By Beatrice Hawkins
Over the last week I have had three trips to Kings Park native gardens in Perth – absolutely unbelievably beautiful and spectacular! Wildflowers from all areas of Western Australia in full bloom.
The park covers an amazing 400 hectares with areas devoted to all the different regions of WA and some left as native bushland that is habitat for wildlife and native plants.
The park is a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland with two thirds of the area coming into this latter category. This area provides a fertile ground for much research into native species and habitat for many varieties of native animals and birds. It is the most popular tourist attraction in WA with over 5 million visitors each year.
There are areas devoted to the plants from the Mallee, from the coastal areas of southern WA, the desert areas and the sandhills that exist north of Perth as well as the Pilbara and the Kimberly.
A huge Boab/bottle tree from that region has been relocated and, while not thriving, is slowly recovering and healing the many wounds it sustained in being brought down that great distance on the back of a semi truck. This tree is at least 30 feet high and not much less in girth, so it was no small feat relocating it the 2,000 or so kilometres from the Kimberly. With the change in climate and soil types and the trauma of the trip, it is a wonder it is surviving at all.
At present the Kings Park festival is in full swing with events happening each weekend and the gardens in full flower. I have taken many pictures and will endeavour to share some when I get home.
I have also been to another park in the city that is just a bush area but has a wide variety of tiny native orchids. It reminded me of hours spent in the bush are around where I lived as a child on the NSW central coast and the many I found there along with large quantities of the lovely purple and white native violet.. Mum got many bushland bouquets!
My all-time favourite flower of WA has to be the original red and green kangaroo paw. There are now many different ones that have been hybridised and consequently they come in many colours and sizes to suit all applications, but to my mind nothing beats the original, especially when seen in massed displays in the bush… it is almost iridescent. In 1960, when it was adopted as the state flower for WA, some photos were sent to England to be printed. The English could not believe the colours and changed them to be red flowers on green stems!
The size and colour of beautiful Mallee flowers, variety of bottle brush and grevilleas, cat’s paws and kangaroo paws, orchids and daisies, swathes of everlastings, emu bush in many colours, with beautiful silver/grey/white smoke bush, with the tiniest black throated flowers I have ever seen, as the perfect foil for all the other flowers. Then, of course there are the many types, sizes and colours of the banksias.
Joseph Banks, for whom the Banksia is named and who collected and identified so much of Australia’s flora, died 100 years ago next year on June 19th 2020. I thought the banksias in NSW and Queensland were fantastic but they are certainly eclipsed in size, colour and variety by their relatives over here. Banks was in awe of the east coast variety but must have been delighted when Matthew Flinders brought west coast specimens back from his journey of circumnavigation.
Who can forget the “bad banksia men” of the May Gibbs “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie” stories?! The huge 30 cm plus specimens over here would certainly have terrified generations of small children with active imaginations!
If ever you ever have the chance to go to WA I would recommend travelling in spring if only to see Kings Park!
Monday October 7th will see the commencement of judging the annual Garden Competition. I know with things so dry we may feel that our gardens are not good enough to be entered but maybe this is the time to enter so we can all see what survives and learn how to drought proof our gardens.
Entry forms are, as usual, available from Bryson’s in Palmerin Street with entries closing on Friday 4th October.
• It is also time for Spring Flower Shows with the St Mark’s Women’s Guild holding their 57th Rose Show on Friday 11th October. The following week will see the Horticultural Society’s Annual Spring Flower Show on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th in St Mary’s Hall in Wood Street. See you there!
*This is an old article that has been digitised so our readers have access to our full catalogue.
