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Native plants

When I first arrived in Australia 20 years ago there 
was a fashion for 'native' gardens.  This gave rise to 
many hideous 'low maintenance' gardens full of short-lived 
mostly West Australian shrubs and small trees, with pine 
bark mulch to keep the weeds down.  That these plants were 
just as foreign to South Australia as roses didn't occur 
to people at the time.  Undoubtedly the sentiments were 
right, conserving water etc, but the choice of plants was 
disastrous, aesthetically as well as ecologically.  
Since then, although much work has been done by nurserymen to 
encourage the use of plants, both indigenous and exotic, which 
are more suitable to this climate, scant attention has been 
paid to our specific climatic zones in South Australia.  
For example, many Campanula species do not flower on the 
Adelaide plains, as we don't have low enough temperatures 
in winter.  The same applies to many Med climate plants, 
eg many of the species tulips from the eastern Med region.  
>From my own experience, the bulbous plants from the western 
Cape of South Africa naturalise more readily than the 
easily available daffodils and narcissus.  Of course this 
makes them more invasive and indeed Sparaxis and 
Freesia have become naturalised, as have Watsonia and Gladiolus 
species. 

I would be interested to know which roses are successful in 
other Med climate areas.  David Austin roses are very popular 
in Adelaide.  Personally I have found they are not terribly 
prolific as far as flowering goes, I wonder what other gardeners 
think.  Rugosas do well here, though they are not well known.  
Microclimates, specifically altitude, come into play again, as
some roses do much better in the Adelaide hills than they do on 
the plains.   

Liz
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