In Flower This Week
A weekly news sheet prepared by a Gardens' volunteer.
Numbers before each plant refer to temporary IFTW labels in the gardens.
Numbers in square brackets [ ] refer to garden bed Sections. Plants in flower are in bold type.
View past issues of 'In Flower This Week'.
24 May 2013
Banksia heliantha click for larger image |
This walk begins in the car park and wanders around the Gardens’ buildings, where flowers are plentiful.
- At the base of the stairs leading to the Visitor Information Centre the bank of Thryptomene saxicola [Section 174] with low arching branches clad with tiny pink flowers is so attractive.
- A sheoak, Allocasuarina littoralis [Section 174], spreads its branches clad with pine-like leaves, small fruits, and dark red rounded flowers above the path.
- Just outside the doors to the Visitor Information Centre, Lechenaultia formosa continues to be bright with its red-orange flowers falling over the edge of the pot.
- There too is a Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis, standing tall in a pot.
Opposite and close to the wall, Pandorea jasminoides [Section 212] has large dark‑centred pink flowers along its vines. - Banks Walk is edged with many flowering plants which include Banksia heliantha [Section 174], an upright shrub with sharp‑edged leaves and terminal heads of rounded yellow flowers.
- Behind the seat Woollsia pungens [Section 174] is a many‑stemmed plant with terminal white flowers crowded around the stems.
- Beside this is the Victorian Floral Emblem, Epacris impressa [Section 174], also a scraggly shrub with pink tubular flowers dangling in rows from the branches. Close by is Epacris longiflora [Section 174], which has longer tubular flowers coloured white.
- Across the path is a mint bush, Prostanthera phylicifolia [Section 210], which falls down the rock wall. It is covered in profusion with small mauve flowers.
- There too is Alyogyne huegelii [Section 210], a yet small upright shrub with large purple hibiscus-like flowers.
- Around the corner Grevillea ‘Lady O’ [Section 174] is a graceful low open shrub always with a few red flowers.
- Across the bridge and in front of the offices in the Ellis Rowan Garden, Banksia ‘Stumpy Gold’ [Section 131] is a low dense spreading shrub with upright gold cylindrical flower spikes in profusion.
- Opposite is a bottlebrush, Callistemon citrinus ‘Splendens’ [Section 240], a large dense shrub with brilliant red bottlebrush-like flowers.
- Beside is Crowea ‘Cooper’s Hybrid’ [Section 240], a smaller more open shrub pretty with bold pink star-like flowers.
- At the end of this section is Acacia alata var. biglandulosa [Section 240], a dense shrub of medium size with flattened zig-zag_shaped leaves and cream fluffy flowers.
- Take the upward road to the left where, below the large branches of Eucalyptus mannifera, Thryptomene saxicola ‘Pink Lace’ [Section 10] forms a low dense group clad with tiny pink flowers.
- Taking the first turn to the left, at the far end of the road is Grevillea bipinnatifida ‘Jingle Bells’ [Section 124], with the terminal red flower heads on this “standard” plant well worth viewing.
Barbara Daly