Today we will walk from the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) up the Main Path to see the winterflowering grevilleas.

1. Look left as you leave the VIC to see in a pot Homoranthus thomasii [Section 221], a small bush with grey-green leaves, dark red stems and tiny red bell flowers with white tips. This plant is found in inland central Queensland.
2. Go across the bridge, past the café and up the hill on the Main Path to see on your left Acacia baileyana (prostrate form) [Section 30], or Cootamundra Wattle, with bright gold balls of flower on drooping greygreen fringed foliage. The species is endemic to New South Wales but is widely cultivated and has become naturalised as a weed elsewhere in Australia and overseas.
3. Further on your right is Homoranthus flavescens [Section 30], with acid yellow blooms layered on a small neat bush. There is a pretty contrast between the yellow blooms and the fresh green needle foliage.
4. Low on your right is Grevillea acropogon [Section 30], a low bush with green foliage and deep red clusters of flowers. It is endemic to southwestern Western Australia and is threatened in the wild.
5. Grevillea saccata [Section 30], in a pot on your right, has weeping branches with bright green upright leaves and pinkish-orange flowers. This shrub is commonly known as Pouched Grevillea, and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia.
6. Grevillea sericea subsp. sericea [Section 27], on your right, is an airy bush with light green foliage and white spider flowers. This plant occurs naturally west of Sydney.
7. Grevillea 'LadyO' [Sections 24 and 26], across the road on the left and right, is a long-blooming shrub with red flowers and bright green foliage. 'LadyO' is a cross between Grevillea rhyolitica and a hybrid involving Grevillea victoriae. This cultivar was developed by local plant breeder Peter Ollerenshaw and named for his mother.
8. On your right is Hakea 'Winter Burgundy' [Section 26], a tall upright bush with greygreen leaves and bright burgundy blooms.
9. Grevillea lavandulacea [Section 26], also on your right, commonly known as Lavender Grevillea, is found in southeastern South Australia and western and central Victoria. The shrub shows a pleasing contrast between the grey foliage and dark red flowers.
10. Grevillea speciosa [Section 26], on your right, also known as Red Spider Flower, is a shrub which is endemic to New South Wales. It has bright red terminal clusters of flowers on a neat bush of green foliage.
11. Grevillea manglesii subsp. manglesii [Section 24], or Birdsfoot Grevillea, on your left is a large open bush with white "pincushion" flower heads all along the stems. It is native to Western Australia.
12. Grevillea wilsonii × tripartita [Section 24], is on your left, a tall, rangy bush with prickly green foliage and large red and cream spider flowers with red styles.
13. Grevillea tripartita subsp. macrostylis [Section 24], on the left, is an open, rangy plant with dark green, prickly, three-lobed foliage and large single pink and cream flowers with long showy red styles. It is native to southern Western Australia.
14. Grevillea ripicola [Section 24], on the left, commonly known as Collie Grevillea, is a shrub endemic to south-west Western Australia. It forms a dense bush with large orange-red spider flowers with red styles.
15. Grevillea centristigma [Section 26], on your right, is a small bush with soft lush green foliage fringed with white hairs. Pendent hard yellow/orange flowers open from greenish buds. It is endemic to southwestern Western Australia.

Rosalind Walcott