#Conostylis candicans

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Bee Friendly Gardening

Bees play an important role in our ecosystem and we rely heavily on them to pollinate our food crops and our native bushland, not to mention supply us with delicious honey.

There are over 1,500 native bee species in Australia with a whole host of interesting shapes and forms. Bees feed on nectar nestled within flowers, provide pollen to raise their young, and play an absolutely crucial role in pollinating plants as they hop from flowerbud to flowerbud. Sadly, native bees are declining or have gradually been displaced. This has led to a reduction in native flora pollination and an increase in the pollination of weeds.

A small native bee (bottom right) visiting the native wattle Acacia podalyriifolia

There has also been an sharp decline in honey bee colonies around the world in recent years, and the reasons for the drop remain largely unknown.

Some natives like the blue-banded and carpenter bees do a special type of ‘buzz pollination’ where they wrap themselves around a flower and vibrate their bodies so that the hidden pollen capsule explodes out of the flower like fireworks!

Whereas some pollinators only require nectar and/or pollen for part of their lives, bees need these honey ingredients throughout their adult and larval stages. To accumulate one kilogram of honey, bees will have pollinated a million individual flowers and flown over 50,000 kilometres.

We can all do our bit to support these pollinators. Why not plant flowers rich in nectar, which will help bees find the food they need? 

A native bee on Moraea robinsoniana – a large strappy-leaved lily

The first thing I think about when creating an attractive habitat for bees is plants with different flowering seasons. This makes sure there’s a constant source of nectar for nearby colonies and all year round bee activity. Native stingless bees (Tetragonula) only forage close to their hive so having year-round flowering plants is essential for attracting this species and great for many other species too. At the end of this post is a list of native plants, grouped by flowering season, that are great for attracting bees to the garden.

I also consider the colours of the flowers I’m putting in the garden. Bees have a different range of colour vision to humans, they can’t see red but can see all the way into the ultraviolet spectrum and distinguish between individual flowers much more readily. They are particularly good at locating blue-like hues so plants with violet, blue, purple, mauve, white (white flowers are often overlayed with UV patterns) and yellow flowers are very attractive to them. Not to mention the other insects, butterflies, beetles, wasps and crawling critters that are attracted to these colours and will additionally pollinate lots of flowering plants!

Honey bee on the purple blooms of Eremophila nivea ‘Gulburra Bells’

Something that’s not as often considered when creating bee habitat is their thirst – on a hot day a colony of bees can drink over a litre of water between them. Water sources that aren’t too deep (bees will easily drown if they fall into deep water) and have floating platforms like sticks, cork and leaves are a good idea to have placed somewhere in the garden, maybe under some shade, so the water doesn’t evaporate too easily.

Another interesting thing about bees is that some have longer tongues or specific bodies that are able to pollinate tubular or bell-shaped flowers found on plants like Emu bush (Eremphila) above, Correas and Epacris sp. Other bees have short tongues and are specialised at pollinating shallow-cupped flowers such as those of Eucalypts – the honey bees in the photo below are loving Eucalyptus citriodora ‘Baby Citro’ Grafted.

Honey bee on Eucalyptus citriodora ‘Baby Citro’ Grafted

The whole bunch of factors to consider when planting a garden for bees – flowering seasons, flower colours, shapes and forms, as well as water – might sound overwhelming, but creating habitat for bees starts to happen almost organically when you start paying attention to just one or two of these most of the time. I find it easiest to start with flowering season so summarised here are some of my favourite native plants to inspire bringing more bees to the garden.

Honey bee on Banksia oblongifolia

Seasonal Flowering Plants for Bees

Note that for some of these plants the flowering time will cross over multiple seasons. I’ve put the main season of flowering in the categories.

Long or All-year Flowering

Scaevola sp.

Philotheca difformis ‘Starspite’

Brachyscome sp.

Bracteantha sp.

Myoporum parvifolium

Goodenia ovata

Ozothamnus disomifolius

Viola hederacea

Summer Flowering

Lomatia sp. (e.g. Lomatia silaifolia in the photo below)

Lambertia formosa

Phebalium squamosum

Plectranthus sp.

Jasminium suavissimum

Viminaria juncea

Honey bee on Lomatia silaifolia

Autumn Flowering

Correa alba

Correa glabra

Persoonia pinifolia

Lambertia formosa

Melaleuca thymifolia

Banksia spinulosa

Hakea laurina x petiolaris

Winter Flowering

Eucalyptus paniculata (May – Feb)

Eucalyptus leucoxylon (May – Sept)

Banksia sp.

Bauera rubioides

Dampiera stricta

Epacris sp.

Guichenotia macrantha

Senna artemisoides

Tecomanthe hillii

Thryptomene sp.

Spring Flowering

Conostylis candicans

Prostanthera sp.

Micromyrtus ciliata

Gahnia siberiana

Hardenbergia violacea

Hibbertia sp.

Olearia sp.

