| Spring is blossom time wherever you are - you just have to choose your blossoms! They don't all have to be cool-climate or exotic plants - why not consider planting these spring-flowering trees at your place:
Tropical Zone
During the wet season, Swamp Bloodwoods (Corymbia ptychocarpa) dazzle with their white, pink or red flower clusters. You can even grow them further south, with the right conditions: Tropical Centre Fact Sheet Subtropical Zone
Lilly Pilly cultivars like 'Cascade' (Syzygium 'Cascade') will produce powder-puff flowers, along with fruit later on. Here's how to keep them healthy: Lumpy Lilly Pilly Fact Sheet Temperate Zone
Crabapples (Malus hybrids and cultivars) are great choices for fruit as well as flowers - just make sure you choose hybrids that won't run amok, like 'Gorgeous'- here's how to plant them for flowers next year: Bare Root Planting Fact Sheet Arid Zone
Even in the desert, there's a tree to create a spring show! The Bean Tree or Batswing Coral Tree - Erythrina vespertilio, will produce bright scarlet flowers: Diversity in the Desert Fact Sheet Cool Zone
The cherry blossoms are blooming in Cowra this weekend, so why not take their inspiration in your own garden: Spring Blossoms Fact Sheet
And if you want some ideas of what to plant in the vegie patch, don't forget to visit The Vegie Guide or Download the App |
| ECHEVERIA
On this week's show, Sophie keeps the kids busy in the holidays by planting a fun succulent pot using a mix of plants to add colour and texture. Why not try making your own and include the hardy Echeveria!
This genus of 150 species of mainly small, rosette-forming succulents of the stonecrop (Crassulaceae) family is found principally in Mexico, but a few species range down to Central America. Though they range from shrubby to leafy perennial-like species, they all form spiraling rosettes of spoon-shaped leaves, and are mainly grown for their attractive blue-green foliage. Although similar in many regards to their European relative, Sempervivum, they are more drought tolerant, but usually far less frost hardy. The genus name is in honor of the eighteenth-century Spanish botanical artist, Atanasio Echeverria.
Echeveria species usually feature rosettes of unusual blue-green foliage, which are often densely clustered and may form a small mound. The leaves may have a powdery coating and may develop red tints at the tips and edges. Small, yellow, orange, pink, or red flowers are carried on short stems, and appear from late spring.
Hardiness varies but few of these succulents will tolerate cold wet winters and repeated frosts. Plant in a position in full or half-sun with light, gritty, very free-draining soil. In hot climates, they should be planted in a shady spot. Water occasionally when in active growth, otherwise keep dry, especially in winter. Propagate from seed or offsets, or by division. |
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