Saffron Crocus- How to Grow Them and Use Them in Cooking Saffron crocus or crocus sativus is the plant from which the spice “saffron” is obtained. The bright orange–red filaments seen inside the flower is the spice used to flavour foods. Saffron has been in use as spice for more than 3500 years. It grows well in East Asia, Mediterranean, and many other parts of the world as well. Because of the lightness of the saffron spice, it is expensive, as it needs huge number of flowers to produce useful amount of spice. The saffron plant grows from the corm or bulb. It can reach to height of 10 to 30 cm. The plant produces purple flowers during autumn. The filaments are the stigma of the plant and each flower will contain three stamens and one style. You can grow saffron plant in your garden to get the saffron for your home cooking needs. Growing Saffron Crocus Make sure that you get quality saffron bulbs to plant in your garden. Saffron plant requires well draining soil with good organic content
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How To Plant And Care For Rudbeckia? Rudbeckia has become one of the most common flowering plants that are seen growing in many home gardens. It is also known as the coneflowers, brown-eyed Susan, cone disk sunflower, or the black-eyed Susan. These flowering plants have showy flowers and belong to the sunflower family. They come in a wide variety of species and you can find both annual and perennial Rudbeckia. These plants can occupy a major portion of your garden as they spread very quickly. Once the weather warms up bloom period is in summer and autumn, they can easily create a yellow blanket over your garden area. In cold neighbourhoods they will most likely be winter dormant. More About Rudbeckia The Rudbeckia are herbaceous plants that are mainly perennial with some species annual and biannual. Rudbeckia plants can grow from 0.5 to 3 meters tall. They have simple or branched stems and the leaves of these flowering plants are arranged spirally and are about 5 to 25 cm long and are deeply lobed. The flowers come out in yellow
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How to Plant and Care for Society Garlic Society garlic or Tulbaghia violacea is an ornamental plant with violet or purple flowers and leaves with garlic smell. The plant gets its name society garlic from the clump-forming nature and the garlic smell of the leaves. The blossoms of the plant, however, lack the pungent smell. These plants are also known as pink agapanthus and they belong to Alliacea, the onion family. The plant is indigenous to Southern Africa, but is naturalised in other parts of the world like Tanzania. This clump-forming perennial can be used as borders, in garden beds, rock gardens or as edging plants in gardens. They will last for days when used as cut flowers. The fragrance of flowers will attract bees and birds. Controlling the growth of the plant is easy as they are non-invasive. Plant description The clump of society garlic grows to a height of 30 cm. The leaves are strap-like and greyish green in colour. Lilac or purple flowers are star-shaped and flowering season is from early summer to autumn. Flowers are produced
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Rosea Ice Plant Or Drosanthemum Floribundum How I grow It Drosanthemum Floribundum is a spreading succulent belonging to the family Aizoaceae. When in bloom, this plant puts on a big show that gives the illusion of a pink or purple blanket on the ground. The dense mat forming groundcover forms a smothering mass of tiny daisy like flowers along the stems of this low creeping plant. This plant has a woody stem and fleshy leaves which are cylindrical in shape. The plant grows to a height of only 4-6 inches and can spread 3-6 feet wide forming a good weed suppressant. The Rosea Ice plant is tolerant to heat and salt and is ideal for rock gardens, pool sides and as good replace for grass in lawns. As they are drought tolerant, they can be used for xeriscaping. These perennials form a good evergreen ground cover. Avoid planting them in areas with foot traffic, as the leaves do not withstand trampling. Blooming occurs during late spring or during early summer. Right now and for the past year or so I
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Growing And Caring For Primula Primrose Or Polyanthus Primula is a herbaceous ornamental flowering plant belonging to the family Primulaceae. Primulas are also called as Primrose or Polyanthus. They are planted grown or cared for either as an annual or perennial. This plant was first discovered in Yunan province in China Primula is native to the tropical mountains in Indonesia, Ethiopia and New Guinea and temperate regions of South America. Primula includes more than 500 species and half of them exist in the Himalayan region. Some of the most popular species of the plant include Primula vulgaris, Primula Acaulis, the delicate flowers of fairy Primrose or Primula Malacoides, Obconica or Poison Primrose and Primula Sinensis. These flowering plants are a good addition to your garden in Australia. They are also suitable for growing in containers and pots or in hanging baskets or you might want to create a spring window box. This will bring the most welcoming colour to your window from outside. These plants grow prostrate on the ground and are available with different coloured flowers. The leaves form
