafed natives, large broad plant leaves like Gymea lilies, seed pods and interesting twigs are all great for indoor decoration.
There are many flowers that have a nostalgic link with Christmas, particularly native species. The NSW Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum) is one of the very best with its bright red flowers being equally useful in the garden, in a container, or indoors in a vase. December is a great time to purchase an advanced specimen to ensure that it has the very best red colour as variation often exists between seedling types in nurseries. The variety ‘Albery’s Red’ is an exceptional form with bright red blooms that are perfectly timed for Christmas decoration.
-
Ceratopetalum gummiferum 'Johanna's Christmas'
-
Ceratopetalum gummiferum 'Alberys Red'
To find the best native plants for cut flowers, go to my advanced search page and look for the ‘Special Uses’ category and click on the ‘cut flower’ selection. This will bring up a range of great plants for you to try.