NATIVE PLANTS – Finding the best plant for your garden
So many people would like to have Australian natives in their garden, but don’t know where to start. A display of colourful potted plants at Bunnings or the local nursery is often the first step, but a plant that performs well in a pot may not be the best garden performer. The best thing to do is to either ask your nursery person for their advice on the best plant for your needs, or to go online to do some research. I have developed a handy tool to use with my native plant database, I suggest you give the Advanced Plant Search a try>>>>. You can search using all your own garden conditions, such as soil type, amount of sun, plant usage etc. Fill in just one or as many fields as you want, scroll down to the bottom and hit SEARCH. It will give you an exact match from my database if there is one, or the closest match to your requirements. Note that it only has Australian native plants to search from though!
There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to bring better plants into cultivation. Exotic plants often perform so well because they have had centuries of plant breeding and selections to find the best garden stars. But native plants are catching up, with some wonderful new introductions to add to the old favourites that have proven their worth. But be aware that not all new cultivars will last the distance. Some plants being brought into the marketplace will not suit all areas, or all soils, or may only look good for a few years. But that is part of the joy of gardening…..trying new things just for fun! By all means be seduced by a gorgeous plant calling to you from the nursery shelves, but also read all you can, ask your favourite gardening guru, and quiz the nursery staff.
Gardening With Angus is focusing on developing plants that will perform well in the garden. Often these are not the plants that will look at their best at the sale point, but will shine in the garden. Coupled with good advice on looking after the plants once they are in the garden, the gardener can be happy with the native choice. The latest releases are Anigozanthos Landscape Yellow and Anigozanthos Landscape Orange- as the name indicates, they are excellent landscaping kangaroo paws- tall and tough.
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Anigozanthos flavidus 'Landscape Yellow'
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Anigozanthos flavidus 'Landscape Orange'
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Anigozanthos flavidus 'Landscape Orange'
Find out more about Landscape Yellow and Landscape Orange.
In future newsletters I want to share some great old favourite natives, as well as new introductions to the garden scene which are going to become garden stars. There will be news about interesting events, handy hints for gardeners, and a few surprises.