Thursday, December 24, 2015

MY FAVOURITE GARDEN FLOWERS

I rather had to cheat when I came to the letter "Q" but we do have two of these growing in our garden so thought it was only a tiny cheat as they are rather beautiful and have a lovely sweet scent:

QUEENSLAND PITTOSPORUM is an evergreen small to medium tree with glossy leathery leaves and heads of small white flowers followed in autumn by clusters of bright orange berries with black seeds. It is also known as 'sweet pittosporum".  It is native to eastern Australia, where it grows in rainforest, wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland.  It is adaptable to a range of acid soils, and is hardy to frost and will grow in either full sun or part shade.


Pittosporum are sometimes attacked by leaf miners which leave lines of brown blisters along the surface of the leaves.   Ours have looked quite unsightly at times after the leaf miners have paid a visit, particularly the shrub in the front garden.

Don Burke's fact sheet states that this plant has become a weed in all states of Australia except the Northern Territory.  We have had our two shrubs for many years and never have they seeded down and I have never seen any birds eating the seeds, although that of course doesn't mean they don't when I am not watching.

10 comments:

  1. They are very pretty plants. It is years since I have seen them here. Don Burke probably had some influence in that...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must admit I have seen very few of them but not sure it would be Don's influence. Just out of fashion is more likely the reason.

      Delete
  2. I thought you might have found Queen Anne's Lace.
    Pittosporum flowers are pretty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not heard of Queen Anne's Lace. Will try and find some info about it.
      The Pittosporum is quite a handsome bush all round.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. It certainly is a little different to many of our garden plants.

      Delete
  4. How lovely to have flowers at Christmas time. The best I can do is the holly growing in the drive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Delores at this time of year there are flowers aplenty blooming in Oz and here in Western Australia we have our own Christmas Tree Nuytsia floribunda. May pop in a pic of that before New Year.

      Delete