In Flower This Week A weekly news-sheet prepared by a Gardens volunteer  Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to garden bed 'Sections'.

Most plants are tightly in bud, awaiting warmer days to bloom. Many banksias are still colourful, grevilleas are starting to show some colour, while croweas and others continue to produce flowers. Before leaving the Visitor Centre see and read about the Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis, maybe the world’s rarest tree recently discovered in a gorge close to Sydney.

Grevillea ‘Scarlet Sprite’ [Section 174] along Banks Walk is bright with its scarlet flowers scattered over an upright shrub. Banksia spinulosa [Section 126], of medium size, bears gold flower spikes ribbed with red styles. Correa pulchella [Section 119] is a small compact shrub with soft pink tubular flowers dangling in the foliage. Along this path is a grove of Queensland Silver Wattles, Acacia podalyriifolia [Section 206], all bursting out in soft, golden flower balls amid the green-grey foliage.

Find Hakea crassinervia [Section 20], a long-flowering plant with long, arching branches bearing fascinating globular pincushion-like pink and white flowers. Opposite, Hakea verrucosa [Section 21] is an open, rambling shrub bearing pink flowers. Nearby Hakea bakeriana [Section 21] conceals its remarkable flowers on the mature stems and old woody branches inside the foliage. The flower clusters are large, pink and cream, and encircle the branch. Note, too, the large fruits. At the far end of this narrow, winding path, Grevillea rosmarinifolia [Section 24] is vivid with red spider flowers over a shrub of medium size.

The picturesque corner of Crowea saligna [Section 191] is quite eye-catching. These small plants are coloured bright pink with waxy, starry flowers. At the entrance of the path through the Sydney Region Flora is a display of Grevillea baueri subsp. asperula [Section 191], small, dense shrubs covered with deep red flowers. Grevillea vestita subsp. isopogoides [Section 112] is yet a small plant with a lateral branch bearing dense clusters of white lacy perfumed flowers. Another picturesque corner is bright with the flower spikes of Banksia spinulosa var. spinulosa [Section 25]. Note the variation in colour of these two shrubs, one is gold with dark ribbed flower spikes while the other has bright yellow flower spikes.

Banksia integrifolia var. compar [Section 27] is a small attractive tree with silver-backed leaves and soft cream flower spikes dotted with grey. Banksia occidentalis [Section 28] may be tall and straggly but the few scattered flower spikes, soft red on cream, at eye level are really attractive. The backdrop is the bold, deep gold flower spikes of Banksia ericifolia var. ericifolia [Section 28].

This area is so colourful with flowers but also with the Crimson Rosellas and the tiny colourful blue Superb Fairy Wrens which spring about the mulch. And then, out in the open, Banksia spinulosa var. collina [Section 28] is quite a large shrub brilliant with orange flower spikes - quite another sight!

Always another flower … Barbara Daly.