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

Turn right after leaving the Visitor Centre and walk down towards the bridge. As you walk across it, do look down into the Rainforest Gully, as the tree ferns are delightful from this angle. Just past the Café is Acacia ‘Green Mist’ [Section 244], drifting over the edges of its small garden bed covered in lots of tiny yellow buds. A little further on is Acacia elata [Section 240], a small plant with unusual flattened stems which do the job of leaves, now covered with fluffy cream flower balls.

Micromyrtus leptocalyx [Section 10] is a rather dainty plant whose bunches of tiny creamy white flowers are just out. As a contrast, two small trees of Melaleuca cuticularis [Section 10] have lovely, really peeling, paper bark trunks and, towering over this bed with its huge branches seeming to go in all directions is Eucalyptus mannifera [Section 10]. On the opposite side of the path are two specimens of Acacia podalyriifolia [Section 119], their great yellow balls of wattle a good contrast with the silver-grey leaves.

Lepidosperma effusum [Section 303], is a clumping, strappy plant, aptly named Spreading Sword Grass, with lots of tiny, brown flowers at the ends of many of the stems, while Eremophila maculata sub. sp. brevifolia [Section 302] is a smaller, slightly rounded shrub with tubular flowers of dark red. Lots of Xanthorrhoea glauca sub. sp. glauca with prominent old flower spikes and the various self-seeded paper daisies here make a cheerful contrast. Compare Westringia glabra, [Section 6], just one bush covered in bluish-mauve flowers, with Westringia raleighii [Section 6], which has a slightly different coloured mauve flower. Calothamnus villosus [Section 6], with its one-sided red flower spikes, is in full bloom!

Further on is another Acacia podalyriifolia [Section 206], also in full bloom. Turn right at the seat and Persoonia linearis [Section 23] is a large shrub with bright yellow, tightly bound buds, obviously awaiting the warmer weather. Further along is Petrophile canescens [Section 23], with new, yellow-green growth and lots of prominent, nobly cones. Another shrub in this area with distinctive fruit is Hakea cristata [Section 23], with clusters of white flowers tucked into its leaves, and yet another is Hakea sericea [Section 23], with a red tinge to its foliage showing off its white flowers.

The Eucalypt Lawn and the Sydney Region Gully are now in sight. Of particular note is a cluster of small shrubs of Crowea saligna [Section 191h] with their very deep pink flowers.

If you wander back to the car park from here by the Main Path, you will pass the caged Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis [Section 110].

Enjoy! Naomi Bell