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

24April 1998

Take heed of Irene Briant's welded steel and wire mesh eastern grey kangaroo in the Visitor Centre. Then see, in the pots outside the door, a variety of interesting flowers which include Eremophila maculata var. brevifolia with magenta shaded tubular flowers.

As the Rock Garden contains many small, interesting plants, some will be identified on this walk. Notice, over the road, Callistemon polandii [Section 110] with brilliant red bottlebrush flowers sprinkled with yellow. In front of the waterfall, Sturt's Desert Pea, Swainsona formosa [Section 15V], floral emblem of SA, shows off its red pea flowers with black `eye' on trailing grey foliage. Close by Goodenia amplexans [Section 15V], with small, yellow flowers, has leaves lying flat along the upright stems.. Above the waterfall the spent black flower-spike of Xanthorrhoea johnsonii [Section 15D] towers above the crop of twirling grass-like leaves. Other, lighter spikes are those of Xanthorrhoea macronema [Section 15D].

Scaevola ramosissima [Section 15C] bears purple fan flowers with lighter edging on stems which almost hug the soil while Brachyscome multifida `Breakoday' [Section 15C and elsewhere] has soft mounds of mauve daisies. Opposite, Lomatia tinctoria [Section 15D] is of medium size with attractive, divided leaves and loose clusters of cream flowers. Crowea `Pink Blush' [Section 15C] has white, with a dash of pink, starry flowers on an open shrub.

Dampiera stricta [Section 15F] is a suckering plant crowded between rocks, with upright stems tipped with mauve-blue flowers. Around the corner Lomandra leucocephala subsp. robusta [Section 15F], a tufted plant, has grass-like leaves and interesting woolly, off-white flower clusters arranged along the stems. Grevillea lanigera [Section 15W] is a dense, ground-hugging plant brilliant with pink spider-like flowers whereas, on top of the stairs, Grevillea `Mason's Hybrid' [Section 15H] has large, terminal clusters of orange-red flowers on a large shrub. Scaevola albida var. albida [Section 15H] sparkles with white fan flowers on a low, fairly open plant.

In the centre of this garden, Eucalyptus lansdowneana subsp. lansdowneana [Section 15R] is laden with ochre coloured buds exploding into lovely red, lacy flowers. At its feet, Leucophyta brownii `Cape Le Grande' [Section 15R] with silvery-grey foliage is quite startling. Correa pulchella `Pink Mist' [Section 15S] is neat and rounded with soft pink tubular flowers almost hidden in the foliage. Around the corner, Chrysocephalum apiculatum [Section 4], ablaze with small clusters of orange flowers, edges the path.

Another colourful area of the Gardens ...

Barbara Daly.