Over the last few years, Lloyd Hedges with Menai Group has donated large numbers of pink flannel flowers, Actinotus forsythii, to our botanic gardens.
These are tricky plants to propagate and keep alive and Menai seems to have nailed it!
In November, a tray of Actinotus forsythii was donated to Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) in Canberra.
Curator, David Taylor, accepted them with enthusiasm. They were going to be used to form a centrepiece of the summer display of sandstone species.
Lloyd reports on a subsequent visit to check on survival:
‘Mary and I visited the ANBG to look for the pink flannel flowers we donated. We were pleased to be greeted by 4 of them in tubs in full flower at the entrance to the reception area. There were several more in the gardens between the reception centre and the café, and more up amongst the Sydney sandstone vegetation.
One of the horticulturists said they had not lost any of the plants we donated. A very respectable effort for such a touchy plant in Sydney. The ANBG locality has an advantage in the lower humidity levels of Canberra but also has to contend with lower rainfall. Their horticulturists have done well.’
