In Flower This Week

6 June 2003

The display pots at the doors to the Visitor Centre include the Tangled Fan Flower, Scaevola oxyclona, covered with small spiny foliage amid the mauve fan flowers, and Hybanthus floribundus, covered with tiny white flowers. Edging the path past the bus shelter, Brachycome ‘Break O’Day’ [Section 174] is a soft, mounded plant bearing mauve daisies. Nearby Derwentia arenaria [Section 174] has deep blue flowers along the many long stems. Crowea ‘Festival’ [Section 174], at the corner, is a grouping of small shrubs well covered with lovely pink star flowers. Edging the road, Asterotrichion discolor [Section 305] is a tall slim shrub with arching limbs clad with soft hairy foliage and clusters of creamy-white delicately perfumed flowers. At the rear of the Crosbie Morrison Building the gorgeous Gungurru, Eucalyptus caesia [Section 239], bears large deep pink flowers on long pendulous silver-grey branches.

Eucalyptus caesia - click for larger image

Just above the Bottom Depot, Prostanthera phylicifolia [Section 126] is a small shrub prolific with mauve-pink flowers. Melaleuca fulgens ‘Hot Pink’ [Section 126] has upright branches displaying its well-named bottlebrush-like flowers. Banksia spinulosa [Section 126] is a dense medium-size shrub bright with gold cylindrical flowers with dark styles.

Below the sprawling white branches of the grand old Eucalyptus mannifera [Section 10], Thryptomene saxicola ‘Pink Lace’ [Section 10] is low and spreading and well covered with its tiny pink flowers. Past the Queensland Silver Wattle, Acacia podalyriifolia [Section 119], clad with silver-grey foliage and bright with its soft yellow flower clusters, there is a bed with emu bushes. Take the small path next to the Queensland Bottle Tree, Brachychiton rupestris [Section 302], and find Eremophila strongylophylla [Section 302], a small spreading plant with deep purple bugle flowers. Around the corner Eremophila maculata subsp. brevifolia [Section 302] is small and rounded with claret-coloured tubular flowers while behind, Eremophila youngii [Section 302] is a taller shrub with dusky pink flowers among the grey-green foliage. Eremophila laanii [Section 302] shows off its soft pink flowers on a shrub of similar size.

The Rock Garden still has many colourful flowers. Near the entrance Grevillea baueri-lanigera intermediate [Section 15C] spreads across the rocks, with deep pink buds beginning to open. Opposite, Dampiera salahae [Section 15D] is a dwarf plant with deep blue flowers. Heading uphill and towards the Rainforest Gully, Alyogyne ‘West Coast Gem’ [Section 17] shows off its deep purple hibiscus flowers on a medium size shrub and Chamelaucium ‘Cascade Brook’ [Section 17] is massed with pink buds, with some lovely waxy pink open flowers.

Cross the Rainforest Gully and take the small path on the right off the main path to a planting of rhododendrons where Rhododendron laetum [Section 62] still has sprays of large trumpet-shaped egg-yolk yellow flowers … really magnificent. Following the road downhill, some plants with colourful fruits include Tasmannia insipida [Section 64], an upright tree bearing ovoid white to mauve fruits, and Cordyline congesta [Section 219], an upright palm-like plant with sprays of bright red fruits. A lilly pilly, Acmena smithii [Section 219], is an attractive small shrub displaying its round pink fruits.

Flowers and fruits – so much colour …                                                Barbara Daly.