care

Phalaenopsis or moth orchids are long-lived flowering pot plants that add style and grace to any indoor setting. They are available year round with flowers that last for months. The flowers are usually purple, white or a combination of both. The graceful arching flower stems grow from a small clump of wide strappy leaves. These potted flowers are excellent gifts...

I had always thought of azaleas as small plants until one day I visited an old Sydney garden and found myself walking through a tunnel of shrubs. Wondering what they were, I looked up and discovered azalea flowers above my head. These plants, which were decades old and had never been pruned except to create space to walk, had grown...

The flamboyant flowers of hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) light up summer gardens. They are such generous shrubs, unfurling new flowers day after day so there’s always something bold and colourful to enjoy amid the dense green of our summer gardens. With flowers in tones of red, pink, yellow, orange and even purple, and bearing single or double petal structures, choosing a...

The hazy purple-blue, flower-laden branches of jacarandas are so much part of November in Sydney that many people think the trees must be native. They’re not, but they have been growing in Australia for more than 150 years. Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) are native to parts of Central and South America including Brazil and thrive across southern Australia where they are...

A gardening friend once told me that her plants had been moved so many times they shuddered when they saw her with the spade in her hand. If you are planning to move a plant, winter is the best time of the year to do it because growth has slowed or become dormant, and conditions are mild reducing the stress...