Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Gone Native....

Hello Dhaaarings...

I've recently had another adventure...



I'd just like to show you some snaps of my trip to the local

Yellow "Paper Daisy's"


"Native Plant Nursery"

The Nursery specialises in cultivating and raising native plants that are indegenous species to the local region within a 100 km radius.
It developed as a direct result of the past 10 long years of drought in southern Australia 
The absence of rain over that time and crippling water restrictions played havoc with the established gardens full of exotic plantings like roses, lilies and other water hungry plants.
Causing many an avid gardener like myself to throw their arms up in dispair and give up on the never ending cycle of losing favourite plants to the ravages of drought



All the plants on display are for sale and arranged in a manner that is very pleasing to the eye 
And although their main focus is on cultivating indigenous species they also have a very large range of plants which are Australian Native but are grown all over the country.
As a result of the constant losses many people became interested in growing native plants that would survive in the harsh conditions and needed little in the way of regular watering or moisture.
So these enterprising folk set up their nursery and it has taken off.
They now get orders for plant stock from all over the country a particularly from rare species  collectors
Their seed is sourced locally and once they have established a specimin the seed is gathered and germinated on site.
Even the local council got in on the act replacing their public garden beds of tulips, lillies and other annuals with hardier native flora.


Don't ask me to name them all here as I didn't go there to research.... just to look at the pretties


Pink "Kangaroo Paw" in close up

Apart from the rows of small plants in little pots...
The owners have established a native walk which displays the plants in their natural setting showing in a practical way how the plants might be grouped or planted around the home garden.


The plants on the Native Walk do not get watered by the owners ever!

Apart from occasionally when they first go in... But once established they survive purely on the moisture that falls infrequently from the sky.
I had been to this nursery before but not when all the flowers were in bloom


I thought they were pretty Spectacular


I was really stunned by the variety of flowering natives indigenous to the area...I had no idea!
I love the different foliage.. the shape and form of the plants and the colours of their blooms.
The idividual shapes of their flowers are also quite amazing







We Came home with one of these...



No not the concrete Kangaroo...

I just couldn't pass up the vibrant Blue Flowers.

And... Don't worry I plan to re-visit when I'm a little more cashed up....
  

8 comments:

  1. Native plants are popular here as well for the same reasons. Plus, the deer tend to not eat them.

    I would like to have a garden with a concrete roo or two!

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  2. Oh...WOW!

    *does little yips of excitement*

    That looks absolutely amazing. Your native plants have such a wild beauty to them and fantastic that they survive without having to baby them.

    It's not fair. I want to rock up to your Palais with my gardening gloves and a couple of bottles of something naughty. Humpf.

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  3. Yes, the blue ones, and the Kangaroo paw.

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  4. Dear XL
    I know just he place to purchase these roos... they are for sale at the nursery...
    I nearly bought one of them hope too...

    Dear Roses
    I'm just popping out to the bottleshop... I'll be golved up and eagerly awaiting your arrival...


    Dear Mago

    The Blue Plant is is called

    Lechenaultia Biloba "Sky Blue"

    I had not seen it before, well not n flower it is delightful.
    The Pink Kangaroo paw is a hybrid which has been developed commercially. I hope to have a collection of these in the garden some day. They are better known for the gree-grey with red center variety or red flowers but they have discovered all sorts of colours in the wild... and are now growing them commercially and developing hybrids. There is one available now that has black flowers....
    I will try to take some more photos on my next visit...

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  5. Interesting, the blue flowers are beautiful. I also love the 10th photo of those yellow-orange flowers that hang down. Such an unusual form.

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  6. I could send you a concrete beaver from Canada.

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  7. Beautiful! Just absolutely stunning! Fantastic fotos, Princess. I luv them.

    I like native wild flowers and plants. They are part of the landscape for a reason and they hold a beauty unlike any other.

    I'm glad to see the interest in putting back native plants into the soil where they belong. The US learned a tough lesson in what happens when we remove the native plant life and try to change the land into something else. It resulted in catastrophe...The Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s that swept across the continent and ravaged homes, uprooted families, and destroyed communities and brought poverty and depression and hardship upon two generations of Americans.

    I think you're doing a marvelous thing to return the native plants to their natural environment and let their beauty add magic and marvel and wonder to your all ready beautiful garden.

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  8. Dear Hayward
    The Blue flowers for me were the highlight but I hope to purchase a specimen of #10. It is a very unusual bloom and one that I had never seen before. I'm really looking forward to my next visit....

    Dear MJ

    I'd love a concrete canadian beaver...
    It would really fit in well with the Empresses Garden Gnome Collection. I'm forever finding them frollicking in the most unusual places around he garden. And you think just a pair of their shorts causes problems....

    Dear Eros

    We have not been without our own suffrering of the dustbowl syndrome... even to as recently as the Eighties A lot has been done on the land since with farmers going to no tilling crop and re planting programs of native vegetation along the creeks and riverbanks on their properties and many volunteer comunity groups revegetating roadsides and native reserves...
    There are such a wide variety of plant forms that can be used.
    The national native garden is here in my state of Victoria. I hope to get to visit it one day soon...
    And be assured... I will take photos...

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