The white flowering buddleja is in flower despite, or perhaps because of, my neglecting to water it. Well - the idea is that the plants here are drought tolerant and shouldn't need any watering once established (must admit I have caved on occasion). The purple-flowering (B. davidii) one is much older and quite tall, as is the orange ball buddleja (B.globosa) .The white ones - also B. davidii - (8 of them) started their lives here as tiny tubestock about 5 years ago and have struggled to nearly two metres. The 'soil' they're in is nutritionally poor, I'd dare say. I'm still in two minds about this plant due to its potential to become invasive. As I was looking up the Latin names of the species I came across another story of buddlejas gone wild and causing havoc - this time in the UK. On the block I've seen one plant come up from seed beneath the parent plant, but I believe conditions are much too dry for any significant spread. One method of reducing seed availability is to snip off the flower heads as they begin to die off and before there's an opportunity for them to set seed. Here's another white-flowering small tree that seeds- and suckers - prolifically, but this one's an Australian native and it grows just about everywhere on the block. Until yesterday I had no idea it was known as Bursaria spinosa - South Australia's Christmas Bush. Much gratitude to neighbour Jan C for identifying it and ending my embarrassment. I have always referred to it as a prickle tree - for it has many spines - and the young plants rising up from suckers are not something you want to try and pull out by hand, like a weed. Mature trees, however, are very attractive, especially when bearing flowers and seed pods in summer. I've discovered that it's an important tree for biodiversity, offering protection for birds, nectar for butterflies and can host a myriad of insect species. Have started a new page - The Limestone Gardener - where I share the failures and successes of creating a garden on the block. It's a work in progress - but that's life... Hope you'll check it out while you're here.
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December 2020
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