Solve a problem, find a plant or look for a design inspiration
What do you do when you’ve forgotten the mosquito repellant? Or maybe you’re suffering from sunburn and need a solution to calm your skin? Help is at hand, says Jackie French, if you grow Aloe vera. Aloe vera is a succulent which has many medicinal uses,...
An interesting new plant is the dwarf Alstroemeria ‘Peruvian Princess’ which has ruby red flowers with yellow throats. Plant details Common name: Dwarf Alstroemeria Botanic name: Alstroemeria ‘Peruvian Princess’ Description: A compact, dense...
In spring, many gardens are filled with azaleas in colours such as pink, white, mauve or red. However, a wider range of colours can be found in some cool climate gardens. Peter Valder explores several different colours. Colourful Azaleas The ‘Mollis’...
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...
Surprisingly, this beautiful Australian rainforest native is not as popular as it deserves to be. It is a member of the family Proteaceae, which includes grevilleas, banksias and waratahs. The tree is fairly slow growing and may not flower for seven or eight years,...
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....
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...
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...