I believe that when planning home gardens, it is always good to look around for those flowering shrubs, groundcovers and climbers, for future garden colour.
A drive around any town in the region will reveal a floral feast of blooming plants.
With this October being one of the driest we have experienced in a number of years, a question that could ask is what impact it will have on the plants in the garden?
A number of jobs should be under taken before the real Summer heat starts to bite.
Like making sure your garden has a good depth of mulch and next is checking that your Sprinkler System is working.
Finally, maybe your garden might need some Groundcovers.
Then I would take that drive to at some of those successful gardens in our region.
Like in the viewing the medians gardens of Rockhampton where Gazanias scandens has been so successfully used to brighten the streetscape.
This plant has become as identifiable with Rockhampton as the Tropic of Capricorn.
Gazanias scandens is available in several colours, and may be planted as a colour mix or as a single colour for greater impact.
These colourful groundcover plants deserve a sun smart the rating as even in the most exposed position provides a fabulous display.
Gazanias are members of the Compositae Daisy family and are easily grown, full sun lovers and have a large range of brilliant colours and bi-colours.
Gazanias are native to South Africa and are herbaceous perennials.
Some grow in clumping formations while others have adventitious runners and trail over rocks or simply spread grass-like as a ground cover.
Gazanias seed very easily and many seedlings appear around the plants.
Then there is Col Brown Park on edge of the Fitzroy River with its recently refurbished gardens.
With a number a large canopy trees with seating to take advantage of the shade and beautiful boundary gardens with Victoria Parade.
These gardens are full of colour foliage and flowering plants. Like the Tabernaemontana Corymbosa Little Emerald.
It is an attractive small shrub with glossy dark green foliage.
It has clusters of white faintly sweet scented flowers all year round.
Growing to 50cm Little Emerald is suitable for low hedges, planting as a garden edge or can be grow in pots.
It grown in full sun to partly shaded position and needs to be fertilised during the warmer months.
At the Rockhampton Airport there is definitely something about an avenue of Palms.
You only have to look at the impressive frame the Bismarck Palms create at the entrance at Rockhampton Airport.
The Bismarckia nobilis or Bismarck Palm is one of the most attractive and waterwise palm varieties that can be grown in this region.
This magnificent fan palm, with its attractive blue-grey foliage, is a native of Madagascar.
This is not a palm for small gardens, in open areas and allowed to grow properly it will can a width of three metres across and eventually get quite tall.
While this palm variety has not been properly utilised as a landscape feature within Central Queensland, Rockhampton Airport has been able to feature these beautiful palms to fame the Airport landscape.
In the gardens below the Bismarck Palms a selection of understory planting give a perfect contrast to the palms blue-grey foliage.
A plant species of note in this area is the Aloe.
Aloe have been grown in Central Queensland for over 100 years but in recent times a series of hardy colourful hybrids have become available.
These hybrids can flower for 6 months without a break in flowering.
I just love the Aloe Bush Baby Yellow with its soft yellow flowers and dark green foliage.
If you are walking in the late afternoon, you may notice the perfume of the frangipani tree, which is in flower at the moment.
Frangipani, or Plumeria, is a tree that is not as popular now as it used to be, but it is still widely planted around Rockhampton.
The best variety would have to be the Plumeria obtusa, or Evergreen Frangipani the only frangipani that retains the majority of its foliage throughout the year.
It has glossy, rigid, dark green leaves that make it recognisable from all other frangipani varieties.
The flowers are pure white and highly fragrant.
So this weekend talk a drive around you town and you will notice an array of showy flowering plants that might be perfect for your garden.
