Australian National Botanic Gardens

In Flower this Week

A weekly news sheet prepared by a Gardens' volunteer.
Numbers in square brackets [] refer to garden bed Sections. Plants in flower are in bold type.

7 January 2005

Pandorea 'Southern Belle' - click for larger image

January concerts in the Gardens have begun and brochures can be obtained in the Visitors Centre.  The Smooth Barked Apple, Angophora costata subsp. costata [Section 169] in the carpark is adorned with large clusters of cream fluffy flowers.  In pots at the doors of the Visitors Centre Pandorea ‘Southern Belle’ continues to display its soft pink trumpet flowers and edging Banks Walk, Flannel Flowers, Actinotus helianthi ‘Federation Stars’ [Section 172] have velvety white flowers amid the soft grey foliage. Take the path up the ramp to view the Spear Lily, Doryanthes palmeri [Section 210] with dull red flowers along the long curved flower spike surrounded by long sword-like leaves.

Passing the Café,  Goodenia macmillanii [Section 240] a dwarf herb with soft pink flowers and on either side,  Scaevola ‘New Blue’ [Section 240]  a small ground-cover is well covered with blue flowers.  Behind, a taller Solanum sturtianum [Section 240] has yellow centred purple flowers mixing with its grey-green foliage. Follow the Main Path, walk below Melaleuca linarifolia var. linarifolia [Section 10], a paperbark with interesting grey papery trunks and canopy of cream flowers (seen best from a distance).  Melaleuca fulgens ‘Hot Pink’ [Section 10] continues to bear a few of its colourful bottlebrush flowers.

Melaleuca 'Hot Pink'- click for larger image

Follow the path around the section of grasses where Emu bush, Eremophila polyclada [Section 8] has white bugle flowers over a small shrub and Eremophila densifolia subsp. pubiflora [Section 8] has small tubular blue flowers over the semi-prostrate plant. Edging this path is Kangaroo grass, Themeda triandra [Section 8] a  tussocky grass with nodding flower heads on long slender stems.  The Kangaroo Paws in front are grouped together and very photogenic with an array of colours including cultivars, Anigozanthos flavidus ‘Bush Baby’ [Section 7] bright with yellow ‘paw’ flowers on long upright stems and Anigozanthos flavidus ‘Bush Ruby’ [Section 7] displaying the deep red flowers.  Nearby Melaleuca hypericifolia [Section 30] is a semi-prostrate spreading shrub with partly concealed rust-red bottlebrush-like flowers.

Return to the Rock Garden, always with interesting flowers.  Then take the path towards the Rain Forest.  At the corner a large shrub, Baeckea virgata ‘Howies Feathertips’ [Section 110] is covered with tiny white flowers.  Opposite, Hibbertia scandens [Section 16] with large yellow flowers, twines itself around any nearby shrub.  A Geebung, Persoonia pinifolia [Section 110] just past the caged Wollomia nobilis [Section 110] dangles its yellow flowers in terminal spikes from pendulous branches well covered with short soft needle leaves. Rhododendron macgregoriae x lochiae [Section 110] is a small shrub with sprays of orange-red bell-like flowers.  (A bank of these colourful flowers can be viewed at the top of the Rainforest path [Section 62] … most impressive.)  Following the road edging the Rainforest, Hibiscus divaricatus [Section 114] has bright yellow flowers, Hibiscus splendens, hybrid [Section 114] has cherry red flowers and Hibiscus heterophyllus subsp. heterophyllus [Section 114] has white with red markings. Wandering down towards the Café, pass by Lomatia arborescens  [Section 125] with perfumed flowers  on arching branches over the road.

Happy and healthy 2005 to all …                                         Barbara Daly.