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

13 November 1998

In the Visitor  Centre, enjoy David Miller's  remarkable exhibition, `What's for Lunch?',  then follow this walk to various areas with  colourful flowers.  Throughout the  Gardens the variety of flowering plants is impressive.  On the ramp towards the Rainforest Gully, Leptospermum `Bywong Merinda' [Section 210]  is radiant with bright pink flowers adorning a small rounded shrub. Opposite, Leptospermum scoparium  `Horizontalis' [Section 212] has branches well covered with dense green foliage and clusters of white flowers.

Enter the cool Rainforest Gully area on the boardwalk. Zieria arborescens [Section 148] is speckled with tiny white flowers and in the gully, the pink toothbrush-like flowers of Grevillea barklyana subsp. barklyana [Section 148] mingle with a variety of green shrubs. On the left side, growing on the trunk of Prostanthera lasianthos [Section 148], is an epiphytic orchid with small white flowers. It is Sarcochilus falcatus [Section 148],  seen again on the trunk of a Plumwood, Eucryphia moorei [Section 148], also on the left side. The graceful floral plumes of the small tree Pomaderris aspera [Section 148] are seen beside the boardwalk, which is so pleasant to stroll along with the enormous fronds of treeferns,  Dicksonia antartica [Sections 144, 147], to overlook.  Leaving this area you will see another orchid with soft pink flowers, Dendrobium kingianum [Section 104], growing on a rocky outcrop.

Walking uphill you will find  a garden of spreading  buttercups, Ranunculus collinus [Section 78], so dense, so many shiny, yellow flowers ... really a great groundcover!  Behind, Kunzea ambigua [Section 78] is an old, rambling shrub majestically displaying white, feathery flowers crowded at the ends of its branches. Nearby see the  Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excelsa [Section 78], with large sword-like leaves surrounding a huge flower spike on top of which is a large cluster of red flowers.

Boronia molloyae [Section 123] is quite a picture, with sprays of dense pink cup-shaped flowers covering the small shrub. Further uphill, passing the sweet-smelling Olearia megalophylla [Section 123] with white daisy flowers, see  Callistemon formosus [Section 123] with lime-coloured bottlebrush flower spikes. Find, also, Kennedia macrophylla [Section 122], a ground covering climber bearing many burnt orange pea flowers.

Above the covered shelter are waratahs, still in flower. Telopea `Braidwood Brilliant' [Section 37] is a large shrub bearing many splendid red flower spikes.  Telopea mongaensis [Section 37], at the top of the stairs, is picturesque with its more open red flowers. Notice, too, Banksia lemanniana [Section 37] which bears many  juvenile tan-coloured flower spikes which, on maturing, will change to a lime colour.  Note, too, that its flowers are pendent whilst most banksia flower spikes are upright.

So many colourful areas to see ...

Barbara Daly.