Everything From Billy Buttons, Everlastings, Flannel Flowers and Kangaroo Paws

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Some plants you just love their flowers, some just have fabulous leaves, but here’s a plant, even though on the small side, packs a punch with bright golden flowers and grey leaves that would fit into any style garden.

Scientific name:Craspedia globosus syn. Pycnosorus

Common name:Billy buttons, drumsticks.
Flowers:  golden-yellow tennis ball like spheres made up of tiny flowers on long stalks 80cm-100cm

Leaves: a rosette of grey green leaves above an underground rhizome.  

Interesting fact: Billy Buttons were part of the flower arrangement that were presented to medal winners of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Hardiness: tolerates light frost and extended periods of dry weather. Don't like wet weet.

Billy Buttons are very famous for being very long lasting cut flowers, their bright yellow spherical flowers can be dried like other native daisies and used in floral arrangements for months.

In areas with high humidity, treat them as an annual as they will succumb to fungal problems. Easily grown from seed but use wildflower seed starter to break the dormancy of the seed. 

Let’s find out more

I'm talking with was Adrian O’Malley, horticulturist and native plant expert.
PLAY: Billy Buttons_13th January 2021

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Rhodanthe chlorocephala

Paper daisies

Some people call them paper daisies, some call them everlastings but as we say on Real World Gardener, don’t be fooled with common names because they are most often applied to an array of plants.

Scientific name: Rhodanthe chlorocephala

Common name: pink & white everlasting

Family: Asteraceae

Flowers: from winter to spring, daisy like flowers 1-6cm in diameter, composed of white or pink papery bracts. Heads normally appear singly, but tip pruning will encourage branching to produce multiple flower heads.

Position: full sun in well drained, even sandy soils. easily propagated from seed. Best sown in late autumn or early winter.  If conditions are right, they will self-seed, otherwise collect the seed when the flowers turns into a fluffy head.Store the seed head in a paper bag until next season.

Whatever you call them, it’s something even beginner gardeners can grow to pretty up their patch.

Australia's version of meadow planting can be easily achieved with these paper daisies or
everlastings. All you need to do is scatter 1 gm of seeds per square metre and rake gently into the soil. The seeds will germinate in 7-10 days if kept moist. Expect a carpet of flowers as you would see in Western Australia.
Rhodanthe chlorocephala subspecies rosea is the most widely grown subspecies and is commonly known as “Pink and White Everlasting”, “Rosy Sunray”, “Pink Paper-daisy” and “Rosy Everlasting.”
The flowers can be dried like other native daisies and used in floral arrangements for months.

Let’s find out more, I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, horticulturist and native plant expert.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Flannel Flowers: Actinotus helianthi
Here’s one for the lover of all things flowers, this little sub-shrub is in flower for most of the year.
The flannel flower is one of the most recognisable Australian native flowers and Adrian says it's a very tactile plant because of the soft woolly feel of the grey-green foliage.
The creamy-white flowers occur in clusters, and the entire plant has a soft woolly feel because of soft white hairs.
Looking like a daisy, but it’s not in the daisy family, instead it’s in the same family as the carrot, dill, celery and parsley.

Scientific name: Actinotus helianthi
Common name:Flannel Flowers

Family: Apiaceae

Flowers: a simple daisy flower flower with cream to white petals (bracts) tipped green. Flower size varies depending on soil conditions in which it grows but can be 3-8cm. Peak flower is Spring, with spot flowering throughout the year.

Leaves: Grey green and woolly to the touch because of the soft hairs.

Hardiness: tolerates light frost, dislikes wet feet. Avoid watering the leaves to prevent fungal problems. Grows naturally in sandstone country where soil is a bare couple of cms.

Maintenance: Tip pruning will give you more side branching and more flowers. Cut off spent flowers with snips or secateurs. Tidy up the plant by cutting off dead or yellowing foliage.

Height: up to 1.5m but in the natural habitat,  Adrian has only seen flannel flowers growing to only around 80 cm.

Flowering occurs mainly in spring to early summer (September to December) and is followed by fluffy seeds in a globular head.
But how did it get its strange name common name?
Botanists associated the flower to the soft woolly feel of er flannel.
Let’s find out more
I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, horticulturist and native plant expert.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Kangaroo Paw: Anigozanthos spp

This next plant is the floral emblem of Western Australia where it has grown for millions of years.
The flowers, which bloom mostly in the spring and summer, are covered with a very thick, soft fuzz, making them look almost like velvet.
It’s also bird attracting and once a favourite of gardeners.

Common Name: Kangaroo Paw

Scientific name: Anigozanthos flavidus

Family: Haemdoraceae

Flowers: spring and summer are main flowering times. Fine coloured hairs cover the flower giving it, its flower colour. Flowers are a distinct shape which can only be described as that of a kangaroo's paw! Cultivars known as 'Bush Gems" come in all colours of the rainbow.

Hardiness:Develop a blackening of the leaves in humid climates, known as inkspot disease. Cut it down to ankle height with clean secateurs to renew the growth if this occurs.

Uses: Mass planted in borders, in cottage gardens, native gardens, rockeries and containers.

Make sure you find a good colour form as it is great bird attracting garden plant that can be a feature at the back of beds.

Remove the dead flower stems and their associated foliage after flowering.

Let’s find out more
I am talking with Adrian O’Malley, horticulturist and native plant expert.

Buttons on Stalks and Design A Garden

Part of the Real World Garden Radio Show

DESIGN ELEMENTS

So You Think You Need A Landscaper part 2

You may have seen two- dimensional garden designs and wanted something similar for your garden, but is that kind of thing totally necessary?

Could a free hand sketch be just as good as long as it was to scale?
Let’s find out.
I'm talking with Peter Nixon Project manager and landscape designer for Paradisus garden design. www.peternixon.com.au

Peter advises to choose a landscape or garden designer that provides availability lists and photos of the plants that are in the design.

To many people, plant names, whether common or scientific, just don't mean anything.

But, if they are provided with a photo of what the plant can look like in a particular situation, say a screening hedge of Magnolia grandiflora St Mary's, then they will have a better idea.
I
f you want more than just new garden beds and new plants, you may just want a garden designer.
But if you want more doing than just plants, you’ll need project manager who is also a garden or landscape designer.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Pycnosurus globusus: Billy Buttons

Do you like the sound of a plant that has flowers like buttons the size of your thumb but on stalks, with grey strappy leaves?

What if I tell you it’s an Australian native, a perennial and loves dry weather, would you be interested then?

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley native plant expert and horticulturist. 

Let’s find out about it

Billy buttons is a dense groundcover that spreads around 50cm in width.

Supported by an underground rhizome which allows it spread.

Grow it from seed, grow it from division, but just grow this sturdy groundcover like plant with yellow buttons made up of thousands of tiny flowers on tall stalks.

• Botanical Bite: The flower is a pseudanthium consisting of between three and eight florets surrounded by bracts.
• The petals are joined to form a small tube and the florets with their surrounding bracts are yellow or golden-yellow.
• each flower head may contain over a thousand individual flowers.

Best is less humid climates, although it can be grown in temperate regions of the east coast.

Short lived perennial, 3-4 years.