Point taken ( in most cases I plant natives) however
when 'inheriting' an old garden it might be useful to have some of this
knowledge before rushing in and pulling out all exotics
not all natives are tough and drought hardy as some garden literature
would have us believe whereas some bird attracting exotics are
some mix well with natives
some provide flowers in summer which I find is a lean time for native
bird flowers (other than callistemons?)in my garden
some flower for longer periods
some gardens need deciduous trees on the north and many of these provide
food for parrots in greater abundance than natives (I'm thinking in my
garden of wattles, hakeas)
Dr Coral Dow
Senior Researcher, Social Policy Section
Research Branch
Parliamentary Library, Department of Parliamentary Services
Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600
Ph: 02 6277 2709
Fax: 02 6277 2498
Email:
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Fraser
Sent: Wednesday, 18 May 2011 9:54 AM
Cc:
Subject: Re: Exotic plants for our native birds
I've been finding this quite instructive, but - sometimes it's easy to
miss the obvious. Native plants actually do the job quite well too, and
in fact have been doing so for quite a long time now...
cheers all
Ian
On 18/05/2011 08:51, Wendy Whitham wrote:
> For honeyeaters, I'd add abelia (autumn) and kniphofia (hot pokers,
> autumn and winter). The Eastern spinebills patrol these regularly.
> For parrots (crimson rosellas and King parrots), crabapples are a
> favourite source of food in our garden.
>
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