In Flower This Week

29 August 2003

Our fair city is glowing with golden wattles and so are these wonderful Gardens. Acacia baileyana [Section 227] colours the car-park wall with golden flowers and outside the Visitor Centre the sloping bed is covered with the soft gold flowers of the Snowy River Wattle, Acacia boormanii [Section 210]. This walk follows the Main Path, starting at the end of the Café building, where many wattles as well as grevilleas and many other flowers can be seen. 

Astartea 'Winter Pink' - click for larger image

Hardenbergia violacea [Section 12] stretches its vines covered with purple pea flowers along the earth. Astartea ‘Winter Pink’ [Section 11] is a slender upright shrub with small clusters of tiny pink flowers. Eremophila maculata subsp. brevifolia [Section 302] has burgundy-coloured tubular flowers amid its foliage while Rhodanthe anthemoides  ‘Chamomile Cascade’ [Section 303] covers the small dense plant with white daisies.

Possum Banksia, Banksia baueri [Section 30, 27], is yet a small shrub with lovely woolly grayish flower spikes. Philotheca (previously Eriostemon) ‘J. Semmens’ [Section 30] has a covering of pink buds, now exploding into white double-petalled flowers. The large shrub Banksia ericifolia var. ericifolia [Section 30] is bright with deep gold cylindrical flower spikes. In front, Acacia baileyana [Section 30] is prostrate and well covered with gold fluffy flower balls. Grevillea lavandulacea ‘Tanunda’ [Section 30] is a prostrate border plant with grey foliage brightened with cherry red flowers. Down the bank Banksia spinulosa var. collina [Section 27] is a well-manicured shrub with yellow flower spikes.

Across the road are many grevilleas including Grevillea ‘Poorinda Adorning’ [Section 24], a small spreading plant with orange-red flowers. Grevillea flexuosa [Section 26] has terminal cigar-shaped yellow flowers on its waving branches. In front, Isopogon dubius [Section 26] is yet a small shrub displaying rose-pink silky flowers…really lovely. Across the road Phebalium glandulosum [Section 112] is a small plant bright with yellow flower clusters.

Follow the curving path through the Sydney Region Gully to find Grevillea sphacelata [Section 191H], a medium open shrub with interesting small grey flower heads. The self-seeding yellow straw daisies of Bracteantha sp. [Section 191S] are bright and the deep golden globular flower balls on the dwarf spreading Acacia gordonii [Section 191E] spread over the path. Opposite, Leucopogon neoanglicus [Section 191M] is a dwarf plant almost covered with tiny pink tubular flowers. Acacia leucoclada subsp. argentifolia [Section 191L] is a tree with soft silvery divided foliage decorated with strands of yellow globular flowers.

Follow the path through the Eucalypt Lawn and another section of wattles, to see Hakea recurva [Section 20], a large rounded shrub well covered with clusters of deep cream flowers, and Hakea scoparia [Section 20], not so large but pink with flowers dense along its terminal branches. The Rock Garden includes a corner of the soft pink daisies, Rhodanthe chlorocephala subsp. rosea [Section 15R], and Guichenotia macrantha [Section 4], an upright small shrub with downturned mauve-pink cup-shaped flowers mingling with the grey foliage.

In the Rainforest Gully the Yellow Sassafras, Doryphora sassafras [Section 147, 148], is a tall tree with shiny fragrant toothed leaves and white petalled flowers. Then down the ramp to where Eremophila maculata [Section 210] is bearing its bright yellow tubular flowers.

Always another flower to admire …                                      Barbara Daly.