In Flower This Week

11 January, 2003

Lovely hot summer days and summer concerts on the lawns in the cool of the evenings each weekend… and this walk will include flowers here and there. The Banks Walk has many colourful flowers including the bank of Calocephalus lacteus [Section 210] with upright small cylindrical white buds beginning change to tiny yellow flowers. Then a Bulbine sp. [Section 210] with large yellow star flowers atop of bare stems surrounded by long succulent curved leaves. Colourful kangaroo paw cultivars can be seen throughout the gardens, but here include Anigozanthos ‘Bush Noon’ [Section 210] with floral tonings of orange and green and Anigozanthos ‘Bush Haze’ [Section 210] with floral tonings of yellow and pale green. On he other side of the Walk is the brilliance of Scaevola ‘New Blue’ [Section 174] with fan flowers decorating the ground-trailing stems while, as a backdrop, Eremophila nivea [Section 174] is an open shrub with mauve bugle flowers mingling with the soft grey foliage. Not to be outdone, Pelargonium rodneyanum [Section 174] is dense, prostrate and vivid with magenta coloured geranium flowers. Around the corner small white daisies of Brachyscome tatei [Section 174] grow beside the small herb, Calandrinia balonensis [Section 174], known as ‘parakeelya’, with bright pink open flowers amid the fleshy leaves.

Edging the Rainforest and growing in a fallen tree trunk, an orchid, Cymbidium suave [Section 125] has sprays of small greenish flowers, almost concealed by the flowing slender leaves. Seen better from here and close to the building, Melaleuca decora [Section 126] is quite a tall dense shrub with a canopy of white flowers. Baecked virgata ‘Howie’s Feathertips’ [Section 124] is of medium size and well covered with small white flowers. Scaevola albida [Section 124] has a covering of small mauve fan flowers over this suckering ground cover.

Towards the Rock Garden, Grevillea ‘Scarlet Sprite’ [Section 119] is a dense hedge, always with numerous scarlet spider flowers. Closer to the Rock Garden is the tree form of Baeckea virgata [Section 107] with its white flowers seen above the surrounding trees. Above the waterfall the cream flower spikes of Xanthorrhoea macronema [Section 15D] can be seen, while, edging the pool, Lythrum salicaria [Section 15Q] has upright spikes of purple-pink flowers. Following the stairs to the right, Hibbertia pedunculata [Section 15S] has yellow open flowers brightening this dense semi-prostrate plant while opposite, Isotoma axillaris [Section 15R] displays its pale blue star flowers. Scaevola ‘New Blue’ [Section 15R] brightens this path and dazzles the above corner [Section 15J] opposite the grass trees, Xanthorrhoea johnsonii [Section 15N]. Along the top road opposite some flowering wattles, including Acacia constableri [Section 3], a spreading tree with soft cream perfumed flower balls, is Dampiera sylvestris [Section 15H] a dense suckering upright plant capped with rich blue flowers. Beside it is Scaevola albida var. albida [Section 15H] displaying its white fan flowers. More kangaroo paws, Anigozanthos flavidus [Section 15H] stand tall with eye-catching burnt-red flowers atop long stems.

The cooling Rainforest is further ahead … Barbara Daly.