Plant sales
The IndigiScapes Plant Sale is on the first Saturday of every month, 9am - 12pm. Gardens, centre and cafe are open until 4pm.
The weather’s been a bit all over the place recently, with bursts of rain leaving the place quite green and enough sunshine to ensure most things are growing nicely. As is usually the case this time of year, we have our annual Wildlife Photographic Competition. The photos will be on display at the centre throughout December.
There are a lot of really nice local vines that can be used in a variety of ways in the garden – up fences, trellises, gazebos or along the ground.
One of the most attractive is the Bower Of Beauty (Pandorea jasminoides). It’s one of those natives that even a lot of non-native gardeners have used, and people are often surprised to find it occurs naturally in the area. Its natural habitat is rainforest and wet creek areas but it is pretty hardy in the garden, surviving in moderate sun and without much water - though flowering results will be best if more water can be provided.
We use it in a variety of locations in the gardens here at IndigiScapes and it is one of those natives that will even benefit from a bit of a feed from time to time. It will flower mostly in spring but it’s not uncommon to get some flowering throughout the year and lush green foliage is a pretty good substitute for the rest of the time.
(From left): Bower of Beauty (Pandorea jasminoides) Rose-leaf Raspberry (Rubus rosifolius) Shrubby Pine (Podocarpus spinulosus)
A couple other species worth considering this month are the Rose-leafed Raspberry (Rubus rosifolius), a nice native bush tucker shrub that looks quite nice and produces nice edible fruits. It will benefit from annual pruning or it can become straggly.
A species that we rarely have is the Shrubby Pine (Podocarpus spinulosus). This is a close relative of the Brown Pine (P. elatus) but instead of growing in to a large tree, this remains a shrub, and has proven reasonably hardy.
It is quite dense in growth and has beautiful foliage and the berries, if you can get them to develop, are the best bush tucker in Redlands (or anywhere else I’ve been!). The berries grow well on Straddie, where the plant occurs naturally, but we have yet to get fruit set in the gardens, despite flowering. The male and female plants are separate so you will need several plants to have any chance of getting fruit.
For further enquiries about the Redlands IndigiScapes Centre or the next plant sale call us on ph 3824 8611.