Gardening provides a powerful connection between people and plants worldwide. The choice of plants grown is a celebration of each gardener’s aesthetic and practical connection to the world of plant diversity.
At a time of unprecedented environmental change and ongoing loss of biodiversity, the importance of gardening has assumed new dimensions. Each gardener can make a positive contribution - in a small or large way - to helping care for the diversity that underpins their enthusiasm for green companions in domestic and civic life. Indeed, it’s becoming clear that without active help from gardeners, many more plants than the huge number already at risk would become threatened with extinction.
In a world with an estimated 400 000 species of flowering plants, and many more ferns, mosses and allies, there’s plenty to choose from. Yet a fifth of the world’s plant species - some 80 000 - are threatened with extinction based on recent estimates from leading botanical institutions, and a third are so poorly known that a reliable assessment of their conservation status is not possible on present information.
In this context, one strategy of inestimable value is for gardeners to grow plants local to their home country or district. Including just one or two local native plants in the horticultural palette is valuable in itself. Establishing whole gardens with such a selection is a new world entirely, full of novel aesthetic delights and enriching discoveries.
This book provides a compelling account of contemporary approaches to the horticulture of Australian plants. While its focus is on the not inconsiderable contributions made by Kings Park and Botanic Garden staff to the topic at hand, the book’s contents have wider applicability, offering insights and approaches of national and international relevance.
Exciting discoveries and breakthroughs continue to be made in our time. The application of smoke as a stimulant for seed germination, celebrated herein, is just one such example. The great detective story in isolating the compounds responsible is summarised, illustrating the best of modern botanical and biochemical science.
But horticulture of Australian plants offers the potential for the humble home gardener to make significant contributions as well. With more than 25 000 species of flowering plants on the continent, 90% found nowhere else on Earth, and more than 10% yet to be named by botanists, let alone grown and understood, the Australian flora is one great field of everlasting discovery and enjoyment.
What is the name of that species that’s caught your eye? How do you collect seed, responsibly? How is a species of interest best propagated? What management does it need to bring it into horticulture successfully? How can gardeners gain better access to the rich diversity of Australian plants suitable for horticulture? What improvements in techniques are really making breakthroughs? How can gardening be undertaken in a way that enhances the conservation of plants and animals?
All this and more is addressed in this richly illustrated and well-produced volume. I encourage readers to explore its contents, savour its visual delights, muse on its practical suggestions, and help celebrate and conserve one of the richest floral heritages on the planet through active, informed gardening.
There is a fundamental message of hope in growing plants and sharing your life with them. There never was a more important time to know and grow plant diversity. Herein lies the key to making a start, or honing your skills if you’re already some way down the path, and share a passion for Australian plants as the authors of the book so evidently do.
Happy gardening!

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction Mark Webb ix

Chapter 1 Growing Australian native plants [Mark Webb and Grady Brand] 1

Chapter 2 Groundcovers and shrubs [Grady Brand] 9

Chapter 3 Small and medium trees [Grady Brand] 21

Chapter 4 Arboriculture [Jeremy Thomas] 33

Chapter 5 Propagation [Amanda Shade and Mark Webb] 41

Chapter 6 Seeds [Luke Sweedman and David Merritt] 63

Chapter 7 Tissue culture and cryopreservation [Eric Bunn] 75

Chapter 8 Pests, diseases, disorders and other problems [Aileen Reid, Bill Woods, Kevin Seaton and Elaine Davison] 81

Chapter 9 The selection and breeding of Australian plants [Digby Growns and Mark Webb] 103

Glossary 121

Further leading 123

Index 127

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