In Flower This Week A weekly news-sheet prepared by a Gardens volunteer  Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to garden bed 'Sections'.

Still flowering in the car park is the Smooth-barked Apple, Angophora costata subsp. costata [Section 169] with mottled pink trunk and large clusters of lacy, white flowers. The beds bordering Banks Walk abound with plants in flower. Likewise the Rock Garden, so this walk will concentrate, mainly, on the smaller plants in that area.

Scaevola 'Pink Perfection' [Section 15V] is small and prostrate with stems covered with bright pink flowers. Eremophila glabra subsp. murrayana [Section 15V], close by, is clad with fine, red tubular flowers and Thysanotus juncifolius [Section 15V] is a wiry plant with frilly, purple, three-petalled flowers. Wahlenbergia gloriosa [Section 15V], the floral emblem of ACT, is there too, although only bearing a few open bluebell flowers.

Lasiopetalum involucratum [Section 15R] of medium size, has black-centred, pink, drooping flowers and an abundance of rust-coloured buds. Eucalyptus lansdowneana subsp. lansdowneana [Section 15R] has clusters of deep pink flowers on the small, open tree… really lovely. Scaevola striata [Section 15R] has deep purple fan flowers on a ground-hugging plant. Billardiera lehmanniana [Section 15R] bears many small white flowers over the low, dense shrub. Around the corner, Anthocercis littorea [Section 15R] is a small open shrub with interesting yellow flowers which have short tubes opening to long, thin lobes.

Banksia serrata 'Austraflora Pygmy Possum' [Section 15K] is sprawling over the rocks exposing its upright grey-yellow flower spikes. Isotoma axillaris [Sections 15G, 15H] has self-seeded throughout the rocky areas. Their blue starry flowers are quite appealing. Isotoma anethifolia [Section 15H] has similar white flowers. Scaevola albida var. albida [Section 15H], massed with white fan flowers, is quite impressive. Teucrium argutum [Section 15H], with deep cyclamen flower spikes, grows at the base of the rocks.

The end bank is colourific with the pink-red spider flowers of Grevillea lanigera [Section 15W], the dazzling orange terminal clusters of small daisies of Chrysocephalum apiculatum [Section 15W] with both grey and green foliage and the soft mauve-blue flowers of the suckering Dampiera stricta [Section 15W]. Nearby Arthropodium milleflorum [Section 15H], a tufted plant, has long, slender spikes bearing pale lilac, vanilla-perfumed flowers and the rust red flowers of kangaroo paws, Anigozanthos flavidus [Section 15H], arch over this area.

The bright display of yellow straw daisies, Bracteantha bracteata [Section 15A, 15B, 15C], are self-seeded adding an extra beauty. Brachyscome multifida [Section 15A] edges the path, pretty with small, mauve daisies scattered over neat cushion plants. Eremophila maculata var. brevifolia [Section 15F] has magenta-coloured bugle flowers and Brachycome aculeata [Section 15V] covers this little hillock with upright stems bearing white daisies.

All to a background of musical bird calls …

Barbara Daly.