My Favorite Banksias

Banksia "cherry candles"; this is what the one below is supposed to become

When I first started seriously gardening in the 1990s, Australian Native gardens were regarded as a bit passe. They were generally a bit untidy and frankly uninteresting to a novice who craved big showy flowers.

Thus it is a shock, twenty years down the track to "discover" a whole genus of plants which has been on my doorstep the whole time, quiet achievers; so absorbing to watch the flowers slowly evolve over months from small candles, to big wiry brush like flowers, to amazing seed pods.

Everything I learnt about feeding and planting in drought conditions has had to be discarded as these plants need sharp drainage and low phosphate fertilisers. In fact I have been so warned that I am terrified to even put cow manure on them! The showiest- and scariest to grow are from Western Australia, and I am watching them through their first, very wet season with bated breath.

Banksia "cherry candles" before fully developed

Birds nest banksia, developing; my garden

Same birds nest banksia, fully developed 2 months later

Banksia coccinea with protea in a bunch of flowers; I really want to grow this one day

Banksia Menziesii at the Australian gardens in Cranbourne; I have a small plant in but no flowers yet

Banksia Blechnifolia in my garden; first flower

Banksia Burdettii at the Australian gardens in Cranbourne