Four Feature Trees to Fill Your World with Beautiful Blossoms
Gardening with trees native to your area is an excellent way to have feature trees that will fill your world with beautiful blossoms. In addition, you can feel good about encouraging native plant diversity, while reducing the risk of introducing invasive species or plant pests from other areas. Besides that, gardening with native plants and trees is simply a lot less work than coddling species that might not be suited to your local area.
- Blackwood, acacia melanoxylon. Blackwood is a member of the Mimosaceae family and is native to the cool, temperate regions of south-eastern Australia. In Australia, it is a valuable tree that is frequently prized for use as a hardwood. In Africa, California in the United States, and similar regions, it can become an opportunistic “weed tree” because the softer climates encourage a high rate of seed production. Blackwood is a handsome tree, thickly grown with grey-green leaves, and covered with fuzzy, yellow blossoms in spring or early summer. Blackwood is an understory tree, frequently found in eucalyptus forests.
- Glauca Grass Trees, Xanthorrhoea Glauca. Although best known for their amazing greyish-green foliage, glauca grass trees have amazing blossoms. They put up a tall bloom stalk, similar to a yucca tree. Each stalk is densely covered with tiny, white blossoms that are highly favoured by pollinators of all sorts. Glauca grass trees are considered to be protected, so it is not a good idea to try to harvest them from the wild. On top of that, grass trees are particular about their soil symbionts. Purchasing your grass tree from a properly trained, licensed business increases the likelihood that you will obtain a healthy tree that will be a charming feature in your garden for many years. We are proud to say that we can provide that service.
- Ivory curl trees, Buckinghamia Celissima. Although it has a somewhat restricted preferred growing area, ivory curl trees are an extremely lovely native Australian tree. It can grow to be rather tall in the wild, as it stretches upward to reach the sun. In more domestic situations, it creates a round bush at the top of a slender trunk. Because injudicious trimming can damage its natural shape, it is recommended that homeowners fortunate enough to have one of these lovely trees hire an arborist to trim it if necessary. As the name implies, the blossoms are oblong and ivory white, somewhat reminiscent of a courtier’s curl falling over a shoulder. Ivory curl trees are easy to grow but prefer warm, dry conditions.
- Australian Native Finger Limes, citrus australasica. Quite aside from producing tangy, finger-sized fruits, Australian native finger limes are an attractive shrub, producing small flowers that have a lovely aroma. After all, before fruit, there are likely to be flowers. The finger lime shrubs do well when planted along a fence or against a building where they are protected from heavy weather. They make a dense background for lower-growing plants, such as agave or golden barrel cactus. Do keep in mind that some strains have sharp spikes, so it is a good idea to plant them in an area away from paths.
- Queensland Bottle Tree, Brachychiton Rupestris. Frequently touted as a backyard shade tree, or a sort of survivalist tree because of its ability to store moisture, the Queensland bottle tree is also magnificently beautiful, especially when in bloom. With its graceful, wine bottle-shaped trunk, and wide spreading top branches, it can become a striking feature tree for roadside borders, large lawn areas, or even wide fields where the Brachychiton Rupestris might stand in solitary splendour. B. rupestris is closely related to the Brachychiton populneus or kurrajong. The Brachychiton should not be confused with Adansonia digitata, a tree primarily native to Africa, which is also known as a bottle tree. A digitata also stores moisture, but it has a wide, squat trunk rather than the Queensland bottle tree’s graceful wine bottle shape.
There are so many reasons to cultivate plants that are native to your area, no matter where you garden. When you encourage native flora, you also provide proper habitat for native fauna. You can feel good about helping preserve the biodiversity of the world, while at the same time enjoying a beautiful garden for less work than would be required by non-native species.
You might think that gardening with native species would be restrictive, but you are likely to find the reverse to be true as you explore the plants of all sizes that grow in your area.