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How To Grow And Care Marigold Tagetes African French Signet Marigolds The marigold flower is one of the most common planted annuals in the world. The long lasting companion flowers with their bold odour can be used to attract pollinators to your garden in particular bees and butterflies. Each one of them is so easy to grow from seed except the mule Marigolds, the seeds are sterile. The marigold thrives in full sun and has to be grown in areas where there is afternoon shade in hot climates. They are not particular about the soil, but will grow well in well-draining soil. They will produce more flowers and less foliage if grown in soil that is not very rich. Marigolds are a vegetable gardeners favourite flower. There are quirky little marigolds out there, that come in fun bi-colours with bold stripes in deep burgundy and a bright shade of yellow, these are sure to brighten up your summer garden, these are called the court jester marigold. They will grow in most areas in Australia and are sure to give an
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Phlox Plants Information On Planting And Caring Phlox plants grown in Australia are annual and perennial flowering plants with tightly packed clusters of showy flowers. This plant selection is native to North America. The shades of the flowers include red, pink, purple, yellow, white, scarlet and many bright bicolours. There are so many varieties of them and you will be able to easy find one suitable for your garden. Annual phlox form small mounting bushes. Rock phlox makes good ground cover forming small mounds spread by underground stolens that can cascade over walls and rocks, as they grow to a height of only 6-18 inches. The trailing varieties have long stems and border phlox are bushy and upright. There are varieties which may grow to 3-4 feet as well. The phlox plants are easy to grow and need low maintenance. These plants are sun loving and have long blooming season extending from spring to autumn depending on the variety. The cluster of flowers makes good cut flowers. How to Plant? Phlox establishes well in sunny areas with rich loose soil
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Evening Primrose: All That You Wanted to Know About Oenothera Speciosa If you are thinking as to what the Oenothera speciose is, then this plant is commonly called by different names like pink evening Primrose, pink ladies, Mexican primrose or showy evening primrose. This plant adds great looks and attraction to an ordinary looking garden. The evening primrose can be used as garden bed and borders and also form excellent ground cover plants throughout the year. They are well suited for garden styles like meadow type garden, rock garden, coastal garden or prairie garden. The showy flowers make them a must in every garden. The Oenothera speciose belongs to the Onagraceae family and is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant. These plants can easily turn into invasive plants thereby you need to take great care of it from overspreading in the garden. Hint: Don’t water your evening primrose plant too often. Description of Oenothera Speciose The pink evening primrose is a perennial wild flowering plant that comes out with multitudes of fragrance filled satin like white flowers. The flowers have a
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Liriope – A Popular Border Grass Are you skeptic about growing border plants in your garden? Do you want to grow plants that need very less maintenance as ground covers? Well, one of the best plants you can try out as a border grass in your garden is the Liriope. This plant is a grass-like flowering plant that is neither a true grass nor a lily. They are commonly known as monkey grass or lilyturf or border grass. The Liriope is commonly used in lawn areas or gardens as they have evergreen foliage and are perfect groundcovers. They are ideal plants to use for garden landscapes. More about Liriope and Its Varieties There are two varieties of Liriope: Liriope muscari and Liriope spicata. The Liriope muscari are the most common type, commonly grown everywhere in Australia. It has tiny violet flower colours that appear on the grass during late summers. The L. muscari is a bigger plant than the L. spicata. They will reach a height of 18 inches and 12 inches in width whereas the L. spicata grows about
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Astilbe Plants: Grown in Shade With Moist Not Wet Soils Astilbe is a perennial native to East Asia. This plant belongs to the family Saxifragaceae. This plant is rhizome rooted and produces flowers during summer. The flower heads are showy but individual flowers are small and dull. Astilbe has compound leaves with toothed edges. Foliage is glossy and fern-like. The size of flower clusters ranges from 6 inches to 2 feet. The height of the plant ranges from 6 inches to 5 feet, depending on the variety of the plant. These plants are suitable for shady areas where other plants won’t thrive. Astilbe flowers can be used as the focal point in your summer garden. There are more than 25 species of this plant available and there are hundreds of hybrid varieties. The flower colour ranges from white, pastel to dark purple. If you want Astilbe to bloom at a different time, the best thing you can do is, try growing different varieties. Flowers are suitable for clipping, used year round, can be used dried or fresh, in mono bouquets
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