Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Plants

Plant PalettePlants

Looks like a Tibouchina but tastes like a jam!

By Bruce Thompson

Common Name: Blue Tongue, Native Lasiandra, Indian Rhododendron, Malabar Rhododendron, Singapore Rhododendron

Genus: Melastoma

Species: malabrathicum subsp. malabrathicum

Family: Melostomaceae

Origin: A pan-tropical species occurring in open forest and disturbed rainforest in north Queensland, down to Kempsey in New South Wales, the Kimberley region in Western Australia, the Northern Territory as well as Indomalaya and Japan.… Continue reading

Read More
Botanic Gardens

Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens showcases the life of ferns

By Dale Arvidsson –

Long before today’s online world created an insatiable desire for exotic and unusual indoor plants, pteridomania, a Victorian craze between the 1840s and 1890s, saw the desire to collect ferns in Britain and its colonies. Glass houses, conservatories and ‘stumparies’, naturalistic displays of felled trees and exposed roots often shrouded by hardy ferns, allowed the wealthy insatiable collectors to display ferns collected from around the globe.Continue reading

Read More
Trees

The urban environment and its inherent stress factors

Successful tree growth in urban environments is reliant on more than just species selection. It is about planting the right tree in the right location to achieve successful landscape outcomes.

In an increasingly challenging urban landscape, planning and infrastructure must support the tree taxa selections to ensure they have the adequate resources and suitable growing conditions in order to survive and thrive, and provide the aesthetic and environmental services expected of them (Diamond Head Consulting Ltd.,… Continue reading

Read More
Colour

Be alive with colour!

At the time of writing most of us are still living under the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, positive messages are getting through. Many are hoping and planning for an improving trend heading to year’s end. It’s therefore also understandable that such positivity is reflected in lightness, brightness and colour.Continue reading

Read More
Fruit Trees

Fruit and nut trees offer a variety of landscape solutions

By Janet Hodgkiss

Gardens that include productive fruiting trees and plants are often thought of as ‘unattractive’ but this need not be so as many of these plants have other valuable characteristics and attributes that are often overlooked

A productive, as well as ornamental, design is very achievable with the many varieties, sizes and shapes of all types of fruiting plants that are on offer.… Continue reading

Read More
Botanic Gardens

A year like no other

By Greg Bourke

For us at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah, 2020 commenced with our first day of no active fire in a fortnight. Not a bad way to welcome the new year! With over 90% of our natural areas burnt and over 500 specimens in the living collection fire-affected, we knew we’d be in for a challenging year but of course, that was just the beginning.Continue reading

Read More