THE government nursery at Yarralumla is mounting a display of Australian plants at Floriade – and about time!

I cannot understand why Tourism Minister Andrew Barr isn’t insisting that every year there is a substantial area of the wonderful range of our plants, especially with the influx of interstate and overseas visitors to the spring festival.

This would be an ideal opportunity to link the display with the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Start the tour at the Visitor Centre to collect the “In Flower this Week” brochure. With this in hand, simply follow the bright purple and green numbered signs through the gardens. And the bird population at the gardens is unbelievable.

BARBARA Daly, a remarkable volunteer with the Friends of the Gardens, is retiring after writing the “In Flower This Week” brochure for an amazing 26 years.

To Barbara, this has been a joy and complete devotion to Aussie plants. Considered the longest-serving volunteer in the garden’s history, she was awarded a life membership of the Friends after 25 years of service to the gardens.

Other volunteers are now continuing “In Flower This Week”, which is also available digitally via the Botanical Gardens website.

THERE are at least a dozen Acacia in flower from the palest to the deepest yellow in the wattle garden. My favourite is Acacia covenyi, commonly known as the Blue Bush, now a rare plant in the wild.

It has a stunning contrast between the silver-grey foliage, so useful for flower arranging, and brilliant golden flower balls.

Another endangered wattle is Acacia gordonii, a compact bush now restricted to the north-west of Sydney.

Another favourite that I sneak into gardens where the owners have requested exotic plants is Philotheca myoporoides, or native wax flower. Now a mass of pink flowers, the added attraction is the fragrance of the leaves. A wonderful contrast pictured here of the rich purple of Hardenbergia violacea with a wattle in the background seen at the entrance of the Heritage Nursery in Yarralumla.

I FREQUENTLY hear people say you must plant Aussie plants to attract native birds. This is another garden myth. If the food/nectar tastes good, the birds don’t mind where the flowers are from. For example, honeyeaters love the nectar from camellias. I recommend a healthy mixture of Aussie and exotic plants to provide year-round food. Parrots get their daily fill from the emerging seeds of silver birch.

In April I purchased a few from Lambley Nursery, in Victoria, and to our delight these have just come into flower in our garden.

Jottings…

• NATIVE plants need to be fed, watered and pruned just the same as any other plant, at least in spring and autumn. Make sure the nutrients are low in phosphorus and preferably certified organic.
• IF you don’t have a birdbath in your garden, now’s the time to install one before summer. Also a ground-level water container for native fauna such as blue tongue lizards.
• AUTHOR Simon Rickard will discuss his new book on heirloom vegetables at the Horticultural Society of Canberra’s meeting at Wesley Church Centre, National Circuit, Forrest, 7.30pm, on September 15. All welcome.