
Episodes

Monday Jun 20, 2022
Pruning Australian Native Plants on Real World Gardener
Monday Jun 20, 2022
Monday Jun 20, 2022
PLANT DOCTOR
Pruning Native Plants
For some reason, many gardeners have been reluctant to prune their native plants, thinking that if they did, those plants might never recover or worse, just drop dead.
Seems counter intuitive doesn’t it?
Grevillea 'Lollipops' photo M Cannon |
![]() |
Grevillea 'Superb' photo M Cannon |
So how should we prune our native plants?
Steve and I are not saying that you need to clip everything into a ball to make it look like a formal garden.General rule: Prune after flowering
It might seem risky, but if you only prune lightly, then you’ll be rewarded with a much better looking plant.
I'm talking with Steve McGrane, Horticulturist and agriculturist.
If you have any questions you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

Sunday May 22, 2022
Climber Shrubs Explained on Real World Gardener
Sunday May 22, 2022
Sunday May 22, 2022
Climber Shrubs
This design series that covers everything from mixed shrub borders, sub-shrubs, climbers, hero trees to best garden bromeliads but use plants that are non-general lines.
I have to say, Peter Nixon, RWG’s contributor for this series, focuses largely on what he calls cool sub-tropical garden or ‘cool sub-trops’ which he refers to often.
Don’t be put off if you live in a different climate because often plants adapt to a variety of climatic conditions and are worth a try.
![]() |
Hibiscus geranioides |
Climber shrubs-what are they and how could I use them as 'garden fixes’ in my cool subtrops garden ?
In fact if you were search for the term climber-shrub, you would be hard pressed to find it on the internet.
Seems like a contradiction because climbers need support to climb whilst shrubs are free standing. But what about those plants that climb over themselves to form a sort of mounding shrub?
Some of these types of shrubs are self-striking which might be called suckering.
Insta examples from Peter Nixon
Juanaloa aurantiaca - or commonly called Golden Fingers because the flowers look like a little bunch of lady finger bananas. Minimum winter overnight 6-7 degrees C
Gmelina philipensis - 'Parrot Beak'. A deciduous shrub with unusual yellow flowers that resemble a parrot beak.
Hibiscus geranoides-native to Australia. Loves a 'La Nina' type of weather. Interesting foliage texture
Bauhinia tomentosa-sulphur flowering semi-deciduous shrub to 3m with a cascading habit.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast. Marianne (host of Real World Gardener radio show ) is talking with Peter Nixon of Paradisus garden design. www.paradisusgl.peternixon.com.au

Sunday May 22, 2022
Best Climbing Plants on Real World Gardener
Sunday May 22, 2022
Sunday May 22, 2022
DESIGN ELEMENTS
Climber Heroes
This design series is about plants that are categorised as non-general lines.
Every week I’ve been saying that were talking about plants that you won’t necessarily find in your big box store or possibly even in your nursery so you may have to search for them.
These plants are so worthwhile that because they provide year round interest with their foliage colour, texture and contrast, not just their flowers.
Today perhaps some climbers fit the bill
Peter refers to cool sub-tropical garden or ‘cool sub-trops’ which means that overnight winter temperatures are down to about 5 degrees.
Don’t be put off if you live in a different climate because often plants adapt to a variety of climatic conditions and are worth a try.
Peter mentioned these climbers
-
Conomorpha fragrans often called climbing frangipani although it has nothing to do with the frangipani genus-Plumeria. The flower does look similar to the frangipani flower and are highly scented.Hoya carnosa - vigorous habit requiring a solid support
- in cooler areas plant against a north facing wide. Deciduous in cold areas.
- Dombeya ianthotrycha (tropical garden society of Sydney)-a winter flowering climber with large paper thin leaves. Flower colour is a muted red with a hint of orange. Can be trained as an espalier or a bun shaped shrub.
- Hoya carnosa or wax flower, better in pots with specialised potting mix. If planting in the ground, must have well drained soil.
- TIP: don't cut those flowering spurs off - this

