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Burke’s Backyard receives letters about confusing flowering plants that have two different coloured flowers on the one bush. For example an azalea may have magenta purple flowers with one branch of whitish flowers with a magenta purple edge. The different...
Plants growing on the coast or in windblown sites may adapt to the harsh conditions by becoming low growing. A low growing plant which is increasing its share of the market is Banksia spinulosa ‘Coastal Cushion’. This Australian native is a coastal form of...
Rich reds and bronzes are wonderful autumn colours. The autumn trees which most people think of for colour are liquidambars and claret ash. Peter Valder recently visited Merry Garth in Mt Wilson, NSW, which is full of autumn colour with bronzes, rich rusts and lime...
An interesting rare perfumed plant is Herald’s Trumpet (Beaumontia grandiflora) which has wonderful large white flowers with a sweet tropical perfume. It is a vigorous woody climber which is native to the region from India to Vietnam and belongs to the same...
A sterile, uninteresting entrance to a home gives visitors a poor first impression. Don gave a boring entrance some style and class with strategically placed containers filled with grassy plants. First, some tall, squarish terracotta pots were spray-painted silver, to...
In keeping with the ‘weird’ theme of this week’s program, Don looked at some very curious and unusual plants. String of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus) This is a type of succulent that actually looks like beads on a string. It is native to South Western Africa. String of...
Lack of privacy or the need to block an unsightly view are familiar problems to many home owners, but often there’s not enough space to construct garden beds and plant shrubs and trees. Don looked at a very good screen of star jasmine growing on a steel frame....
Don visited Gabriel Rosati, who has a very curious water feature in her backyard. The sloping block was too small for a lap pool or a swimming pool, so Gabriel came up with the idea of a stream instead. But this is no ordinary stream. It bubbles and gurgles alongside...
In spring this small native tree is almost smothered in creamy yellow, frangipani-like flowers with a strong heady fragrance. Plant details Common name: Native frangipani Botanical name: Hymenosporum flavum Description: Evergreen tree to about 10m (30′) tall in...
To many people a garden is an oasis, a place where they can escape the stress of busy lives, and just relax. If there’s one plant in particular which evokes memories of holidays, tropical beaches, and gives that calm, peaceful, rainforest sort of feel to the...