GARDENS ON THE MOVE

Global Warming is having the same effect as putting Brisbane on a trailer and slowly dragging it to Rockhampton. We’ll arrive in that climate around 2030. These are plants that will cope with the climate change to 2050 predicted by the CSIRO in their 2003 report  “Climate Change: An Australian Guide to the Science and Potential Impacts”

And if you’re planting native trees in Brisbane? Best pop up to Rocky and collect the seed from there. It’ll already be adapted to our new climate…

Acalypha reptans ‘Summer Love’

Rough adiantum, Adiantum hispidulum

Aechmea gamosepala ‘Variegata’. The plain green form makes a useful groundcover in semi-shade

Aechmea gamosepala ‘Variegata’

Agave mexicana ‘Variegata’. Suckering perennial succulent with fierce spines

Allamanda cathartica, a slightly weedy Venezuelan vine. With vigilance it’s manageable and flowers throughout the warm season

Aloe vera cultivar. Fresh sap is the best way to alleviate sunburn and helps with psoriasis. Every garden should grow some.

Aloe vera – a beautiful, but prickly source of healing sap

Aloe vera. The commonly encountered, dull-looking but freely suckering cultivar. You’ll find this friendlier to handle when harvesting sap. This pot was given to me in 2005. See what happened next…

I’ve propagated it. Since 2007 it’s been filling up Damo’s Aloe vera border, in the nature strip

Alpinia arundelliana, a Brisbane native

Alternanthera ‘Bettzichiana’, a somewhat thirsty legacy of the Victorian bedding plant craze

Ananas bracteatus ‘Variegatus’. Sold as an ornamental, it’s slow to fruit. Fruit the the size of an orange are delicious eating

Ananas bracteatus ‘Variegatus’ looking resentful after transplanting

Ananas comosus ‘Rough’ or ‘Queen’ pineapple. Prickly plants produce sweet, aromatic, flavoursome fruit with cores soft enough to eat

Ananas comosus Accession No: 34-76

Ananas comosus ‘Mareeba Sweet’. Sweet, juicy and reasonable flavoursome, fruit have inedible cores

Ananas comosus ‘Mareeba Sweet’ seem content to fruit only with natural rainfall

Dwarf pineapple, Ananas nanus. Sold as a curiosity, this vicious little perennial likes semi-shade. Produces autumn fruit that are just about edible

Bunya, Araucaria bidwillii. Global Warming? Been there done that. This is the most ancient of living Araucaria species. A five year old seedling, just in view, surviving two years of drought

Aneilema acuminata is a well-behaved native rainforest plant and relative of weedy wandering jew

Aspidistra elatior has slug-pollinated flowers

Aspidistra elatior may be called the Cast Iron plant, but it needs an occasional splash to look lush

Oldham’s bamboo, Bambusa oldhamii. Four years ago this was a houseplant, but clumping bamboos are easy to contain. Provides shade from western sun, edible shoots, sturdy culms, mulch, lodgings for possums

Bambusa sp. Murray Island. One of Australia’s few native bamboos. Grows steadily on natural rainfall. Leaves make a rasping sound in windy weather

Now four years old, this Bambusa sp. Murray Island is shielding the house from intense early morning sunshine

Banksia aemula, Wallum Banksia, beloved by bees

Billbergia nutans flowers in mid-winter

Brachychiton bidwillii, Little Kurrajong. Cut annually to the ground after flowering is finished to encourage vigorous, decorative foliage

Brachychiton bidwillii in dry shade

Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree. A two year old seed grown specimen, about a year after planting

Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree at five years old

Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree. Watered once, this specimen is three years old and was planted two years ago

Brachychiton rupestris bark

Calliandra heamatocephala, prostrate form, does well in Brisbane kerbside plantings

Natal Plum, Carissa macrocarpa. Irritating, sticky white sap. Makes an impenetrably prickly hedge, shrub or groundcover with edible fruit ideal for jams