Hi Alison, Good to hear from you. I actually do have a Greyia sutherlandii now, but thank you so much for the offer. Interesting you posting at this time. I gave one of your Caesalpinia peltophoroides seedlings to one of the guys from the Jungle (Peter) and now he's looking for seeds for a nursery friend. I have two left--one is still in a pot and the other I planted out in April. I also have two seedlings of the Tabebuia roseo-alba from the seeds you sent me. I'm going to plant one of those out in the Spring too. If you run into Grant...tell him that I got ONE seed of Deplanchea tetraphylla to germinate and that plant is now about two feet tall. I'll be putting that in the ground next Spring too. I want to thank you both for your generosity. I found a seed source of Alloxylon flammeum on eBay OZ and I'm going to try that next Spring. I've also got a little Buckinghamia celsissima growing and thriving in the ground. Many different kinds of Australian natives do very well here in SoCal. -Ron-

Thanks all for your feedback. We visited the nursury yesterday and chose an ivory curl (looks like it will be okay space wise) and a Honey Gem grevilla as they seem to look best in the space we have available. We've got some cordylines and gingers to go in front of them and I think the colour contrast will look fantastic and help maintain our tropical look. We also visited the botanic gardens to see their mature versions and fell in love with the Parrot Tree "Schotia Brachypetala" which was swarmed with honeyeaters and lorikeets. There were none in the nurseries as it's not very common so we found one we were able to take a cutting from and hopefully propagate ourselves, just don't know what we'll do with it when it gets really big! We don't use any pesticides so we have abundant little insects in our yard, so now we just have to wait for the birds! Thanks again for your valuable input. Lauren

Hi Not sure how cold you get in Perth. The Brachychiton acerifolius will handle a fair amount of cold and frost, much more than a Pawpaw will. My Tamarillos have handles below 0C, but no frost and must be protected from strong wind. There are some beautiful Australia East Coast Rainforest trees that handle cold well and look Tropical. Target Warm Temperate ones or high altitude Sub Tropical. Ivory Curl Flower (Buckhinghamia celsissima), Blue Berry Ash (Elaeocarpis reticulatus), Black Bean (Castanospermum australe) and Riberry (Syzygium luehmannii) are excellent. They also attract birds to your garden (on the east coast at least). There are now a large number of species including a good range of lillypillies (Acmena, Syzygium and Waterhousia) in cultivation. If you can get Syzygium cv cascade grab it. It is a 1.8-2m weeping bush with stunning new growth and watermelon pink shaving brush flowers. The new foliage is very tropical and as the leaves mature they go through hot pinks, red white and then to green. If you have a frost free area, try Costus Barbados. It is an excellent tropical looking plant for places that get to a min of -1C and no frost. Looks fantastic with it's big head of deep red bracts and yellow dayflowers through summer. Also Zingibers can grow well down to Â1C or -2C if protected from strong winter wind. My Zingiber specible cv Champagne is currently in flower and has been through a few -2Cs. Protect when young and you will lose foliage for the first winter or so. The deciduous Zingibers are very hardy if grown with a dry winter. There is also all the Kaempferia, which grow well even in cold areas as long as the ground doesnÂt freeze and stays on the dry side during winter, but note snails love them. Hope this is helpful. By the way I enjoyed your web page. Very well done. Regards Rob H.

We have a Silky Oak in our back garden (a 1/4 acre suburban block)and its far too large! It’s been here since we have moved in 36 years ago, it’s around 50-60ft tall! Wish we would have removed it then, but did not know much about trees back then! It has never dropped a branch in 36 years till our neighbours at the back had tree loppers remove all branches on their side making the tree unstable: we told the tree lopper that... but of course he was being paid by the fools at the back and since then we have had 2 very large branches fall, one today (over their side of the fence) and last week our side. This happened a couple of years ago with a huge Liquid Amber the neighbours at the side of us have ... they had it thinned out (I told the lady not to do it but they went ahead) and two of the most enormous branches fell on seperate windy days... thinning out also makes very large trees unstable, heard this on 3AW gardening show many years ago, so thought I should warn people of this phenomenon !! I can only say I would not plant this Silky Oak in a small suburban back yard! It’s a lovely tree for the birds, but very messy with its leaves falling forever at a certain time of the year, and we are truly tree lovers! We have built a deck around our Liquid Amber right outside our sun room - it’s at least 50-60ft and it has never done any damage to our pipes nor has it dropped a branch in 36 years maybe a couple of thin ones that the possums have had dinner on (lol). We just leave our trees alone, we also have another Liquid Amber at the front( same size) plus a Sycamore around 50-60 feet next to it not a branch has dropped from either... and no trouble with pipes in all these years! If I were Jan, (if she lives in Melbourne), I would put in a Jacaranda they are very dought tolerant and just stunning, I have just planted one in our back yard right hand corner as it looks like sadly the silky oak may have to go :-( This earth needs trees to survive ... they give us beautiful shade in summer and sunshine when the leaves fall in winter, they also give us great quality air and take in all the pollutants (we have lichen on our roof)... read some where that it only exits in pristine air areas, and we live near a Nepean Hwy with lots of traffic but the air around our house is beautiful... thanks to our wonderful trees :-)