By pruning, the convenyi  can be kept as a medium shrub of, say, 3m or allowed to grow as a small tree 5-6m tall.

Golden-yellow flowers are on axillary sprays in spring presenting an even more spectacular sight against the silver foliage. The foliage is in popular demand for floral arrangements. It is native to most of NSW and is frost and drought hardy.

Other silver or grey foliage plants include Cistus “Sunset” or the very hardy rock rose, with pink flowers, all of the lavender family, especially Lavendula “Hidcote” or the dwarf Lavendula “Munstead”, which flower in summer and have the most fragrance of any lavenders. They are perfect for making pot pourri.

ANY silver or grey-leafed plants, or those with very small leaves, are very drought and sun hardy, losing little evaporation through the leaves, such as rosemary and thyme.

In the grey-leafed theme Thymus lanigerum or grey woolly thyme combined with members of the dianthus family make ideal plants for the front of the garden bed.

Dianthus “Doris” comes to immediate mind with possibly Convolvulus cneorum with silver-grey foliage and white flowers planted behind. A popular silver-leaved, border plant is Santolina chamaecyparissus with its tiny, yellow-button flowers en masse. It grows to about 40cm-50cm tall. The only disadvantage is that once it comes into flower, all the stems go into a swirl.

Once the flowers finish it is necessary to cut it back hard leaving the plant slightly unsightly for a month or so until the new growth starts.

WHY is it recommended to trim flower heads off agapanthus immediately after flowering?

Agapanthus produces a huge number of seeds that are spread over wide areas by wind, birds and water. As a result, they can invade natural bushland to such an extent they are considered an environmental weed, for example, in the Blue Mountains National Park.

In the home garden they can smother more desirable plants.

Years ago country properties often planted garden boundaries of agapanthus to help prevent grass fires reaching the homestead.

GARDEN centres now stock sterile agapanthus, which still flower prolifically but don’t produce seed. This year, I’m going to replace all those seed producers in our garden with sterile agapanthus that include “Blue Storm” and “Snowstorm”, both prolific flowerers, or the deep purple “Black Pantha”. They all grow to about 60cm.

Many garden centres as well as florists have red roses available for St Valentine’s Day.

THE Great Autumn Flower Show and Dahlia Championships of the Horticultural Society of Canberra will be held at the Lancaster Hall, Wesley Church Centre, National Circuit, Forrest on Saturday, March 7 (noon-5pm) and Sunday, March 8 (11.30am-3.45pm). Refreshments available plus the popular plant stall.

Jottings…

• While we have had good rain it’s easy to neglect plants under the eaves that may be missing out on regular watering.
• Remember water restrictions are still in place with no sprinklers allowed between 9am and 6pm.
• Mildew on veggies such as cucumber leaves? Spray with a mixture of one part full-cream milk mixed with eight parts water.
• Keep dead-heading roses for a last burst of flowers.