Growing Australian Native flowers

Any of you that have explored any of our wonderful walks around the district will know that this year, nature is turning it on.

Native plants this year are particularly glorious, all the extra precipitation seems to have enhanced their performance ten fold.

The textured leaves and bold blooms of natives are lovely in the garden and in a vase. Some of the best native flowers for cutting are banksias, gum blossoms, kangaroo paw and Christmas bush.

No matter what your soil is like, you will be able to find the right selection for your garden. Not forgetting that natives really don’t like phosphorous so use a native specific fertiliser annually. Many folk think native plants are set and forget and to an extent that is true but these plants thrive with trimming. Cut them back several times a year but especially after flowering.

Hakea

Hakeas and Grevilleas are closely related and both come for a very diverse group of plants. Most of these plants prune into a hedge very nicely or provide great screening.

NSW Christmas Bush

This is a small bush but will sometimes grow into a small tree, depending on the variety and its location. It makes a very showy screen or hedge, and its flowers which are really bracts appear in summer after the small white flowers in spring. This plant does prefer moist soil or regular watering and organically enriched soil in full sun or part shade. When in flower, pick lots as this prunes the plant making them thicker and bushier which then means more flowers next year.

Grevilleas

These flowers are known as spider flowers and the range of plants in this group is extraordinarily diverse. These plants range in size from small ground covers to huge trees. Like many native plants the ones that grow in the tropics tend to be the best, especially for cut flowers. But many of them are still glorious and absolutely worth having in your garden both on the shrub and in a vase.

Kangaroo Paw

These plants have a lovely grassy form and range in size from 30cm to 1m in height. The blooms of kangaroo paw sit above the grass and come in a wide range of colours from red to pink and yellow and all shades of these along with some nearly black and some white. Good drainage is essential and they do particularly well in pots. Once the flowers are finished cut off old stems.

Gums

Lots of our local Eucalypts flower and although many in this district are not ‘show ponies’, their flowers are still lovely and many have foliage that is gorgeous to have in a vase. If you coppice eucalypts, they keep their juvenile foliage which is often more interesting than the adult foliage and really lovely in your garden and in a vase.

Banksias

Most of us are familiar with banksia forests on the south coast. They are stunning, a little less adaptable to growing in our sometimes freezing climate but a few grow well here. There are all sizes, trees to ground covers. Totally worth growing for there flowers that look like candles.

The obvious flowers that I have not mentioned Waratah, Protea and leucadendron are stunning plants and flowers but REALLY moody to grow here.