12 0417 294 778 A Touch of Grass Garden Care GARDEN CLEANUPS / REJUVENATION & MAKEOVERS A SPECIALTY We offer an experienced, professional and reliable service Call Jeremy on ... Est. Gold Coast since 2001 We’ll bring your garden back to life - creating a refreshed space where you can relax and enjoy your tranquil surroundings * Garden Care * Plant Selection * Soft Landscaping With spring around the corner and various local garden events and Open Gardens on the calendar, it could be a productive time to source some of the very hard-to-find flowering gems. One of these is Dombeya, a genus of around 200 species and worth seeking out. All but twenty Dombeya species are found growing naturally only in Madagascar and its surrounding islands, where some have been listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as Critically Endangered. The rest are found on continental Africa, and are generally widespread. With large, sometimes maple-shaped foliage covered in a velvety surface, Dombeya are a perfect backdrop for their stunning flowers. Putting on a show for winter, Dombeya ianthrotricha can be grown, with support, as a climber, or as a sprawling ground cover or low shrub. The clustered flowers are bell-shaped, an unusual reddish-pink, dusted with golden pollen on the edge of the petals. With similar flowers and foliage, Dombeya cacumium ‘Winters Joy’ is a large tree with exceptionally large, smooth foliage. The stunning flowers, also dotted with pollen, become almost translucent in sunshine. Planted as a lawn specimen, it provides a shower of hot pink on the grass as the flowers drop! In its natural habitat in Madagascar, the native Malagasy people crushed and beat the fibrous bark, using it as fibre for cloth weaving. Also flowering through winter are white and pink forms of D. burgessiae, a more compact, multi-branched tree that can be pruned as a medium shrub. The flowers have a slightly sweet fragrance. Known as the Pink Ball Tree, Dombeya wallichii is a medium bushy tree with very dense, ball-shaped clusters of flowers and is the parent of some outstanding cultivars. Just a sample of this wonderful Genus, and worth a spot in the garden after assessing the planting location, which should be free-draining soil with plenty of organic matter. In the early growing phase add organic fertilisers and keep it moist through the summer months. Gardening Dombeya by Kate Heffernan Honorary Life Member Friends of GCRBG, Botanic Garden Consultant Dombeya burgessiae pink Pictured: Above - Dombeya ianthroricha Below - Dombeya burgessiae white Dombeya cauminum 'Winter's Joy'
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