Hi all - yes, although it takes forever to load, our online extravaganza is certainly a visual splendour! Congrats to all involved. Jaga - I knew that question was coming -about attaching the larger broms to trees. Friends of mine also use large staples over the stolon to attach, with great success. Older brom growers tell me to use old stockings/pantyhose, but I have found more updated material better. Stockings are generally used very heavy-handedly, wrapped around and around the base of plant and tree branch - and then overtime it bleaches whitish, and to my eye, becomes an eyesore. I prefer to make the attaching material as non-obvious as possible, trying to create a more natural effect. After much trial and error, I have found the use of a stretchy fabric called "ribbing" suits my needs best. It is similar to "lycra", and comes in different colours. I buy mine at an outlet called "Spotlight" - something similar in N.Z.? It comes in a circular metre, and one metre at approx. AU$10 will tie over a hundred broms - certainly cheaper than potting mix. I usually get the dark brown ribbing, as this colour blends best with most of the branches of my trees. Sometimes I use a lighter grey, for paler bark. Over time, the tie either wears away, or becomes covered by brom roots. By then the brom is usually self-supported, and subsequent pups root along the branch by themselves, or the original plant on branch supports the stoloniferous types in mid-air. With good quality dressmakers scissors, I cut long strips of ribbing, about 2 -3 cm wide (1 inch), on the stretch warp. When this is stretched, it becomes narrower. The stretchiness gives a tighter tension for a firm hold. I do not use sphagnum moss, or anything else between the brom and the branch. The reason for this is so that when the roots grow, they attach immediately to the host branch/trunk, securing the brom a.s.a.p. Sometimes, the brom can still fall out of tree in strong wind, and although it may have formed roots, it is not directly attached to the tree, and the whole base comes off. The stoloniferous broms are the easiest to attach, and I simply wind the ribbing around the stolon and branch, usually in a crossed formation, and tie firmly with a simple 'reef' knot (right over left and under, left over right and under). If the tie is too obvious, I disguise it with a bit of 'old man's beard'. Attaching non-stoloniferous broms is harder to describe. Often the brom, when removed from its pot, already has an established root system with chunks of bark still attached. I use this extra matter as a base for tying, attaching and winding the ribbing over all sides of the mix and branch. If the branch/trunk is a vertical one, and the brom has many leaves already - eg. an established vriesea - then I usually need to thread the tie between the lower or middle layer of leaves, easily disguised, and tie to the trunk a bit higher than the base, as well as tied at the base. This keeps the brom more upright and supported, and relieves pressure from the base tie - make sense??? It really depends on what you are attaching, and common sense dictates the best way to do it. Another thing - most people think that the 'branch crotches' are best to use - yes they are good, especially for attaching an established brom - but I like the effect of the brom free-standing along the branch, so the form can be viewed unimpeded. Hanwc - I use both pups and established broms in trees. Broms like Ae. blanchetiana are too big and heavy if over half-grown. Up a ladder with only me, a large brom and my two hands, I usually hold the tie/ties in my teeth (!), and often have to use my head to support the brom while I tie it on! Hope this info is of help/interest. Cheers, Tarzan - oops, I mean Kerry :)

Wow - this thread has really taken off, hasnt it ? Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions. I am reasonably au fait with most of the suggestions for the feature tree, with the exception of the bottle tree, but plants such as Native Gardenia are something of an unknown. I am also very wary of the impact of the Rocky sun on many rainforest species, even those marked 'full sun' : establishing the microclimate which allows these plants to take full sun is probably better left to species such as acacia and melaleuca. Experience has taught me that there are exceptions, and the Penda in my last garden has gone from strength to strength in the furnace that is our afternoon sun - its currently alive with yellow flowers and is bushy right to its bootstraps. I have recommended the various E. Ficifolia / E. Ptychocarpa hybrids (now Corymbias, I believe) to my friend, but the grafted rootstock seems to constrain them to no more than 5-6 metres, and I believe that I need something more in the 12m plus range to shield the front of the house from the blistering afternoon sun. It also needs to be sufficiently dense at the top to make 'worthwhile' shade, without being a menace to people standing beneath it. Ultimately, it will come down to the stock that Fitzroy Nurseries have in May - most of the other nurseries just dont persist with anything larger than 14" pots. I'll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Artie

Sure there's lantana for sale, especially at Bunnings here in Perth and other nurseries around. Mum's got a red one, a yellow one and a purple one. The purple one sprawls out under the frangipani, the yellow one is a hedge which grows in mostly shade and the red one sort of grows like a daisy, only with a 50cm radius to the amount it spans out. THEY certainly behave and at least no weeds grow up through the foliage. The purple one also keeps the grass at bay from the front garden bed. All these came from a nursery of some sort and were planted from pots. Also, they flower quite often, it ISN'T ugly and it doesn't stink, although it is a bummer retrieving a ball from the plant cos it has this small spurs on the branches which scratch. Ermm, besides that, lots of other people grow it around here. I've seen the red and yellow the most often, and there's a white in the next street, as well as a purple one which is grown sort of like our iceberg roses. However, just as a little experiment, I'll break a little bit of lantana off each plant and drop it out the front near the nature strip between the sidewalk and the wall out in full sun to see if they start growing. That way, we'll see if, here in Perth, the nursery grown varieties are safe. And where do these berries come from??? All our varieties DON'T produce berries, only these small green spike balls after the flowers have dropped off. Saintin

Harpullia pendula! I certainly would not recommend as a hedge, I have one and it's at least 7 to 8 metres tall and similarly wide. For a native hedge, I use various hybrid syzygium but only those less prone to attack, especially by psycillids.