Don regards our Plant of the Week as a serious contender for the title of ‘World’s Best Perfumed Plant’. Brown boronias have wonderful, lemon-scented flowers, which is not surprising when you consider that they belong to the same plant family as...
A tough indoor plant commonly found sitting unobtrusively in the corners of living rooms across Australia is Philodendron bipinnatifidum (sold as P. selloum). No-one would suspect the complexity of its sex life and the unusual activities undertaken by commercial...
This member of the flax family comes from the foothills of the Himalayas. It is a particularly useful plant because it produces stunning, clear butter yellow flowers in the middle of winter, bringing some much-needed cheer when the rest of the garden is bare. Plant...
If you want a plant that’ll laugh at the drought, consider the humble gazania. Plant details Common name: Gazania Botanic name: Gazania hybrids Description: Low growing perennials from South Africa. Their silvery-green leaves are usually long and narrow, and are...
The luculia was introduced to the west by plant hunter, Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson. It occurs naturally on lightly wooded hills in the lower Himalayas to Yunnan, where apparently it grows in large forests. In the home garden it’s hard enough to get one...
Flesh-pink and sweet-smelling, a crowd of naked ladies is an arresting sight! But best of all, once you have them, all you have to do is gawp. They look after themselves. ‘Naked ladies’ is the common name given to the South African bulb, Amaryllis...
The Japanese Sacred Bamboo (Nandina domestica) grows naturally in Japan, China and south-east Asia through to eastern India. It is said to be the most commonly used plant in Japan. Even more popular in Australian gardens is its dwarf form, Nandina domestica...
Goldfussia (Strobilanthes anisophyllus) is a hardy, evergreen shrub growing to around 1.5m (5′) tall. It has glossy, dark green leaves of unequal size, which are stained blackish purple on both sides. Mauve flowers appear in spring, and intermittently throughout...
Euphorbia leucocephala, or snow flake bush, is an interesting plant from Central America, which puts on a wonderful display of creamy, petal-like bracts during autumn and winter. Closely related to poinsettia, it is a classic low maintenance plant that would suit the...
The lipstick hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus) is an evergreen shrub from Mexico. It belongs to the Malvaceae or Mallow family, along with its relative the true hibiscus. It grows to around 2m tall. It has pendulous, bright red flowers from about Christmas through...