cold weather colour of crepe myrtle leaves

Behind the Scenes in our nursery

We love to see all the photos and videos of your garden plants, that you send to us and share on social media!

We we thought we'd share some of ours with you in return. Here's what's flowering at our place right now

Crepe myrtles put on a colourful show through summer and into autumn with their huge bright flowers. But not many gardeners know they also dazzle in autumn and winter with warm spicy leaf colour. Before the leaves fall, crepe myrtles turn these gorgeous shades of orange, yellow, and red. Here are Natchez in our nursery driveway, and Miami in the paddock.

Showing off its colour all year round, nandina or scared bamboo is a ripper shrub for gardens - easy care, good looking in every month, resilient to heat and cold. It looks very pretty after a rainshower too!
More gorgeous colour, this time not from dying leaves but from growing ones! These are new shoots of aniseed myrtle, deepest maroon; eumundi, glowing coral pink; and pink protea, shining in the winter sun.
If you're hanging out for winter colour, you can't go past hellebores - they'll flower from tubestock size and thrive under deciduous trees, where they can get winter sunshine and summer shade. Here are Karli and Ruby.
Hellebores make good planting pairs for pieris, aka andromeda, which prefers a rich loamy slightly acid soil. In winter it produces these long cascades of tiny bell flowers, which give it the other common name of lily of the valley bush.
Looking for more plants to tuck under a tree? Try violets, they love the shade and can stand a little dry soil now and again (though they'll really love a moist spot too.) Our native purple-and-white violet is one of our all time best-sellers; these relatives pink Rosina and white Alba are equally charming.

It's camellia season! We love this time of year on the nursery as we have a lot of camellia varieties planted and when they all start to bloom against the blue winter sky the colour is gorgeous and the fragrance is delicious too.
Yes, camellia are fragrant! Some very noticeably so, like Exquisite, which lives up to its name; and some more subtle, so you can pick the thread up on a warm still day.

first up you'll see red Black Tie, a japonica type which means it copes with cooler winters better; then an arching stem of hot pink Bonanza (and a happy little banded bee going about its business); and finally the big tissue-paper blooms of Plantation Pink.
There's over twenty varieties to choose, and they make gorgeous evergreen hedges too.
You might think that kangaroo paws only flower in spring. That was the old way. New kangaroo paws have been bred - notably by Kings Park Botanic Gardens and by Ramm Botanicals - that will flower almost all year round! Here are the unique emerald green Aussie Spirit, purple and orange Kings Park Royale glowing in the sunlight, and super-popular Bush Pearl.
Burgundy Queen tea tree is one of our best selling plants, and with flower value like this it's easy to see why! We have one planted outside our reception which we prune once a year, and one planted near our plant benches which we prune regularly to keep in a rounded shape. Both flower enthusiastically!

Also blooming right now are our hedges of NZ Christmas bush, Metrosideros. This one is thomasii, which can grow into a big tree but we keep it clipped to a chest-high size.

And for a little surprise, our Meyer lemon tubestock plants grew their own fruits! If you'd like to grow your own fruits too, we can only ship citrus to QLD addresses due to new changes in biosecurity rules.
Our grevilleas are looking fantastic right now, especially in the blue skies and sunshine. Large-flowered reliable Honey Gem; tall creamy Moonlight, always popular for a singing perch with local birds - and on sale this month; and dusky red Robyn Gordon, a customer favourite.
Grevilleas may be native but they can be a little tricky to grow if you don't have the right conditions. Happily our Garden Tips blog is full of helpful advice, like this post on How to Grow Grevilleas With Success.

While you're there, why not read our Bird-Friendly Gardening post too, and enjoy the sweet sound of birdsong in your back yard. This little honeyeater is perched on a grass tree spike - grass trees take a little time to grow but not as long as you'd think, and if you never plant them, they'll never grow...
Melaleuca Space Saver is a recent addition to the range, and an instant hit with our gardeners. Tall and slender, ideal for privacy screening in the limited space of new-build back yards, and in flower right now. They're a hit with beneficial pollinators too, fyi.

Wide-growing, but just as good at screening, Dawson River Weeper bottlebrush is always popular, in part because it flowers so generously.

Last but never least, our regular guest star Marmalade bush is back in flower after a heavy prune, and looking amazing. If you're looking for that mythical holy grail plant that flowers all year round, this is it.

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!