NOW, half-way through summer, it’s time to start thinking about autumn planting. The next couple of months are a busy time for the home gardener and February/March is the time Floriade starts its spring bulb […]

A NEW Year starts, but the garden’s new year began in spring when life emerged from the cold with a hundred shades of green adorning deciduous trees and shrubs and the bulbs moving through the […]

THE next few weeks are a quiet time in the garden and, with the welcome rain of the last few weeks, most are looking decidedly better with an abundance of summer flowers. Forget about the […]

THE colour of Christmas is red, from the Father Christmas costume to plants decorating the Christmas table and poinsettia is also synonymous with its bright-red bracts. Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is sold around the world at […]

KANGAROO paws not only flower in summer, but some varieties can flower most of the year. One person who promotes kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos flavidus) is Angus Stewart, a name familiar to ABC’s “Gardening Australia” viewers, […]

CAMPANULAS or “Canterbury Bells”, a favourite perennial in gardens for generations, flower from now until autumn and once the flowers finish the leaves remain evergreen through winter. They originate in the Mediterranean, thrive in our […]

FRENCH botanist Father Charles Plumier, considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time, introduced fuchsia to the western world. Plumier (1646-1704) identified and described fuchsia, which he discovered on the […]

WALTER Burley Griffin’s vision of a garden city has long given way to the bush capital, which has now been replaced by a concrete jungle as block sizes shrink and towering high-rise developments reduce the […]

IT takes just a few warm days and, suddenly, there’s an explosion of growth in the garden. Bulbs, corms and rhizomes all store energy in various forms during the dormant winter months until nature decides […]

LILAC is a hard plant to kill, which means it’s one of those that anyone can grow successfully. It’s almost a given that lilacs, renowned for their colour and fragrance, will do well. Most grow […]

GARDENS shouldn’t be solely focused on plants, but should be fun places for adults and children alike. Today I’m illustrating a couple of fun ideas; one that costs serious money and space to build, and […]

NATURE is truly amazing; no matter how hard the ground, bulbs have a way of pushing their leaves through in places that I cannot remember ever planting. I am also looking at the buds of […]

ROSES can be pruned at any time, it doesn’t have to be traditionally at the end of August/early September. Some readers, who have attended rose-pruning demonstrations, have been told timing is very important; prune too […]

SPRING is one of the most exciting times in the gardening calendar and the Pieris family, commonly called pearl bush (the panicles of flowers resembling strings of pearls) provides a special delight this time of […]

AS the days get longer and warmer, blossom trees are starting to burst in all their glory, none more so than the spectacular Magnolia stellata or Star Magnolia by our front door. One of my […]

I HAVE been writing a regular gardening column for more than 30 years and one request I receive from time to time is for me to share what I’m doing in our garden in downtown […]

AS spring arrives our national floral emblem, Acacia pycnantha (or Australian Golden Wattle) patiently waits for warmer weather to fully open in flower. More of a small tree rather than a shrub, it is considered […]

LAWNS look understandably sad at present with little or no rain and severe frosts. But will the lawn recover? As in the bush with the severe drought, the grass is still there and with good […]