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. Spoiler : it's a LOT as the weather warms up and spring takes hold...
Big news this week is the scent! Honey-scented brunfelsia is making our staff car park smell divine; this plants often gets calles yesterday today tomorrow as the flowers change colour from purple to lilac then white. Looking fabulous this month, the Italian lavender is abuzz with happy bees in our Fragrant Jasmine & Lavender Walkway. Pumping out their fragrance, in full bloom, pink jasmines, and angelwing jasmines.
It's a great reminder that gardening isn't all about the visual - it's a creative artform that involves all the senses.Everything is pretty, and white - it's a like Mother Nature is having a spring wedding! Spiraea may bush, a customer favourite, is cascading in white blossom; and its smaller sibling Pink Ice is smothered in flowers.
Our reception entrance azalea Alba Magnifica is still going strong; the climbing rose banksaie Alba is in full bloom twining up our office outdoor staircase; and the viburnum bushes are decorated all over with hundreds of white flowers.
Creamy white fluffy-flowered natives are blooming : Melaleuca Snowstorm and Snowflake dwarf shrub forms of snow-in-summer tree, Melaleuca linariifolia. Usually fluorescent yellow, this lovely dwarf cream form of golden penda is called Little PendaAnd so it begins...! We know spring is here when the NSW Christmas bush is covered in creamy blossom; the distinctive red bracts are juuuust starting to turn pale pink.
Leptospermum tea trees is still in flower, three weeks and more later. Always one of our best-selling native plants - and with blossoms in abundance like these over such a long season it's easy to see why. Burgundy Queen, tall and dark; Pink Cascade, so pretty in shades of shell pink; Cardwell, a powerhouse when it comes to flowers, even on the youngest of plants.
Rhaphiolepis, or Indian hawthorn, is not well known, but a favourite hedge plant for everyone who plants it. Whether it's tall and glossy intermedia, pastel pink Apple Blossom, or compact and free-flowering Cosmic Pink and Cosmic White, they always do their best however tough the situation.
Also pretty in pale pink, starry pink serissa - those flowers may be small but there's so many of them, and for such a long time! Up here we know it's truly spring when this beauty starts to bloom. Fluffy-flowered Cascade lilly pillys are spectacular in flower. And lending a tropical holiday feeling to the nursery, dwarf oleander in a gorgeous apricot shade.
Most of our bottlebrushes are full of buds ready for the big spring push, but a few have jumped the gun and taken advantage of the warmth. As have the butterflies, like this jezebel feeding on a bottlebrush tree.
It's all about the bottlebrush in our motherstock paddocks right now. Dazzling reds, as far as you can see! Gold-dusted Rocky Rambler, an unusual groundcover bottlebrush ; and living up to its name, big bold Prolific covered in long flowers.
It's all about the bottlebrush in our motherstock paddocks right now. Dazzling reds, as far as you can see! Gold-dusted Rocky Rambler, an unusual groundcover bottlebrush ; and living up to its name, big bold Prolific covered in long flowers.
Covered in flowers even on young nursery plants, Rose Opal; and our mature Captain Cook hedges, such an enthusiastic flowerer. With fewer flowers for now but some gorgeously coloured foliage to compensate, is Ozbreed's Candy Pink. We love that sophisticated wine-purple and rust-pink combo!
If you like a coloured leaf, you'll be in heaven right now as the lilly pillys and NZ Christmas bush do their spring thing, covering themselves in cloaks of bright colour. You'll love these three : Metrosideros Fiji Fire, the NZ Christmas bush; Syzygium wilsonii , the powder puff lilly pilly - watch out for this one next month when it flowers! And perhaps brightest of all, Syzygium riberry - bright pink, plum, magenta, peach and cream all on the same tree. It's why we picked it for our banner image. Wow!
For instant gardens, choose bugles! Ajuga Burgundy Glow is a stunner with bright blue flowers and variegated cream and purple leaves. Dietes are another reliable bloomer, tough and pretty.
And for the ultimate in reliable, you can't go past marmalade bush, still flowering strong!
And for the ultimate in reliable, you can't go past marmalade bush, still flowering strong!
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!
We hope this has inspired you to take a fresh look at your outdoor space - and maybe add a new plant or two!
