Putting on a show of native colour

NATIVES will be the star of the Australian Plants Society Ballarat’s third Winter Flower Show.

APS Ballarat president John Hastie said visitors will see a wide range of flowering indigenous plants from across the country if they head to the Robert Clark Horticultural Centre at the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, 25 or Sunday, 26 June.

“We’ll have close to a couple of hundred specimens, many of them that flower in winter, like wattles, but there will also be plants that don’t flower, like conifers and maybe some ferns,” he said.

“Not all the natives displayed will be Indigenous to the Ballarat district, but they will have been grown by our members in their gardens in the Ballarat district.

“Those that have never been to our Winter Flower Show before will be completely surprised by the range of plants that are here. Everything will be labelled, and people will be available to explain the best growing conditions for each plant.”

The indoor display will also include a native plant sale, with two expert traders in the room.

APS is a not-for-profit that aims to propagate and grow natives, promote diverse flora conservation, preservation, and the use of indigenous plants in gardens, nurture peoples’ passions for native plants, and share knowledge and information.

The Ballarat branch has almost 40 members from across the region, and meets formally during 10 months of the year, sharing plant specimens, and hearing from guest speakers.