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

After viewing the remarkable display in the Visitor Centre about the Floral Emblems of Australia, take this walk along the Main Path where a selection of flowers will be identified. Banks Walk has a collection of flowering plants including the small ground-hugging plant Lechenaultia formosa [Section174] encircled with bright red flowers. At the far end of the Café building, Acacia alata [Section 240] is a small quaint plant with flat angular stems on which soft white flowers are attached.

Callistemon citrinus [Section 11] is a neat shrub glowing with red bottlebrush flowers. The daisy bed includes such popular dwarf plants as Brachycome ‘Misty Mauve’ [Section 303], with the soft daisies over a rounded plant, and Chrysocephalum apiculatum [Section 303], bright with small clusters of orange flowers. Banksia ericifolia var. ericifolia [Section 30] is a large rounded shrub exhibiting long upright cylindrical golden flower spikes while Banksia ‘Birthday Candles’ [Section 30] is a dwarf compact plant laden with yellow flower spikes. Banksia integrifolia var. integrifolia [Section 30] is a small tree with silver-backed leaves and lime-coloured flower spikes. Notice the dwarf form at its base with its flowers on ground-hugging branches. Few grevilleas are in flower, however Grevillea aff. miqueliana nullica [Section 26] is quite attractive with rust-red flower clusters.

Follow the curving path through the Sydney Region Gully. Grevillea baueri subsp. asperum [Section 191s, Budawangs] is massed with buds and has a few red spider-like flowers. Notice the backdrop of cheery yellow straw daisies, Bracteantha sp. [Section 191s]. Opposite the lookout there is a variety of colourful plants which includes Epacris impressa [Section 191p, Coastal Heath] with cherry-red tubular flowers dense along the upright stems. Another plant has pink flowers — this colour form is the floral emblem of Victoria. Dampiera stricta [Section 191p] has upright stems with china blue flowers while close to the path, Scaevola ramosissima var. ramosissima [Section 191p] grows low and dense and is brightened with purple fan flowers. Goodenia decurrens [Section 191p] has small yellow flowers on the ground trailing stems. See the leaves of the fossil seed-fern Glossopteris in the rock wall overlooking the gully. Admire the large fronds of the tree fern, Dicksonia antartica, along the banks and hear the rosellas chortling in the trees. The display bed is bright with the lovely waxy pink flowers of Crowea saligna [Section 191u]. Goodenia heterophylla [Section 191u] has yellow flowers on trailing stems. Hibbertia saligna [Section 191L, Rylstone] is a small shrub, bright with open yellow flowers.

Follow the path through the Eucalypt Lawn down to the Rock Garden, an area of interesting flowering plants where Hemigenia sp. [Section 15V] bears pink tubular flowers along its trailing stems. Then back through the green Rainforest, down the ramp where Eremophila maculata [Section 210] is bright with lovely tubular yellow flowers.

And that’s just a few of the lovely plants ...

Barbara Daly.