One of our favourite Australian plants in our garden are the Bulbine Lilies that make a bold display of bright yellow flowers during the spring.
Bulbine Lilies (Bulbine glauca)
This year we collected a whole lot of seed and after two weeks swaddled in damp paper towels sprayed with smoke infused water we found out they were sprouting.
Seeds of Bulbine Lilies srouting on damp paper towel.
I have now tackled the somewhat tricky task of transplanting these sprouts into an individual cell punnet. I did this by carefully tearing a small section of seed and towel and gently pushing it down onto a damp cell of seed raising mix, with the help of a satay stick.
Safely transferred to a punnet.
We will keep these punnet moist by placing them in an old file card box. The clear plastic lid will allow light in, while the punnet inside stay moist.
I have also put all the currently un-sprouted seeds into another punnet with the hope that they might also start sprouting soon.
Apologies for this post from October, which got forgotten, but I still would like to share it with you.
Djambarri, is the Ngunnawal word for spring in this part of the world, (Ngunnawal country aka Canberra). And it really lifts my heart to see our front garden, which is all Australian plants, looking particularly good at present.
The front garden as seen from the house.
You don’t see the garden this way from the street. We planted the large Correa you can see at the back of the photo to shield our windows from the glare of headlights coming down the street. Our aim was to provide a ‘view’ from our front window.
This garden has had so many variations since we came here. First lawn with a narrow border to the street. Then a winding wooden path, that got taken out by a termite infestation. Since the termites went away we have worked at rebuilding the garden with a wider range of low spreading shrubs and grassland plants.
The winter garden is dominated by several varieties of correa cultivars including “Pink Carpet”. These have proved very hardy and easy to propagate from cuttings. At this time of year the garden completely changes it’s complexion with a wide variety of colours and forms.
The gracefully pendulous blue-flowered Veronica perfoliata, (previously known as Derwentiana perfoliata or Parahebe perfoliata) you see in the foreground of the photo above, is set off by the blazing yellow and red pea flowers of the Oxylobium sp.
Veronica perfoliata
The bright yellow Bulbine lilies are a wonderful stopping point in the garden. What’s even better is that they seem to be spreading by seed now. I’m not sure if the seeds just fall nearby or if the ants carry the seeds around.
A Bulbine Lily, Bulbine glauca
We have been working very hard to establish the ground cover layer as well, with an emphasis on grassland plants. With all the rain we have had so far it’s really growing away beautifully.
This Hoary Sunray is a case in point. It’s growing up through the mat of the Myoporum parvifolium, aka Creeping Boobialla, in a very pleasing fashion.
Leucochrysum albicans, Hoary Sunray
This year the pea flowers were spectacular. I would love to tell you which specific plant this is, but I have lost the label.
Oxylobium sp. Pea flower
Twining through the pea flower is one of my favourite climbers, Billardiera scandens or the apple berry. The fruits don’t really look anything like an apple, they look more like a green capsule.
Billardiera scandens, Apple Berry or ‘GARAWANG’ (Wurundjeri language)
We are continuing to expand the garden slowly and are also moving to improve our verge garden as well.
Voted With Our Forks 