Tetratheca ciliata

Honey bee on Angophora hispida

Happy planting,

Hannah and Kath

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Portfolio: Helensburgh Consult

Front gardens play such an important role in most streetscapes but especially in suburbia where the repetition of built form and front lawns can become almost claustrophobic. These clients wanted something different to look out on from inside of their home but also a welcoming garden on arrival home from work.

The new native garden replaces a weedy garden bed and houses two small native trees which will provide privacy to the front windows and respite from the western sun. Acacia cognata ‘Lime Magic’ is planted closer to the house to soften the extensive brick, and Eucalyptus ‘Euky Dwarf’ is placed closer to the street to give dappled shade to the rest of the lower planting.

Several large sandstone boulders were placed around the garden, Helensburgh is surrounded by Sydney Sandstone bushland and we wanted to bring some of that into the front as a reminder of where these homes have been built.

Casuarina ‘Cousin It’ and Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters’ can be seen in the image above happily spilling over the brick retaining wall and climbing up it! I also used Grevillea ‘Gin Gin Gem’ as a ground cover and it has happily spread out to cover much of the understory as can be seen in the image below.

This garden is well into its second year and the Conostylis candicans ‘Silver Sunrise’ are in full flower, they provide great contrast with the other grassy mounds of Lomandra ‘Little Lime’.

My favourite plant in this garden is this Olearia languinosa ‘Ghost Town’, I often grow this is shade where it is extremely resilient but here in full sun it is much more stunning. It looks very smart with the sandstone boulders seen below 😉

The front 1/4 of the garden is actually a curved section of crushed decomposed granite ‘Deco Gold’, which meets up with the timber retaining wall, this adds interest when the garden is viewed from the upstairs living room windows.

Another quite spectacular silver beauty is of course Eremophila Nivea ‘Gulburra Bells’ Grafted, if you look very closely you can see the flowers of this specimen are full of native bees.

This native garden attracts many passerby to stop and have a chat, it provides much interest to in the street and is beginning to be a major attraction to the birds and bees.

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Portfolio: Greenwich Garden Design Update

I have a very special garden that I visit once a year, I usually get a call in early spring asking for help to spruce up the garden in time for overseas visitors. It is always a pleasure to catch up with the clients and replace plants that haven’t worked and admire others that are thriving. One thing that grows particularly well in this garden is Waratahs! Isn’t this Telopea ‘Shady Lady White’ amazing?

I designed this garden in 2011 please see the following link for more information. http://malleedesign.com.au/portfolio-greenwich-garden-design/  This year what we rejoiced in was the Prostanthera ‘Minty’ hedges. The garden is very steeply sloped and has been retained with several sandstone retaining walls.

  All areas of the garden are quite dry, this is due to the free draining soil caused by the sandstone and also because of the large Eucalyptus on the second level. You can see the enormous trunk in the image below.

  I have planted Conostylis candicans ‘Silver Sunrise’ at the base of the large tree, we have problems getting many things to grow in this garden bed. Strangley enough it is the white Waratah that has been the happiest here.

  Other plants that have enjoyed the dry shade of this garden are Acacia baileyana prostrate, Poa labillardieri, Moraea robinsoniana and Darwinia citriodora prostrate.

  Prostanthera ovalifolia variegate the variegated Mint bush is also growing very happily in the lower bed where there is a little more sun. This is one of the few variegated plants I like, it is useful for lightening up dark corners of the garden whilst also providing a strong minty scent.

  Given the difficult aspect and conditions of the garden I am very impressed with ow well many of the plants are filling out. Growth has been quite slow for some species but what they have lacked in speed they have made up for in their form. Isn’t the Acacia baileyana prostrate spectactular?

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Kings Park Favourites

This post is about one of my visits to Kings Park last month, I went twice and still felt as though I hadn’t seen everything, however the images I took were mainly of plants that I think can be grown on the east coast of NSW. This blog post is about some of my favourites. The image above is of Conostylis cancans, I saw this plant everywhere in Perth as it is used quite a lot in council plantings but I loved seeing it mass planted in Kings Park.

It is so effective to see the striking silver tufts in large groups like this. Conoctylis cancans also has a slightly weeping element which makes it appear slightly soft.

  The first plant that really caught my eye were the Guichenotia species, these are planted as under storey plants amongst Baeckea and Thomosia. This area of the garden had such a calm and peaceful air, there were less Pokemon Go players too.

  Guichenotia macrantha and ledifolia can both be found growing on the east coast in areas of well drained soil and part shade.

  They have a soft weeping appearance and dainty bell shaped flowers that hang in clusters.

  There are about 16 different species of Guichenotia, I think the ones in these images are the large flowering macrantha and the smaller flowering ledifolia. But if anyone can positively ID these images it would be appreciated.

  I just loved them! I thought I would be instantly drawn to the striking Grevilleas and Banksias but I think the Guichenotia really stole the show for me.

  It may have been the thoughtful placement in this particular area of Kings Park, where the show stopping garden beds are not on high rotation but left to fill out and settle.

