Monstera Up Tree Don came across a Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa) growing in a turpentine tree. Turpentines (Syncarpia glomulifera) are related to gum trees. Their timber has a high silica content making it resistant to marine borers, and so it has...
Equatorial Foliage Plants Don and the Burke’s Backyard team travelled to Cairns to meet Dr. Arden Dearden, who has one of the most wonderful collections of tropical plants anywhere in Australia. Arden’s interest in plants started years ago when he was at...
Murraya (Murraya paniculata) This evergreen shrub from south-east Asia grows to around 3m (10′) tall. Its genus name commemorates Dr. Johann Murray, an eighteenth-century Swedish botanist. Murrayas, along with such plants as choisya and citrus, belong to the...
Gardenia ‘Ocean Pearl’ Don looked at an old fashioned variety of gardenia that’s been re-released recently with a new name. Like most gardenias, ‘Ocean Pearl’ has beautiful, fragrant white flowers. The only exception is a variety called...
Golden Candles This Central and South American native is a close relative of the shrimp, or prawn plant (Justicia spp). It is grown mainly for its bright yellow bracts, rather than for its insignificant white flowers. Golden Candles is very climate sensitive, and is...
Grevillea ‘Billy Bonkers’ ‘Billy Bonkers’ is one of a spectacular range of new hybrid grevilleas produced by Richard Tomkin at Changers Green Nursery in Queensland. It is a cross between the dwarf, spreading Grevillea nana subsp. abbreviata and...
Fourteen months ago Don created a grevillea garden using crushed sandstone rubble in raised mounds 1.5-2m (5-6′) high. All the plants have grown at such an incredible rate that you’d think the garden was at least ten years old. In this same area late last...
Grevillea lanigera ‘Mt Tamboritha Form’ This plant is a densely foliaged, dwarf, spreading form of the woolly grevillea (Grevillea lanigera). It is sold as “Compacta”, “Prostrate” or “Mt Tamboritha Form”, even...
Gymea lilies are spectacular Australian native plants with large, compact heads of nectar filled red flowers atop tall, thick stems. Most Australian natives resent being transplanted, but Gymea lilies can be dug up, moved and planted bare rooted. Don looked at a...
Hebes Hebes are native to the Southern Hemisphere, principally New Zealand. They are mostly evergreen, low growing shrubs to around 1m (3′) tall. They have dense, handsome foliage (sometimes variegated) and attractive flower spikes in colours ranging from white...