Reading my blogs and looking at the photos, it would be easy to assume that our garden consists entirely of non-native species. This is actually not so. I have to admit that I prefer exotics in a garden setting - I find them more to my taste, but then I was born to and raised by an enthusiastic English gentleman gardener.
I spent my childhood nurturing violets, primroses, pansies, sweet peas, delphiniums, hollyhocks, antirrhinums and so on. Dad did try a few Australian natives, but they weren't readily available and they didn't really like his mollycoddling, fertilising and cultivating.
When we first moved to Lenswood 40 years ago, we did plant a lot of natives, but local species weren't available and most of those we could buy at nurseries did not like our heavy clay soils and frosts. A few of them have survived, but we had more success with my old favourite European plants, so we stuck with what we knew best.
However we now have an extensive area of natives which we really enjoy - as do the birds and koalas. These are a few of the Spring flowering ones
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| Pale lemon callistemon |
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| pink callistemon |
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| Grevillea - not sure which |
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| This pretty thing dies back each year then shoots out in Spring. So sweet. |
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Grevillea robusta  And finally some of the visitors that enjoy the eucalyptus patch. Mother and daughter didn't stay long unfortunately. I think our resident male koala may have chased them away. 
Liz Needle
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