We had about 30 severe frosts last year (the lowest number on record for here)and have been recovering in part from 2 to 3 years of successive severe droughts. I try using local natives wherever possible as structural units in both landscaping and ecological terms, but I do have quite a mix about the garden.
The ones that I find to be toughest and most popular with birds include:
Silver Banksia[b] Banksia marginata[i/] cut into a hedge. It grows very densely that way and is used for nesting and food by spinebills, scrubwrens and a variety of other tiddlers.
[b]Dwarf Apple [i]Angophora hispida draws the insects in December and they in tern are surrounded by an impatient throng of small nectivores and insectivores. Spinebills lap up the nectar from the broad flat flower discs.
Black Wattles Acacia decurrens are avian gold in or out of flower. They get all sorts of infestations, grow like lightning and are attended by throngs of small birds but also medium ones including grey shrike thrushes and grey currawongs. They should be interdpresed with other wattles that flower at different times, such as A. parramattentsis, A. cardiophylla and A. mearnsii.
Buxton Gum Eucalyptus cordifolia is a bird magnet for just about anything from the tiniest thornbill to crimson rosellas and scaly thrush. Small enough for smaller gardens too.
Red bottlebrush cultivars are OK if well spread out (in flowering time and space) so they don't become a coveted asset for bully birds such as friarbirds, wattlebirds and noisy miners. Mine have fortunately become so spread out that there is room for the little ones such as thornbills, spinebills, brown-headed honeyeaters, wrens, etc.
Dense thickets of honey-myrtles and paperbarks such as our local Melaleuca parvistaminea, M. lineariifolia or M. ericifolia are invaluable as nesting places for finches and thornbills in particular. They gather masses of nectivorous insects in flower.
Well, that'll do for now. last time I tried this my password timed out.
Hi there Poephila
Your severe frosts sound even worse than mine in Gisborne. We are on an escarpment slope face and the cold air makes its way down the slope through our garden and has quite an impact on many plants. How do you go with grevilleas in the frosts? Have you had much/any success with the broader leaf/oak leaf types?
Brian
My sister is looking to plant a bird friendly garden in an area affected by both frost and drought so I sent her this info. She wrote back:
Is it a bird poster’s in-joke to write ‘in tern’ instead of ‘in turn’?
(see the Dwarf Apple line)
Is that why they call us bird-brained?
---booshkie---
To Brian:
My Grevilleas don't seem to mind the frost at all. The only fragile or killed types include one excellent hybrid that was killed by trampling (workmen on a verandah) and a couple of the broader leaf types. I presently have at least one oak-leaf type going well, but its early days and I'll get back to you after next October, that will be the test. Some of my successes include Grevilleas iaspicula (tough as nails), Poorinda Peter (seems to need extra watering, about once every few months), baueri (tough and reliable, but I've had one wildling establish), White Wings (tough, prickly and dense, probably used as shelter but flowers have no interest for most insect or any bird that I can tell), arenaria (the common grevillea of hillsides here, but needs tolerable drainage, otherwise will take drought, flood, you name it). One that I'm unhappy with is Poorinda Blondie. It is dense, flowers well and affords good shelter but its leaves brown off so the overall impression is of a drab grey-brown shrub. Even with new growth there is merely a flush of green bronze above the drab.
To booshkie:
Oops sorry about the unintended pun. My hands type faster than my brain.
Greetings from the northern Southern Tablelands of NSW
Hi Poephila
thank you for the detailed feedback on which grevilleas you have had some success with. In our first year here we have lost a number of plants to the frosts including a robyn gordon, 2 royal mantles and a pink form of sericea. However, a newer hybrid "peaches and cream" and a second robyn gordon in a slightly more protected spot have done well. 2 specimens of superb are doing ok in different spots. This spring and summer has seen the grevilleas start to kick on and our first visitors have included New Holland honeyeaters , red wattle birds and a very occasional eastern spinebill. Many of my young correas also suffered with the frost but all seem to have recovered over spring and summer, hopefully this winter will see lots of flowers and more bird visitors.
Brian