Growing Gardens

with Julia Hancock

Royal Flush

Many plants are regal in stature and their nomenclature often reflects their majesty. Latin genera suggesting royalty include those whose species are called nobilis, regine, regalis, regia and victoriae. Here are just a few which grace our gardens with their presence.

Perhaps the most widely grown royal plant is the Laurus nobilis, commonly known as bay tree and useful for all sorts of things - keeping the weevils out of flour, discouraging ants in the home, and flavouring soups, stews and stuffings. It is often grown in a container as a topiary and a pair makes a smart entry statement to a front door.

As water becomes scarcer, succulents are becoming increasingly popular as hardy garden plants. Agave victoria-reginae justifies its common name, royal agave, by being one of the most handsome of all succulents. It's extremely slow growing but worth persisting with for its futuristic dark green leaves which are almost geometrically marked with white.

Palms are always going to be popular because it's easy to transplant mature specimens, making them beloved by people who want instant gardens. The Cuban royal palm (Roystonea regia) is a fine example of the best the palm world has to offer, so much so that it is often used to line avenues and driveways. It is instantly recognisable by its whitish brown trunk, which is slightly thicker in the middle than at the base.

Royal poinciana (Delonix regia) is another majestic tree for the tropics and subtropics where its umbrella-like canopy is ablaze with scarlet flowers in summer. Be aware that it may take many years to flower so patience is required.

Royal velvet plant (Gyneura sarmentosa) is something of a botanical oddity since its leaves are covered with purple velvety hairs. The new growth of this sprawling perennial shrub is the most eye-catching, so prune it back regularly to encourage bushiness.

Lismore Garden Club News

The club will be in recess until the first Thursday in February, 2005. However, this column will go right through.

In spite of our wonderful recent rain, our weather patterns are changing and becoming unreliable. Each year the demand on water for domestic purposes, agriculture, aquaculture and industry is growing. We have all heard the calls to become 'water wise'.

As gardeners, in addition to mulching, re-using washing rinse water and observing the recommended voluntary limitations on garden watering, we can also give serious thought to gradually changing over from water guzzling plants to low water use plants.

Be guided by your nursery people. Plants such as succulents (there's a huge range), cacti (there's also lots to pick from), aloes, yuccas and some (not all) Australian natives.

If you are like many gardeners that have never grown many of the low water use plants and perhaps think they are uninteresting, you will be pleasantly surprised, if you choose carefully, how very interesting and visually pleasing they can be.

Happy gardening
Ron Burns