Pittwater Life April 2023 Issue

Garden Life
with Gabrielle Bryant
Garden Life
Our brilliant blooming Easter
Daisies need care year-round
It is Autumn, Easter is just around the
corner and Easter daisies are flowering.
If you don’t have them, time now to fill
an empty corner.
Easter daises are in the aster family,
sometimes called Michaelmas Daisies;
they are old-fashioned cottage plants
that are regaining their popularity.
Easter daisies are herbaceous plants
that are cut back to a close ground cover
over Winter. As the weather warms up
the new growth appears; this is the time
to lift and divide older clumps. Feed
them well and wait for the tall spikes
of massed small daisy flowers of lilac,
pink, white, blue, or mauve to appear
in late Summer and Autumn. Cut back
the stems that are finished to keep them
flowering.
Grow these in the garden and the
bees will love you; plus they’re perfect to
grow close to your veggie patch. Easter
daisies are easy to grow. They love the
sun and any good garden soil. They
should be easy to find in garden centres
now; if not you can find them easily on
the internet.
Late-to-the-party Crepe Myrtle
The crepe myrtles are
flowering late this year. I
was beginning to think that
they were not doing well,
then suddenly the trees have
burst into glorious colour:
white, pink, purple, hot pink,
and bright red. Some with
green leaves and some that
are newer hybrids, with the
dark midnight leaves that
contrast so wonderfully with
the flowers.
There is a crepe myrtle
for every situation. They are
drought- and heat-tolerant,
and they love the sun. There
are tall-growing trees that
will reach a height of 6-8m
tall, semi-dwarf shrubs that
will grow 2-3m and the baby
dwarf varieties that are just
1m tall. Grow the babies in
pots, hedge the semi-dwarf
varieties or plant the tall
varieties as street trees. Grow
them as standard lollypop
trees, prune them every year
to fit your garden or let them
grow unpruned to enjoy the
very graceful shape and bark
of a mature tree.
Crepe myrtles are
deciduous and lose their
leaves allowing winter sunlight
into the garden and offer
something for every season.
Decorative bark in winter,
lush new foliage in spring
for summer shade, amazing
flowers in late summer and
coloured autumn foliage
as the weather cools down
before winter.
70 APRIL 2023
The Local Voice Since 1991