Gardening With Angus

Celebrating Spring, Wattle Day and Fathers Day!

The start of September is a wonderful time. Spring flowers are bursting forth. It is a great time to add new plants to your garden, with mild weather helping them to establish. Wattle Day on the 1st of September…..a fitting national floral emblem- a species of great diversity, beauty and resilience. And a happy Fathers Day to all the dads.

Western Australian wildflowers

I’ve been fortunate to be visiting WA just on springtime. This year has been possibly the best  in 20 years for south western Western Australia. In particular,the drifts of everlasting daisies and other showy herbaceous species such as the blue lechenaultia have been traffic stoppers.

At the moment the area to the north east of Perth around Eneabba and Perenjori has been the place to be but come October the south coast will be lighting up. My favourite patch was a heathland we found to the north of Enaabbba where a vast tract of the roadside was a sea of orange banksia (B. hookeriana), smoke bush (Conospermum species) and cottonheads (Conostylis species).

Another personal favourite was a natural garden of wreath lechenaultia (L. macrantha), trigger plant (Stylidium species), guinea flower (Hibbertia species) and blue dampiera (Dampiera species). Terrestrial orchids such as daddy long legs spider orchid (Caladenia longicauda subspecies borealis) were also having  year to remember. If you can take some time off in spring to get amongst it in WA then you will be richly rewarded. I’m now off to lead a tour to the Top End, for a different horticultural experience.

Spring event

Arid Lands Festival 27th August to the 2nd of October at the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden in Port Augusta in South Australia. If you have never visited this 250 hectare unique site, this would be a great time to do so! It showcases amazingly adapted Australian native plants in a great site.