Plants

Kitchen Garden Spring: Soft Herbs

The key to a thriving herb garden is to give each plant the conditions it needs to prosper. The result is easy gardening, and delicious pickings. Here Linda Ross shows you her favourites and the conditions they need to thrive in spring.

Kitchen garden subtropical

Arno is a garden designer and writer whose garden in Brisbane is mostly edible. He is constantly testing the received garden wisdom for its relevance to subtropical gardeners, and trialing new products. Let's see what Arno's growing this spring

Kitchen garden: Spring jobs

There’s inspiration here to help expand your vegetable repertoire – in the garden and on the plate! 

Kitchen Garden: subtropical winter

Arno is a garden designer and writer whose garden in Brisbane is mostly edible. He is constantly testing the received garden wisdom for its relevance to subtropical gardeners, and trialling new products. Lets see what Arno's growing this winter

Kitchen Garden: Summer Herbs

Plenty of summer herbs need the heat of the sun to intensify their flavour. Here Linda Ross lists her pick of the bunch.

Know your Daisies

Choose wisely and sunny daisies can be cheering up your garden all year. There are
daisies for garden beds and for containers in warm colours and cool. Here are a
handful of favourites.

Know Your Hibiscus

The flamboyantly tropical members of the family are best known, but these chorus girls of summer are not the family’s only gems.

Know your hydrangeas

Blue and white hydrangeas decorate long lunches and fill Church vases in the floral countdown to Christmas. Here we unwrap more goodies from the hydrangea family. You’ll think all your Christmases have come at once!

Know your lavender

The lavender must-haves are sun and well-drained soil. Start there then choose the lavender that suits your conditions - and desires.

Know Your Orchids

The orchid family is so extensive, and so wonderful in the garden. Here we introduce just the essential exotics for your garden. The exciting native orchids we’ll save for another day.

Know your winter bulbs

When autumn leaves have fallen, elegant little floral petticoats burst from the soil in optimistic, spring-anticipating growth.

Know your: balcony flowers

Add some summer dazzle to a sunny balcony with these pot-loving beauties.

Know your: cactus

Linda’s seven-year-old son has recently started collecting cactus and now has 73 displayed on a shelf on the veranda in morning sunshine. Here’s a brief introduction.

Know your: Euphorbia

The members of this plant family are loved for as much for their madly attention-seeking forms, textures and colours, as for their ability to thrive in tough spots. One warning – that milky sap is an irritant, so wear gloves when pruning.

Know your: ferns

Many ferns have a soft feathery quality that makes a great contrast with other plants - in the garden or indoors.

Know Your: Frangipani

Frangipani are familiar as the scent of summer but the range of species, colours, perfumes and leaf shapes might surprise you. Here Linda Ross tiptoes through a forest of frangi's and introduces us to some of her favourite varieties

Know your: Gingers

Edible members of this family include ginger, cardamom, turmeric and galangal, but here we introduce the flowering ones, which offer so much more than a tropical splash of lush green foliage.

Know your: Hedging plants

Inspired to get hedging? Choosing the right plant for your hedging plan is critical. Look for a height range and maintenance regime that suits your needs, as well as plants that will do well given the soil and position you can offer. Here are a handful of the hedging plants we think should be on your shortlist.

Know your: indoor plants

Plants make indoor spaces beautiful and people happy. Here are a few easy-care options to start - or enlarge! - your indoor garden.

Know your: Iris

When we say iris do you think Van Gogh blue iris, or romantic bearded iris in shades to perfectly match old roses? Or does iris suggest cheery yellow flowers lining the dam? No wonder we all conjure a different image - there are about 300 species in the iris family. Here are a handful of the best for gardeners.

Know your: Maples

Maples deliver magnificent autumn colour, especially after a dry summer, which crystallises the sugars in the leaf. Most at home in cooler climates, many colour up well in warm areas. Here’s a quick guide to help you choose what’s right for you.

Know your: Poppies

A quick guide to identifying and growing the right bunch of poppies for you.

Know your: Roses for Sydney

Some of the best performing roses for warm climates are old favourites -and we mean old. Search out these hardy centurions for fragrance, generosity and trouble-free beauty

Know Your: Spring Blossom

Get to know your spring blossoms now before they disappear for another year.  

