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

Banksias and croweas are flowering throughout the Gardens. Banksia spinulosa 'Birthday Candles' [Section 172] is a dense dwarf shrub blanketed with upright cylindrical golden candles. Crowea saligna [Section 174] is a low shrub with green waxy leaves and abounds with splendid pink star flowers. Also to be admired in this bed is a taller shrub, Eremophila nivea [Section 174], which has grey foliage dotted with mauve bugle flowers.

This walk wanders to upper areas of the Gardens and starts where the Main Path leaves the Rainforest Gully. Here you will find the herbaceous plant Plectranthus omissus [Section 146] with large hairy leaves mingling with small lilac flowers along its long upright stems. Over the road, Callistemon viminalis [Section 78] is attractive with its many dark grooved trunks graced with red bottlebrushes amid the green foliage. A triangle garden treasure, Hemigenia sp. [Section 17] is a small plant with pink bugle flowers along the trailing stems. Opposite, Crowea 'Festival' [Section 123] is a low compact shrub glowing with open pink star flowers. Alyogyne huegelii [Section 123] continues to bear large lilac hibiscus flowers amid the many-lobed leaves. This is another area where a root rot fungus, Armillaria luteobubalina [Section 123] has invaded the roots of many eucalypts, causing the deaths of the trees. Read the signs for more information.

The view over the Rock Garden appears to be a carpet of yellow straw daisies, Bracteantha bracteata [Section 15], which have self-seeded. At the corner Grevillea 'Masons Hybrid' [Section 15W] is a large, rounded shrub vivid with terminal red flowers and alive with small nectar feeding birds. At the base Dampiera subspicata [Section 15W] is a low, spreading herb with blue flowers on upright stems.

See the variation in flower colour, leaf shape and whether the plants lose or retain their seeds in this area planted with many different banksias. Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii 'Lemon Glow' [Section 37] is an open shrub glowing with lemon upright cylindrical flower spikes. Banksia integrifolia var. integrifolia [Section 37], in the centre of the garden, is prostrate with silver-backed leaves and easily seen lemon flower spikes. Grevillea beadleana [Section 37] has deeply divided velvety leaves and is revealing the first of its short, dark burgundy toothbrush-like flowers. Banksia paludosa [Section 37], behind the shelter, is wide and sprawling with lemon flower spikes tinted bronze. Banksia oblongifolia [Section 37] differs in bearing green, stubby flower spikes. Banksia marginata [Section 37] is a large rounded shrub displaying many aged flower spikes but also with many fresh lime-coloured small flower spikes. Banksia ericifolia var. ericifolia [Section 37], in the distance, shines with large deep gold flower spikes on its elongated branches.

All so colourful, so different …

Barbara Daly.