colourful australian native gardens

Colourful Native Gardens

Australian native plants

were maligned for many years. They were said to be scruffy, uninteresting and dull. How wrong this is.

Native gardens

can be a delightful rainbow of colour throughout the seasons, with both brilliantly coloured bird-attracting flowers and stunningly coloured foliage.

Background shade trees for larger gardens that have an added bonus of seasonal flowers are always a delight on hot summer days and as windbreaks from cold winter winds.

The new grafted gum trees are neat, compact and colourful.

Summer Red

, pink

Summer Beauty

, and mauvish-pink

Summer Glory

will all give an unrivalled display of colour at Christmas.

A scarlet haze of the

Illawarra flame tree

is a part of Australian spring, as is the fragrance the creamy yellow flowers of the native

frangipani

,

hymenosporum flavum

.

For a less flamboyant colour, the dainty pink bells of the

blueberry ash

,

eleocarpus

, are followed by dark blue berries that are strikingly beautiful against the soft grey foliage.

Smaller growing shrubs are ideal as a backdrop for ground covers and borders.

The purple

hop bush

,

Dodonea viscose

, provides year round colour, soft grey

Westringia

with lilac flowers attracts the birds and insect, bright green

bottlbrushes

are highlighted with huge brushes of colour, scarlet, purple, wine red or white,

grevilleas

come in all sizes, flowering most of the year, and the regal

Waratah

is the herald of spring bearing huge torches of scarlet or white.

Borders and rockeries can be filled with low growing flowering perennials. Hot dry spots with good drainage are perfect for the newly developed

Kangaroo Paws

, the fan flower,

Scaevola aemula

, will spill over rock walls in a cascade of pink, violet or blue, as the tiny butter yellow

Hibbertia obtusifolia

lights up the garden by the BBQ.

If the garden seems empty of colour in winter, plant

Rhodanthe

paper daisies that will flower in the cold months together with the bright blue

brachyscomes

of summer colour.

Cover fences and pergolas with winter flowering violet

hardenbergia

, or the new generation

Pandorea Bower of Beauty

. New release

Auzzie Bellz

are alive with pale pink, hot pink, crimson throated white or pristine white tresses of bell shaped blooms through out the spring and summer.

Colour is part of a well designed garden and the great thing about Aussie colour is that the plants are all part of the land we live in. The birds love them, the native bees love them, the native lizards and animals love them, and they all thrive in this harsh and demanding climate.

Checklist

1. Check the labels for conditions required.
2. Watch your garden for several weeks to observe the sun and shade.
3. Plant in the early morning or the cool of the evening.
4. Use Organic fertilisers - native plants don’t like chemicals.
5. Allow the plants to harden up to the weather conditions.
6. Once established native plants will look after themselves with far less work and maintenance than imported cottage plants from Europe.
7. A visit to the garden centre every month will show you what is in flower.

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