Know your: Spring flowering shrubs

Flowering shrubs are the backbone of the garden. Get familiar with these beauties to add some spring bling to your garden.

La Vie En Rose

The charms of French country living inspired Marian Somes to create her own version at her beautiful garden Picardy in the Gippsland hills.

Lambley's Garden

Laurentia 'Pink Star'

Laurentia ‘Pink Star’ produces a mass of star-shaped blooms above soft mounded foliage. It’s a plant to soften the edges of borders, paths and retaining walls to fall from hanging baskets and window boxes.

Lessons From a Master

10 top tips for better gardens from Fergus Garrett

Leucadendron salignum

This South African native brings year-round burgundy foliage to the garden. In autumn and winter it produces a cone-like flower, which becomes woody at maturity.

Lilac

A small tree/large shrub with perfumed flowers in spring.

Limes

Few fruits conjure up fantasies of tropical lazing about like the lime. The very names - Tahitian, West Indian - make market gardener, Justin Russell want to kick off my work boots, slip on some boardies and sip on an ice cold mojito.

Lotus

To get the best out of the lotus, plant in an earth-bottomed pond, as the more the lotus can run, the more it will flower.

Lush Foliage

I'm loving lush, luxuriant foliage!

Macadamia integrifolia

The macadamia hails from Queensland and northern NSW but for a long time it was better known in Hawaii than in its homeland.

Macquarie Island

Hobart’s Botanic Gardens is home to an unusual glasshouse with a collection of plants from Australia’s sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. Robin Powell wrapped up warm to collect stories from one of the wildest places on earth.

Meet Chris Cuddy

Perenialle Plants is a mail-order nursery for tough plants, but you can also drop in. Don’t miss the chance if you are in the Canowindra area. As well as the plants, there’s an inspiring garden and lovely little shop full of artisan-made house and garden desirables.

Meet Elizabeth Back, Flower grower

Elizabeth Back runs Wild Aesthetic Flowers. Robin Powell interviews Elizabeth here and gets to know what's growing in her garden

Meet Florist, Nga Bui

Like a loose, just-picked look for the flowers in your house? So does Nga Bui. Here Robin Powell interviews one of Sydney's favourite florists

Meet Glennis Clark, Heritage Rose grower and Rookwood volunteer

Among the hidden treasures at Rookwood Necropolis are beautiful old roses, cared for by volunteers.

Meet John Robb: Plant breeder, Paradise Plants

Meet John Robb, Plant breeder, Paradise Plants. Paradise Plants, established by Bob Cherry more than 40 years ago, has bred some of our favourite garden plants. John Robb explains there’s no room for sentiment in the working life of a plant breeder.

Meet Keith and Maureene Smith

Cancer fundraisers and plant propagators

Meet Kevin Collins, banksia collector

Kevin Collins and his wife Kathy grow the world’s only complete collection of banksias in their garden at Mount Barker, Western Australia.

Meet Mark Jury, magnolia breeder

If there’s a stunning deciduous magnolia in your garden with enormous cup-shaped blooms and rich colour, chances are it was bred by New Zealand plantsman, Mark Jury.

Meet Pat and Bill Rhodin Tulip Tops gardeners

Meet Pat and Bill Rhodin, Tulip Tops gardeners. They work hard all year to make this garden's spring display something memorable

Meet Peter Hey, clivia breeder and grower of rare plants

Meet Peter Hey, clivia breeder and grower of rare plants

Meet Robert Price

Meet: Bob Price, founder and curator, Mexico’s Vallarta Botanical Gardens. Bob Price plan was to conserve Mexico’s unique flora and birdlife and the Vallarta Botanical Gardens he founded to help achieve that were recently included on the list of Top Ten Public Gardens in America you should visit.

Meet Tiffany Bignold

Meet Tiffany Bignold, Heritage rose lover and Parramatta Park gardener. The Rumsey Rose Garden in Parramatta Park is a quiet place in the city fragrant with the blooms of 203 heritage roses.

Meet: Angus Stewart

Meet Angus Stewart. Plant breeder, gardener and new resident of the Apple Isle. He is also our favourite native wildflower enthusiast.

Meet: Dale Dixon, tropical plant enthusiast, curator of Latitude 23

Meet Dr Dale Dixon, tropical plant enthusiast and curator of 'Latitude 23' at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.