  I did take some images of the iconic red and green kangaroo paw Anigozanthos mangles too, but I have no hope of growing these in a garden here so it was more an exercise in trying to take good photos of Kangaroo Paws, which I find incredibly difficult.

  Although they did look lovely mass planted, with their glaucous upright clumping habit.

    Next up were some excellent examples of how to use Chorizema cordatum in the garden, they just grow so well in the shade its ridiculous!

  I loved the combination of the Pimelea with the Corizema.

    This is a combination I am keep to replicate somewhere in my garden.

  It was really wonderful to see Hypocalymma angustifolium growing happy and healthy, I do see it around Sydney but it usually has a fungal problem or is looking very scraggly.

  What a gorgeous shrub! also growing as an understory plant in Kings Park, you can’t go past that flower

  And then of course there were the Mallees!!! I have limited myself to Eucalyptus rameliana in this post, plenty more Eucalytus photos to come in the rest of my trip, this is just the beginning.

  Eucalyptus rameliana produces the most amazing gum nuts, it is native to central Western Australia but I saw it growing a lot as a street tree around Fremantle.

And then there is the pink!

Check out the gum nuts….

So there you have it, some of my favourites at Kings Park in August, I went back 2 weeks later and different things were in flower. It is an amazing place which I feel I only touched on.

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Smoking Native Seeds

Some Genus of native plants can be notoriously difficult to propagate and the seeds almost impossible to germinate. There are some native species that are bush fire dependant in order for their seed to be released and then become viable. One way that people replicate this process in order to try to grow these species from seed is to use smoke or fire. There is a chemical reaction that is triggered by the smoke enabling the seed to sprout, it can be a fiddly and expensive process to get right. Recently in one of my other roles (as President of the Australian Plant Scoiety Illawarra) I witnessed a clever, cheap and quick way of smoking seeds. Angus Stewart did a Day of Workshops for us in the Bulli Grevillea Park last month and one way he gets Actinotus helianthi to germinate is by smoking them in a pot. So simple!

Angus simply scattered some Actinotus helianthi (Flannel Flower) seeds in a ceramic pot, covered them lightly with seed raising mix and then built a small fire on top from bark, twigs and a little bit of newspaper. This was then lit and left to burn and smolder for about 5 minutes; the seeds would then be lightly watered and bam!……hopefully they come up? Some other natives that respond to this treatment are Calytrix, Conostylis, Dianella, Eriostemon, Geleznowia, Lechenaultia, Philotheca, Pimelea, Stylidium and Verticordia.

Give it a go.

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Portfolio: Hunter's Hill Garden Design

Thankyou so much Kath for designing our native Garden, we love it……Not sure if you realise how lightly you step on this earth, lovely to observe.

This garden in Hunter’s Hill backs onto a strip of bushland that runs right down to the water, it has a towering Harry Sidler stone wall on one side and several different levels, giving it a whole lot of personality! Plus it has an amazing owner whom already has a large native plant knowledge base and a flair for growing things. Working on this garden was an absolute pleasure.

The floating timber staircase was built by Owen from Woolungah Landscapes whom I often partner up with for larger jobs, isn’t it beautiful?

(These are the clients photos, I hope to return soon to take some more shots that include the whole garden.)

Above you can see one very photogenic dog and the middle level planted out, this area possibly gets the most sun of all and we were able to plant Kangaroo Paw, Conostylis candicans and a Grass Tree.

There is no lawn in this garden, it is of a native cottage garden at the front and as it nears the back turns into a bush style garden.

Above is the side passage between two houses, you can see the impressive sandstone wall of the neighbouring building on the right.

This photo was taken from the top floor verandah, so you can really see how steeply sloped the block is, but it has been terraced thoughtfully and there are no fences with the neighbouring properties which allows it to feel larger and somehow more private.

  This garden is also very much a habitat garden, logs have been left as homes and bird baths and water dishes are everywhere. In this shot you can see we began to use more indigenous species synch as Persoonia pinifolia and Grevillea sericea to tie in with the bushland.

Here is the Lord and Ladys chair, I hope they spend many hours droning wine and observing the wildlife from this bench.;)

There is a small courtyard near the front door with a pond and bench which is still a work in progress as is the integration of the rear garden with the neighbouring property.

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Spring Yellow!!!

What better colour to welcome spring with than yellow! Goodbye winter! However it is feeling a little bit like we have headed straight into summer here on the NSW east coast, which I find a little bit frightening, it is looking like a confusing time for plants at the moment, anyway thats another topic altogether… This is Conostylis candicans, one of my favourite grasses, it fulfills three important criteria for me, its has silver-grey foliage, it is weeping and it is super hardy.

And thats not even including the showy yellow flowers that pop up in spring and last for a couple of months. Conostylis are related to the Kangaroo Paw and you can see that in the way it sends up its flowers and how the flowers sit on the stalk. This grass will also grow in part shade and withstands extended periods of dry, it looks great in mass planting or as a feature specimen.