Friday, September 21, 2012

New England Daisy Bush

Olearia canescens
Family: ASTERACEAE
Here’s a plant that we don’t see much of, yet it was probably once quite common on black soil hills on the Darling Downs . It’s a pretty, waist-high, daisy bush, also known as “grey daisy bush”, because of its soft grey-green leaves.



I photographed these flowers, from a bush which has almost finished flowering for the year, on a roadside at Silverleigh, near Acland.












The plant (hard to photograph among other plants) had obviously flowered profusely, so when a friend told that it grows easily from cuttings, I took some home to try, as it makes a good garden plant.She has one in her garden, where it fills a space more than a metre wide, and says it is best pruned each year after flowering, to help it keep a neat shape.
I took these photos of the same species at Tregole National Park, out near Morven, last month.
 


This is a drought resistant, frost hardy plant.

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