The Rebel Gardener

The first time I ever saw Brachychiton Rupestris aka the Queensland Bottle Tree, was in nursery. I remember looking at the label and thinking it looked quite a bit like the Boab tree from Northern Australia and thinking that this wouldn’t grow very well with the cool winters we get here in Melbourne. I then [...]

Grevillea Robusta aka the Silky Oak The Grevillea Silky Oak is not only one of the most popular Grevilleas in cultivation but it also does have some features that are quite desirable. It does tolerate badly drained soils such as clay and will also tolerate some phosphorus toxicity in the soil as I’ve discovered in [...]

In my last article about Grevillea Robusta, the Silky Oak, I wrote about the fact that seed grown trees often take some years to flower and the possibility that trees propagated from cuttings may actually flower a lot sooner. The other issue with Grevillea Robusta is the fact that most of the flowers are held [...]

It was a cold, chilly winter’s day in Melbourne yesterday but the sun was shining brightly. The previous few days had been cold and wet so what better thing to do than to get out of the house and go for a walk outdoors. Of course for a gardener there is no better place to [...]

Banksia Seminuda, a little known Tree that is under used in Gardens. This is a Banksia that I first saw in a book about 10 years ago. I found it interesting right from the start because it was one of the few Banksias that grow into a tall tree. It had a narrow upright habit [...]