I recently purchased some more seeds online and I’m a little excited as they are mostly Australian native plants that I will be trying to grow for the first time. I don’t have any experience with sowing native seeds, so it will be an interesting and fun experience and I’ll hopefully get some nice plants out of it too! I’ll run through each plant and why I have chosen each of them in turn.

Hardenbergia violacea, or purple coral pea is a favourite of mine. It’s naturally a climber or groundcover plant with love purple pea-shaped flowers. I have chosen these seeds as I love this plant, especially the flowers.

Coast pig face, or Carpobrotus virescens, is another native Australian, specifically to Western Australia, plant that is a little quirky. This is ground-cover plant that has pink flowers and succulent leaves.

The photo below is of a different species of Carpobrotus, but shows exactly why I like this genus of plants.

Another plant that I’ve chosen is the red and green kangaroo paw, Anigosanthus manglesii-also native to Western Australia. Again, it’s just a quirky plant that I fancy trying to grow from seed.

The last native plant that I’ve got seeds for is Passiflora herbertiana. I love passionflowers and their fruits, so being able to grow a native Australian one that is also edible is something that I’m really interested in trying.

The final packet of seeds that I have is for some purple onions, just because onions are such a versatile vegetable to have and they taste great too, so why not add a bit of colour too?

I really want to start growing a wider range of plants at home as that is the only chance I have to please myself with the plants I can care for and have exactly what plants I want. Growing these plants from seed is something that gives me a bit more interest and sometimes a challenge due to the different requirements that these seeds need for germination. I like this challenge and it means that I am still learning something as I go along, which I also enjoy doing.

Apart from the onion seeds, which will get sown in autumn next year, all my native seeds will get sown as the weather warms up in the next month or so. As with my vegetable gardening, I will give updates on the results of my efforts with these native seeds.

Until next time, happy gardening!