Charlie Albone: Floral emblems offer a splash of colour to help bring Australia home

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Charlie Albone: Floral emblems offer a splash of colour to help bring Australia home

Australia Day is the perfect occasion to take a look at some of the *********** floral emblems you can grow in your garden to bring some patriotic spirit to your outside space.

We all know the golden wattle, or Acacia pycnantha.

It’s been the national floral emblem since 1988. It’s a tree that will grow to 3-8m in height and, of course, gets covered in a profusion of golden mini globes in later winter and early spring.

Although they may look like leaves, this plant actually has phyllodes, which are modified leaf stems that flatten out.

The benefit of these over leaves is they transpire water at a much lower rate than a standard leaf, so this tree can tolerate our harsh, dry climate. If you look at one of these phyllodes you’ll see a small bump on them.

This is a nectary that attracts honey-eater birds to feed from them and, as they feed, they brush against the flowers helping to pollinate them.

The golden wattle can become weedy as it naturalises easily and has taken over many areas. For Western Australia, the WA golden wattle or orange wattle, Acacia saligna, is a better choice. It’s a slightly smaller plant than the national emblem and makes for an excellent hedge to the perimeter of a drought-tolerant or native garden.

The NSW floral emblem, the waratah (Telopea speciosissima) has to be one of the most interesting and spectacular flowering plants in not just the country, but in the whole world.

Bright-red bracts surround hundreds of bright-red flowers making up the individual flower heads that look incredible in the garden and work as cut flowers as well. This shrub can get up to 3-4m in height and make an excellent feature to any garden.

The trick to growing this plant is in the soil — it must be free draining. If your soil holds any moisture, you can easily upset the waratah. Dig your hole 300mm deeper than normal, fill the lower part of the hole with a coarse aggregate and plant directly on top to prevent soggy roots.

If you do this, or you are lucky enough to have the right drainage naturally, you will need to water your Telopea regularly, especially during the establishment *******.

One of my favourite flowers and one that helped draw me out to Australia is WA’s own emblem, the red and green kangaroo paw.

Anigozanthos manglesii is a strappy green leaf plant perfect for the front of a garden bed where the striking red and green contrasting blooms sit high above the foliage. The flower is actually colourless and it’s the fine hairs that give you the visual colour, with new varieties showing tones of purples and even blues.

The kangaroo paw loves the WA climate and, due to the lack of humidity, does not suffer from the fungal issues that plague it across the rest of the country.

It seems the more brutal you are with cutting this plant back the better it bounces back and the more flowers you get. I cut mine as low as possible, but I have heard stories of people using a lawn mower to reduce it down to ground level.

When planting a kangaroo paw, they really benefit from a slow-release native fertiliser around the roots that will last for up to six months.

Q. I was thinking of buying a lemon tree suitable for a small garden area or to grow in a large pot. Which variety would you recommend that would provide a quantity of fruit that would be worthwhile for juice? Is it necessary to plant multiple trees? Do lemon trees attract vermin and when is the best time to plant in Perth? Frank, Murdoch.

A. Lemons make for excellent potted plants and for a small garden. I would suggest a dwarf variety. This is where they graft the canopy of a large plant to the roots of a small plant and the result is small tree that produces just as much fruit as a large tree without taking up too much space. There is a dwarf variety of Eureka lemons that are great for juicing, and you will only need one plant. As you are potting this tree up, you can do so at any time of year. However, I would wait until autumn once the bite of the summer heat has subsided. Any fruit can attract vermin, but due to the bitterness of lemons, I haven’t ever had an issue with them. You can individually protect the fruit with organza jewelry bags if you are overly concerned.

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