A plant list to take into the garden in an idle moment, spring 2016

As a way of celebrating the bounty of the rains here's a list to take into the garden in an idle moment! 

Some of the species are biding their time and their flower-colours will be obvious later.

Red: As I've been driving around over the last few days I've noticed pale red poppies amongst the rank grass.

Pink:  Pull out Fumitory before it sets seed.

          Cranesbill will dig out from the damp soil. 

          Storksbill. (If the flowers are blue it's a native Erodium instead.)

Purplish: We never really win against Periwinkle. The bluish flowers are attractive. I hope you are taking your Periwinkle plants into 'Weed Swap' on 29th & 30th October at Canberra Sand & Gravel.

Yellow:  One way to reduce the spreading of Dandelions is to eat the flowers. An acquired taste maybe! 

           Flatweed & Catsear have similar multi-flowered flower-heads. Flatweed plants are the most numerous.

           Capeweed. Watch out for bees, but make sure young people know how to make 'daisy' chains with Capeweed flowers. The stems are thicker and tougher than the daisy stems we grew up with.

             

Orange: Notice the expanding Gazania patch near the Frogmouths' tree. Gazania is not listed as a weed but its seeds blow away like those of Dandelions. Cut the dead-heads off after enjoying the colour.

White:  Chickweed's tiny flowers and young stalks are both edible.

            Diana O'Brien had a photo of South African Daisy in the Chronicle recently. This is an unlisted weed. We haven't revealed the weed status of this species to nurseries yet. 

Green: Euphorbia species have been on display at the Floriade Bush Friendly Garden. 

           Sticky weed. Pull up the plants now before the round seed capsules form & spread.

Insignificant flowers:  Plantains may not be colourful but they have obvious flowerheads. Pollen is blown around on the wind.