In Flower This Week A weekly news-sheet prepared by a Gardens volunteer Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to garden bed 'Sections'.

This small garden of colour seen in the car park could give ideas to any home gardener. The garden bed is bordered with small mauve flowers mingling with soft green foliage. The plant is Brachyscome `Break-O-Day' [Section 169]. Behind, Bracteantha bracteata `Diamond Head' [Section 169] with dense green foliage, bears small, yellow straw flowers. The smattering of larger, soft mauve daisies are Brachyscome `Valencia' [Section 169] and the taller white straw flowers are Bracteantha bracteata [Section [169]. As a back drop, Senecio anethifolius [Section 169] has clusters of small yellow daisies.

The heads of the bright orange flowers of prostrate, suckering Chrysocephalum apiculatum [Section 174] are quite showy. The foliage is green, although another form has grey foliage. Leucophyta brownii `Cape le Grande' [Section 66], at the base of Grass tree, Xanthorrhoea australis [Section 66] is small and somewhat round with interesting silvery twiggy branches. Olearia ramulosa [Section 136] is a neat shrub well covered with small, white daisies. The bed, with many of these plants, is most attractive. Scaevola `Mauve Clusters' [Section 131] is a dense, long-flowering groundcover dotted with small, mauve fan flowers. Most plants mentioned above are small. The following are larger shrubs.

Around the corner, Banksia spinulosa [Section 136], is quite a young plant and is bearing many immature green-yellow, erect flower spikes. Banksia `Giant Candles' [Section 143] is a shrub of medium size with elongated golden flower spikes.

Callistemon citrinus [Section 11] is an open shrub radiant with red bottlebrush flowers. Large, dense shrubs dotted with these attractive flowers are seen in Sections 9 and 10.The really woody, old, shrub with many trunks well covered with green and cream lichens is Leptospermum squarrosum [Section 11]. The canopy of this shrub is most attractive for lovely peach pink blossoms are clustered along the branches. Crowea `Festival' [Section 30] sparkles with attractive pink flowers on a neat, dense shrub and nearby Crowea `Pink Blush' [Section 30] is also attractive with almost white flowers. Banksia ericifolia var. ericifolia [Section 30] is an attractive, large, dense shrub showing off its rich gold flower spikes. Worth viewing, near the Rockery, are Callistemon `Glasshouse Country' [Section 110] with soft pink bottlebrush flowers and Callistemon pachyphyllus `Smoked Salmon' [Section 110] with pinkish-grey flowers.

Both, callistemons and banksias are favoured by many nectar-loving birds. The Red Wattlebirds, Eastern Spinebills and New Holland Honeyeaters are now taking their fill. The Crimson Rosellas seem to enjoy the flowers of the callistemons but the small blue Superb Fairy Wrens enjoy the offerings of the leaf litter.

So relaxing ... so enjoyable.

Barbara Daly