gardenia flower

Behind the Scenes in our nursery

We love to see all the photos and videos of your garden plants that you email to us, and share on social media.
We thought we'd share some of ours with you in return, so you can see what's flowering at our place right now.
This is Kambarang, season of birth, when temperatures warm, birds raise and feed their young, and everything is in bloom. Enjoy!

 

October 14-20 is also National Bird Week so here's two of our resident bee-eaters basking in the sun.
We're all about the wildlife here at Australian Plants Online; if you want to garden with nature in mind too, take a look at our posts like this one on Bird-Friendly Gardening.

They're only tubestock size but the Bingo Blue agapanthus don't know that. They're already flowering, in such a deep shade of blue. Stunning.
Looking like a miniature agapanthus, society garlic. Another precocious bloomer, you can unpack an instant garden when you order this one.

Same goes for Cape daisy, Osteospermum - no wonder they whiz out of the nursery as soon as they're in stock! You'll see more on this page, because they are bringing their A game right now. We love this new colourway, Unicorn, dramatic when planted with dark-leaved groundcovers.

And this month is truly lavender season - we've got a wide range of varieties - French, Italian, English, and hybrids - but fair warning! They sell out quick smart.
Check out our Creating a Fragrant Walkway post to see our nursery steps transformed with jasmine and lavender.

If there's one plant that embodies this time of year in the nursery though, it's gardenias.
We have a paddock full of our motherstock plants in the nursery and the air everywhere is filled with the sweet seductive scent of these gorgeous flowers.

They're in full bloom, and the bushes are covered in fat green buds waiting to open up later - it's very exciting!
From the abundant beautiful waterlilies of Professor Pucci; to the flat open stars of Grandiflora Star, so easy for pollinators to feed on; to the ruffled corsage blooms of Florida, a low compact variety...
... the teacup buds of Ocean Pearl, flowering from tubestock size; and the exquisite and HUGE flowers of Aimee Yoshiba, we guarantee there's a gardenia that's perfect for you.

Find out more in our latest post, Which Gardenia Is Best For You.

Native fan flowers are putting on a show in purple, pink, and white.
Native coast rosemary (Westringia) is also in bloom in lilac and white - this variegated one, Smokie, is lighting up our nursery driveway this month. Plant fan flowers around your coast rosemary for a two-tone colour match in pretty pastel shades.

Surprisingly also a native, though you might not guess it, the jombo-sized lushly leafy swamp lily (Crinum) which reaches chest high in spectacular starry explosions of blooms. If you've got the space, and regular water, it's a must.

Talking of big flowers, we're very impressed with the size of blooms on this little low-growing ice plant, Mesembryanthemum alba. Proof that your garden can be tough AND beautiful!

A little smaller in size, but ridiculously abundant in quantity, the flowers of Mesembryanthemum dwarf pink completely cover the foliage. Fantastic value!

And in a surprise bid for attention, buddha's temple plants are flowering. They don't look they'd flower, and if you had to guess, you probably wouldn't think they'd flower like this - and yet here we are. Pompoms of pink stars atop the geometric columns!
Our office buildings on the lower part of the nursery are looking very pretty this month - as the native pandoreas burst into flower. They're very fast growing so if you're an impatient kind of gardener who wants to see results, you can't go past them!

Also speedy to grow and flower, cold-hardy clematis, perfect for romantic vintage-style gardens, and ideal to plant with pandoreas.

For more fast-growing climbers, take a look at our post The Best Fast Growing Climbers for more ideas.

You'll find star jasmine (Trachelospermum) there, for one! We have several kinds, for colder or milder climates, with coloured or all green leaves : like the cold tolerant Flat Mat, low and groundhugging; and the cream-splashed Valley Lights, full of fragrance.

You can see star jasmine completely covering our nurery bank in flowers and sweet scent in the third image; behind it a native riberry tree, almost ready to burst from bud to blossom.

Riberry is one of the parents of lilly pilly Cascade, possibly the most beautiful lilly pilly there is. Well, that's what the bees think! Our nursery hedges are laden with big pink fluffy flowers. (If you take a look at last month's nursery photos, you can see its gorgeous peach-pink leaves too.)
The other parent of Cascade is powderpuff lilly pilly, Syzygium wilsonii. The flowers are a little fewer than on its offspring, but when they're this big, and intensely coloured, who are we to quibble?

They are planted in our nursery alongside pink and purple bottlebrush varieties, which are running the next leg of the relay following the red bottlebrushes' quick start out of the blocks last month. Callistemon Candy Pink, Lavender Showers, Purple Splendens will all give you that vibrant magenta colour - and some bonus new leaf colour too.
Pretty pretty pretty! The nursery benches are so pretty this month!

Variegated weigela, blossom-pink with golden leaves; seaside daisy (Erigeron), easy to grow and fast into flower; and Serenity Sunset osteospermum in Neapolitan flavours of strawberry and vanilla.
More pretties : rock rose Sunset and Silver Pink (there's an all-white one too); and another cape daisy, Osteospermum Antique Shades like a bowl of blueberries in cream.
Now is the time to buy if you want instant flowering colour out of the box, the moment you unpack your plants!

These silver leaf gazanias are always reliable for immediate colour - and so vibrant, that acid lemon against the silver leaves.

Geums are not as well known as gazanias, but this little cutie, Banana Daiquiri, is well worth trying underneath trees and shrubs, in pots on the patio, and soggy spots in the garden.

Have a go of our native leek, Bulbine, which loves the same conditions as geum - a little shady, a little damp.
If your garden is more hot and dry than damp and dappled with shade, try out the native hibbertia Little Rocker, a ripper little groundcover with super-bright blooms at this time of year.

Loving a warm subtropical climate, ixora makes a beautiful feature plant and a simply stunning hedge.

For cold-winter climates, fast-flowering golden day lilies are what you need to bring some instant sunshine into your life. They'll keep pumping out those lily flowers through spring and summer.
Filling the blue skies with gold right now, the gorgeous native silky oaks are in full bloom. They are very tall, although not too wide; so if you have the headroom they're worth squeezing in!

Not so tall, but definitely as wide, can you find room for the delicious subtropical grevillea Orange Marmalade? It's got such a long seasons of flower it's definitely worth it, and the local tiny spinebills and honeyeaters love sipping on the nectar and singing from the branches. No wonder it's a customer favourite.

And we can't go past marmalade bush, still flowering strong! Does it never stop?

There's always something to see and enjoy in a garden, every day of the year.
We hope this has inspired you to take a fresh look at your outdoor space - and maybe add a new plant or two!