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

18 September 1998

The golden glow of wattles continue throughout the Gardens. Grevilleas are well in flower and because it is spring plants are bursting into flower everywhere. In front of the Visitor Centre, Petrophile biloba [Section 222] is a large shrub covered with terminal sprays of greyish-pink woolly flowers and halfway up the stairs, Rulingia magniflora [Section 221] presents its few open pink flowers on a small plant. Hardenbergia violacea [Section 174] is densely covered with deep purple peaflowers. and is seen throughout the Gardens, twining over shrubs or over retaining walls.

In front of the cafe Acacia cardiophylla `Gold Lace' [Section 245] has branches clad with yellow flower balls hugging the ground. Boronia megastigma `Harlequin' [Section 244] has bell-shaped flowers coloured yellow and brown with perfume permeating the environment. Eriostemon myoporoides subsp. acutus [Section 131] is a dense, rounded shrub well covered with pink buds and white star flowers. Compare this plant with Eriostemon verrucosus `J. Semmens' [Section 240] which has multipetalled white flowers. Opposite, the cherry coloured flowers of Grevillea `Scarlet Sprite' [Section 136] are quite attractive and not to be missed, and Banksia `Giant Candles' [Section 143] bears many elongated, upright golden flower spikes.

In this area, see Zieria fraseri [Section 180] a low, open shrub clad with four-petalled pink flowers. Close by, Boronia pinnata [Section 13] is of medium size well covered with pink, almost white, star-shaped flowers. Opposite an area of Pomaderris species [Section 31] which are still tightly in bud, Hakea macraeana [Section 32] bears long sprays of fragrant, white lacy flowers. and many warty fruits on this thirty-year-old shrub. As yet quite small, Grevillea victoriae [Section 32] has many rust red flowers suspended from its branches.

Grevillea dimorpha [Section 28] is picturesque with brilliant red flowers hugging the upright branches of this small plant. In the distance the wattle glowing with yellow flower balls is Acacia decurrens [Section 28] and in the other direction the large, rounded shrub laden with eye-catching yellow flower spikes is Banksia spinulosa var. collina [Section 28].

Close to the grand old Eucalyptus mannifera [Section 27] with mottled grey and white trunk and branches, Grevillea `Boongala Spinebill' [Section 27] is a ground-hugging plant with deeply lobed leaves and red toothbrush-like flowers. Behind it is Grevillea tetragonoloba [Section 27], another ground-hugging, spreading plant, with soft, green foliage and attractive orange-red toothbrush-like flowers. Grevillea lanigera [Section 27] is a dense groundcover highlighted with red-cream flowers.

This area is a bird's paradise - all partaking of the nectar of the grevilleas in particular.

Barbara Daly.