Australian Native Plants at the ANBG Canberra

[Paul T]

Some more of the Grevilleas currently flowering at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.....

Click on the picture to see a bigger version.




Grevillea 'Poorinda Adorning', a low growing plant to around 20cm tall and this plant was about 1.8m wide.  Lovely orangey red flowers in clusters.




This is Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite'. These pics don't do it justice, it is a strong reddish-pinky colour.  Only about 45cm tall, with small clusters of flowers.  Only just starting to flower at the moment I think, as there were only a couple of sets of flowers open.






Grevillea treueriana is an absolute stunner.  The flowers just glow, drawing the eye from qutie a distance.  It is a small, wiry plant, with quite spikey leaves but the flowers are an incredible glowing yellow, orange and red.  I wish the pictures captured the colour properly, but hopefully you get the idea.  One I'll be looking out for to add to my garden if I can find it.


This is an unknown (i.e I couldn't find a tag on it), but I have my suspicions as to name.  Where it is growing it could either be a plant with a missing label, or else it could be a seedling, but it is nowhere near any other similar plant so who knows how it got there if it was a seed.  The plant is a decent size, already well over 2m high and the same wide.  The flowers in this one are mostly terminal, in a lovely apricot blend.




Another "unknown", but this one I am sure is just because I couldn't find the tag.  It's probably buried a bit under leaf litter or something and I didn't have the time to go properly looking for it.  Plant was probably about 2.3m high by 2.5m wide, but I don't remember for sure.  Good pink flowers on it, whatever it is.

A couple more Grevilleas still to come shortly.....

[Paul T]

I've saved the biggest Grevillea for last....

This is Grevillea robusta, a small tree to around 10 or 12m here.  It is not ideally suited to our climate (I think we're a bit cold for it ideally), it tends to be a bit scrappy and irregular in appearance around Canberra, although it is still quite plentiful in gardens or as street trees in a couple of places.  When in flower it is a blaze of orange flowers, in great clusters on the branches.  Each "brush" is around 15 cm long, perhaps a bit longer?  I forgot to note their approximate size, but there are hundreds and hundreds of them out on the tree at the same time.  I've included a bunch of pics to show everything from buds still a way off opening, through buds that are just opening, to fully open flowers on the branches etc.

I'll also post a pic in the Aussie Natives in our gardens topic or another Grevillea that I have flowering at home at the moment.  It fits in here but I wanted to keep this just to the ANBG stuff.

I hope you've all enjoyed this selection of Grevilleas, but it is by no means all that are flowering now.  I've tried in general not to duplicate any that I've posted before, but many of them are still flowering now as well.

[Armin]

Paul, fascinating series!
Thank you for introducing.

[Paul T]

You're welcome, Armin. 

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

I've finally had time to go through and sort a bunch of pics for preparation for posting here...... except that I have come up with 100 of them!    Are there particular areas of interest that people may want?  At this stage, I'm thinking that posting all the bits and pieces I have put aside (it was the highlights from most of a month, so there really aren't THAT many pics if you think about it) would definitely be overkill.

Any ideas anyone?

[Lvandelft]

Are there particular areas of interest that people may want?

How should we know which highlights to choose from the highlights, when we don't see them Paul?     

[Paul T]

Luit,

yeah I know,that is the problem.  I can't even work out which highlights to put up when I CAN see them.    Maybe I'll prepare and post a few, and see what people think.  I realise that 100 is too many to post in a short period, but I am not sure which ones to drop.  There has been so much flowering this month at the ANBG that there is just so much to chose from. 

[Lvandelft]

Paul, life is easy here. Could only try to make pictures of iceflowers on the windows.
Not much choice, eh? 

[Paul T]

Luit,

That sounds quite nice.  I'd love to see the pictures.  So much cooler than here! 

[ranunculus]

Luit,
  I realise that 100 is too many to post in a short period, but I am not sure which ones to dro

Why too many, Paul?  It has never stopped me!       Please post more of your wonderful images.

[David Nicholson]

All-Paul!!

[Katherine J]

As you can see, we are interested.

[Oron Peri]

Paul,

I also find your posts very interesting, please continue!!!

We use many species from Australia in our gardens, mainly Grevilea, Callistemon, Eremophila, Melaleuca, Metrosiderus, Leucadendron etc.

Most of these have adapted very well in our climate and have the advantage of needing little water, which is becoming a precious meter.
Israel, Cyprus and other neighboring countries enter their fifth year of sever drought and so these make an excellent choice.

By the way there are some very big Grevilea robusta trees growing here, these where brought in during  the British mandatory.
We use to graft many species of Grevilea on G. robusta, in order to prolong longevity, mainly the 'bushy type' such as G. 'Robin Gordon' etc.

Attached a photo of a garden designed by me where you can see the use of different Melaleuca, I love them for the natural shapes and leaf color.

[Brian Ellis]

Paul you will have to bow down to the inevitable.  We want to see them

[Paul T]

OK, I can hear my back cracking under the weight of the inevitable...... I will start posting them today sometime.