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.

11 January 2008

Anigozanthos 'Bush Haze'- click for larger image

Almost mid January with hot days, so this short walk wanders through shady areas starting with the beautiful Rhododendron lochiae in a pot outside the Visitors Information Centre door. It is a low dense plant with shiny green foliage and clusters of slightly pendent trumpet-like flowers coloured red. Edging Banks Walk Kangaroo Paws are noticeable. They have strappy leaves with long stems tipped with variable colours. They include Anigozanthos ‘Bush Ruby’ [Section 210] with maroon coloured ‘paw’ flowers and Anigozanthos ‘Bush Haze’ [Section 210] with yellow flowers. There are many seen throughout the gardens. On the lower level the crescent garden contains Hibbertia kaputarensis [Section 60] bright with open yellow flowers. Brachyscome ‘Breakoday’ [Section 174] is a small plant with soft foliage and small mauve daisy-like flowers edging the street while up high the small dense tree, Eucalyptus ficifolia [Section 174] displays its clusters of bright orange-red fluffy flowers and also many buds. View the NSW Christmas Tree, Ceratopetalum gummiferum [Section 142] below the car park. It is a small erect tree, now aflame with reddened swollen calyces which follow the tiny white flowers. Also flowering in the car park are the graceful Smooth-barked Apples, Angophora costata [Section 168] with colourful tan-white bark trunks and clusters of white feathery flowers.

Walking up the far side of the Rainforest Gully, a corner of the ground cover, Grevillea ‘Poorinda Royal Mantle’ [Section 124] with dense foliage and red toothbrush-like flowers is overlooked by a bottlebrush, Callistemon ‘Howie’s Fire Glow’ [Section 124], a tall shrub with fiery red bottlebrush-like flowers. Nearby Babingtonia ‘Howie’s Feathertips’ [Section 124] is a medium dense shrub covered with tiny white flowers. Pandorea jasminoides [Section 124] is a climber with pink trumpet flowers, many seen up the nearby trees. A white variety is seen at the far corner. Opposite, Melaleuca decora [Section 126] is a tall shrub with trunks clad with whitish papery bark and densely crowned with large clusters of white fluffy flowers. At the next corner a ground cover, Scaevola albida cv [Section 124] bears many small fan-shaped flowers.

Around the corner, below the arms of the huge Eucalyptus mannifera, Pelargonium australe [Section 10] is a small rounded plant clad with mauve flowers. Continuing up the path Emu Bushes include Eremophila calorhabdos [Section 302] which is a medium plant with vertical branches crowded with small coral coloured tubular flowers mixing with its small leaves.

Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon'- click for larger image

Crossing the Brittlegum Lawn where Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ [Section 110] bears its large terminal pink-red flowers on a low spreading shrub. Along the road edging the Rainforest Gully, Hibiscus heterophyllus [Section 114,104] is an open shrub with large open white flowers with a tint of pink and with a dark mauve throat. Hibiscus divaricatus [Section 114] has bright yellow flowers while Hibiscus splendens [Section 104] has deep pink flowers. Entering the Rainforest Caldcluvia paniculosa [Section 158,145] is a small tree with white feathery heads of flowers.

The Dorrigo Waratah Alloxylon pinnatum [Section 147] can be viewed on the return on the far side of the gully. Its bright red waratah-like flowers can be seen from the board-walk.