Australian National Botanic Gardens

In Flower this Week

A weekly news sheet prepared by a Gardens' volunteer.
Numbers in square brackets [] refer to garden bed Sections. Plants in flower are in bold type.

16 January 2004

Can’t help but admire the graceful Smooth-barked Apple, Angophora costata subsp. costata [Section 168] in the car-park.  The trees are tall with attractive mottled tan-pink bark and willowy branches white with clusters of fluffy flowers.  However this walk is to view flowers in the Rock Garden.

Halgania cyanea - click for larger image

Bulbine vagans [Section 15C, and elsewhere] has long succulent slim leaves and terminal heads of yellow star flowers on long, mostly upright stems.  Grevillea ‘Poorinda Royal Mantle’ [Section 15D] is a dark green carpet with dark red toothbrush-like flowers flowing down the slope.  Chrysocephalum semiamplexicaule [Section 15D] has bright orange clusters of small flowers on long unruly green stems.  Close by, a Field Lily, Crinum angustifolium [Section 15D] displays its attractive open petalled white flowers with mauve anthers atop long upright stems.  Halgania cyanea [Section 15D] is a dwarf plant with deep blue flowers.

Hypocalymma xanthopetalum [Section 15F] is a tiny shrub with many yellow feathery flowers, nestled between the rocks.  Near the base of the stairs, Baeckea sp. [Section 15A] has long arching branches dense with tiny white flowers while, at the top of the stairs, Persoonia linearis x pinifolia [Section 15H] is a large shrub with soft pine-like needles and terminal sprays of small yellow tubular flowers on pendulous branches.  Along this top road are seen numerous kangaroo paws, Anigozanthos flavidus [Section 15H] with burnt red ‘paw’ flowers on long slender stems.  The perfume is that of Acacia subulata [Section 3] a medium size shrub with fine leaf and sprays of small fluffy yellow flower balls, seen across the road.  

Banksia caleyi - click for larger image

Scaevola albida var. albida [Section 15H] is well covered with small white fan-shaped flowers and Dampiera sylvestris [Section 15H] is a dense suckering plant with a canopy of blue flowers.  Artanema fimbriatum [Section 15J] is a small open shrub with lovely pale blue and white bugle flowers while, around the corner Scaevola ‘New Blue’ [Section 15J] is a prostrate plant with vivid blue fan flowers.

Continuing past the stand of grass trees, Xanthorrhoea johnsonii [Section 15N] Scaevola calendulacea [Section 15N] has shiny succulent leaves and pale blue fan flowers along the trailing stems.  An emu bush, Eremophila alternifolia [Section 15N] has carmine coloured trumpet-shaped flowers.  A mint bush, Prostanthera sp. [Section 15N] is an upright shrub displaying dusky pink-tan bugle flowers over the small shrub while at the end of the road, the Blue Grass Lily, Agrostocrinum scabrum [Section 15N] is a small tufted plant with attractive blue star flowers on slim stems.

Returning, Hibbertia longifolia [Section 15N] has quite large yellow flowers on yet a small shrub.  Petalostylis labicheoides [Section 15N, 15R] is an open shrub bright with open apricot coloured flowers.  Notice the lovely Eucalyptus lansdowneana subsp. lansdowneana [Section 15R], tall, slim and graceful, tipped with red feathery flowers.  See, too, Banksia caleyi [Section 15P], still a small shrub revealing colourful inverted maroon flower spikes – really nice.  Lythrum salicaria [Section 15Q] in front of the waterfall, pretty with spikes of terminal pink flowers.

Such a colourful wonderland …                                                                               Barbara Daly.