The success of the ‘Essence of Australia’ garden at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, where it won the coveted ‘Best in Show’ award has encouraged me to look back a few years, to when Kew gardens, in collaboration with the British Museum, created an Australian Garden in Britain.
Australia is home to some 15% of the world’s plant species and the garden was a celebration of shared vision for biodiversity between Kew and their partners in Australia. The Millennium Seed Bank, situated in Kew’s ‘home in the country’ at Wakehurst Place, played a crucial role in the re-introduction of endangered species back into safe habitats in Australia.
Kangaroo paw (Anigozanthus flavidus)
Wonderfully named, the sap in root system enables plant to survive in extremely dry spells. The kangaroo paw shaped flowers have evolved into this shape to aid pollination. The five stamens that make up the kangaroo paw are placed so that the pollen is deposited onto the heads of birds visiting the flowers. The pollen is transferred to another flower as the bird visits another kangaroo paw flower.
Balga (Xanthorrhoea preissii)
Balgas are known as a grass trees because of the mass of grass like growth that emerges from the trunk. The blackened appearance is evidence that the plant has the ability to withstand fire. They are very slow growing and can live up to 600 years.
The Balga has many uses; for example, it has edible roots and the resin is used as glue in tool making.
Pussytails (Ptilotus exaltatus)
Perhaps a little fluffy for a pussy-tail unless the cat in question had been fighting off a strange cat in the garden, I thought these were lovely. The flowers bloom after the rainstorms in the desert zone of central Australia known as Red Centre.
Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilus)
The Wollemi pine is found in the rainforest gorges of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales. Until its rediscovery in 1994 it was thought to have been extinct for 65 million years! The oldest specimen alive today is over thousand years old.
There are Wollemi pines growing outside at Kew and Wakehurst, planted from seedlings given by the Sidney Botanic Garden in 1997. These two healthy trees were the first planted outdoors outside of Australia.
Australian Tree Fern (Dicksonia Antarctica)
Along with the hardy Banana, Musa banjo, the Australian Tree Fern, Dicksonia Antarctica, has become a favourite with British gardeners who fancy a touch of the exotic and structural.
The Australian Tree Fern is named after James Dickson, who ran a seed shop in Covent Garden in the late eighteenth century. He was employed by Joseph Banks to tend the garden at the British Museum and in 1804 was one of the seven founding members of the Royal Horticultural society.
Found in its native habitats of the cooler rainforests of Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland it is hardy in much of Britain – as you can see!
Sturt’s desert pea
Swainsona Formosa
The floral emblem of the state of South Australia, this plant is named after Charles Sturt, a mid-nineteenth century explorer who searched, unsuccessfully, for an inland sea in central Australia.
Australian gardens are as diverse as the Australian landscapes; with hot deserts, tropical rainforests, savannah grasslands, Mediterranean and temperate climates, maritime and alpine zones.
The rich biodiversity of the Australian continent is worth celebrating, in Australia itself and in Australian Gardens in Britain – at Kew’s Millenium Seed Bank, at Kew, at the British Muesum, at Hampton Court Flower Show and in our own British gardens.
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