Correas & Banksias

Correas are a small but wonderful group of Australian native plants that predomninantly flower during the cooler months of the year. Their tubular flowers provide a wonderful source of food for nectar loving birds.

Correa pulchella 'Autumn Blaze' is a low growing correa with glossy evergreen foliage and a prolific display of brilliant orange flowers from autumn to early spring. Reaching 30 cm high and spreading to 1.5 m wide, Autumn Blaze is a great inclusion in rockery and embankment plantings, as well as native gardens and pots.

Correa pulchella 'Ring a Ding Ding' is another beautiful variety of correa with bright orange flowers. It is an upright, compact and neat shrub, growing to 50 cm tall and 60 cm wide. It's perfect for growing in containers as well as planting in sunny to partly shaded garden beds.

'Autumn Blaze' and 'Ring a Ding Ding' are tolerant of dry conditions once established, only requiring an occasional deep drink during extended hot dry weather. They're also frost tolerant and suited to coastal areas and do best in well-drained soil.

Keep correas looking tidy by pruning around one third of the growth off in spring, once flowering has finished.

To promote healthy plant growth, feed native plants like correas with Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser each spring and autumn. Yates Dynamic Lifter is a unique blend of natural ingredients to enrich and improve the soil and also provide Australian native plants like correas with gentle, slow release organic nutrients.

Banksias are a large family of beautiful Australian native plants and different species are found in every state and territory across Australia. They are known for their distinctive flowers, which come in a range of warm colours including reds, oranges, pinks and yellows.

Banksia 'Birthday Candles' is a gorgeous dwarf variety of banksia that only grows to around 50 cm high. In the cooler months it's smothered in golden yellow flowers which birds and bees adore. Banksias prefer a well drained soil and are dry tolerant once established.

'Birthday Candles' has a dense habit, spreading to around 1 m wide and looks fantastic in massed plantings or grown in a container.

Many banksias produce interesting and ornamental seed heads. May Gibbs called them the “big bad” banksia men in her Snugglepot and Cuddlepie stories. Unless you're keen on keeping these banksia cones, just gently break off the flowers themselves after they're finished.

Don't cut back into the stems as this can reduce next year's flowers. If there's any dead wood, this can be pruned off. 

To help promote a flush of new growth on banksias, feed with Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser, which is a rich organic plant food that's suitable for feeding Australian native plants.

Blue Tongue or Native Lassiandra (Melastoma affine) is native to tropical and subtropical forests in Australia and Asia and gets the name 'blue tongue' due to its edible sweet purplish black fruit turning your mouth blue!

Growing to around 1.5 m tall, Blue Tongue is a shrub that's suited to warm climates in a partly shaded spot in the garden that's protected from frosts, hot winds and harsh afternoon sun. Keep the soil moist to replicate its natural rainforest habitat.

Pretty mauve flowers will appear in spring and summer and provide a plentiful food source for bees (including Australian native bees) as well as other pollinators and beneficial insects, including the rare and breathtakingly beautiful Miskin's Blue butterfly.

Apply Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser around the root zone of blue tongues every spring and autumn to promote healthy growth and lots of delicious berries. 

For stockists of Blue Tongue visit www.tuckerbush.com.au