What's Looking Good in the Garden
- Fabulous cool-climate lawns to rest and revive on, or maybe to roll down!
- Summer shade and garden delights at every turn.
- Melaleuca 'Seafoam' welcomes you to the Visitor Centre and opposite, near the sundial, Cornus kousa var. kousa, the Japanese Dogwood, covered in white flower bracts, some of which have weathered to red, invites you up to the Formal Garden.
- Some roses linger to spread their joy. Bold thistle heads on Cynara cardunculus, Cardoon, are hard to ignore! Summer's best awaits in the perennial bed section with texture and colour in splendid form. Lilium 'Black Out' is at its peak.
- Drifts of 'summer snow' form as the spent flowers fall from the Prostanthera lasianthos, Victorian Christmas Bush, trees native to the Bilpin - Tomah area on the fertile shale and basalt soils.
- Primulas, especially Primula bulleyana, brighten sunlit patches along the Plant Explorers Walk. Thalictrum delavayi, Meadow Rue,looks as if a soft cloud of mauve butterflies hover in a sunny glade.
- Fresh fern fronds join new leaves on Wollemia nobilis, Wollemi Pines, in the Gondwanan Forest to celebrate the new season of growth.
- The Japanese Stewartia pseudocamellia, with a coloured patchwork trunk, continues to flower strongly in the Residence Garden and is joined by lilies in white and pink; Spiraea japonica 'Nyewoods' and Astilbe x arendsii 'Granat'.
- Berberidopsis corallina, a red-flowered vine from South America, seldom flowers for us and it would seem that two wet years has suited this threatened plant, wild collected from southern Chile as it is blooming at the base of the ramp from the roof of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Exhibition Centre. The only other member of this genus is the smaller flowered, softer leaved, Berberidopsis beckleri, quite common in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The latter grows near the conifer car-park entrance to the Gondwanan Forest.
- A variety of Dierama species, Elfin Wands, have commenced their summer display in the African Rock Garden and are joined by many proteas. Catching the eye in the African Woodland, below the large pond, is Leucospermum glabrum ‘Mardi Gras Petite’.
- Many of the carnivorous plants are flowering in the Sphagnum Bog and in the centre a lone, but magnificently beautiful, Blandfordia grandiflora, the Large Christmas Bell, basks in its seasonal importance.
- Magnolia grandiflora, Bull Bay, flowers at this time with a specimen of the species beside the Brunet Pavilion, the site of the house occupied by Alfred and Effie Brunet, who so generously donated the land that is the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah. Three cultivars, ‘Angustifolia’, ‘Exmouth, and ‘Goliath’ are planted in the North American Woodland, below the lowest road through the north side of the garden.
- The Jungle is now open to all garden visitors and its well formed paths provide a gentle interaction with real Blue Mountains rainforest. Add to this the availability of a garden shuttle ride back up the hill to the Visitor Centre and Restaurant, for those that need it, and the allure of the wild becomes more compelling.
- Near the Northern Pavilion you can visit our newest addition, the 'Pod Pod' sculpture, part of our Gwuulya Garri Dilya, Laughing Children's Garden.
Many of these plants have featured in the Blooming Calendar. |
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Primula bulleyana
Lilium Blackout
Leucospermum Mardi Gras Petite
Blandfordia grandiflora
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