Friday May 20, 2022
Mixed Shrub Borders are in again on Real World Gardener
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
DESIGN ELEMENTS
This is a series about foliage colour and contrast and textural contrast for year round interest. The focus is also on non-general lines instead of production grown planting. In other words, plants that may not necessarily be easy to find but so worth the effort. We kick off the series with mixed shrub borders.
- MIXED SHRUB BORDER
Are they a thing of the past or a living process that still has relevance for the modern smaller garden?
![]() |
Hibiscus capitolia 'Apricot Sport' |
This kind of design style has been used for hundreds of years because it has great garden appeal. There is no reason for it be considered irrelevant or 'old hat,' simply because it is so adaptable. It can be either formal or informal, full of colour and contrast or not, annuals, perennials and shrubs.
Today though, it's all about the shrubs and is a start of the design series that covers everything from mixed shrub borders, sub-shrubs, climbers, hero trees to best garden bromeliads.
I have to say, Peter Nixon and Real World Gardener's contributor for this series, focuses largely on what he calls cool sub-tropical garden or ‘cool sub-trops’ which he refers to often.
Don’t be put off if you live in a different climate because often plants adapt to a variety of climatic conditions and are worth a try.
Peter mentions the following shrubs as his 'best.'
![]() |
Posoqueria longiflora |
- Tibouchina multifida-not more than 1.5m in height.
- Hibiscus capitolio 'apricot sport'-double flowering hibiscus, slightly pendulous. 2.5m in height.
- Posoqueria longiflora-commonly called Japanese Needle flower. Has perfumed flowers with a long white tube, height to 3m in semi-shade.
- Brunsfelsia macrantha,
- Acokanthera oblongifolia - Bushmans Poison,
- Gardenia grandiflora ’Star’,
- Rosa sanguineus,
- R. chinensis ’Ten Thousand Lights'
Let’s find out more, I'm talking with Peter Nixon of Paradisus garden design. www.paradisusgl.peternixon.com.au,

Thursday Nov 25, 2021
Grafting Ctirus a Technique in The Good Earth
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
THE GOOD EARTH
Grafting Techniques part 1 & 2
![]() |
Lemon tree |
- Switch to grafting methods.
Practice makes perfect and I would recommend wearing gloves before attempting to do any type of grafting.
So What is Grafting?
- The scion has to be a particular size and be related botanically speaking to the rootstock. That means you can't graft an apple onto citrus rootstock, because apples are in the family 'rosaceae' and citrus are in the plant family 'rutaceae.'
- Margaret describes cleft grafting where the scion's base is cut as a 'V' and inserted into the same length slit into the rootstock. The cambium (green wood) of each must be aligned.
You’ll also need the correct root stock.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast. I'm talking with Margaret Mossakowska of www.mosshouse.com.au

Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Appleberry is Plant of the Week
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
PLANT OF THE WEEK Number 5
Scientific Name: Billardiera scandens
![]() |
Appleberry flowers. photo courtesy David Midgley |
![]() |
Appleberry fruit |
- Suitable for container growing. Regular tip pruning in this situation will result in a small shrubby plant.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been focussing on bush tucker plants, some of which you may not have heard of before.
The appleberry is no exception because even though it can be found in national parks, most people would walk by and not realise that it’s a bush tucker plant.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast.
I’m talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant officianado and expert.
There are many bush tucker plant nurseries that supply these plants online and are able to post out to most areas of Australia.
If you have any questions or feedback or have some information to share, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675 and I’ll send you a packet of seeds.

Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Old Man Saltbush in Plant of the Week
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
PLANT OF THE WEEK Number 2
Scientific Name: Atriplex nummularia
- The leaves impart a salty flavour if your dry and crumble them and sprinkle on food.
Possibly, listeners would be familiar with the term ‘old man saltbush’ or even have seen this plant growing somewhere.
But I daresay, you would not have heards that parts of this plant are considered bush tucker.
There are many bush tucker plants that are not that well known and this is another one of them.
- The Department of Primary Industries NSW recommends the following for farmland.
"Shrubs are grown in hedgerows as block or alley plantings across the farm to provide high-protein green feed during periods of feed shortage."
![]() |
Old Man Saltbush: Photo courtesy DPI NSW |
"Shrubs are grown in hedgerows as block or alley plantings across the farm to provide high-protein green feed during periods of feed shortage.Not recommended for areas with less than 300 mm average annual rainfall, or more than 600 mm average annual rainfall."
In the home garden, if you’re first planting out old man saltbush, don’t expect it to survive without any water at the start. After the first warm season, then it’s good to go on just what falls out of the sky in rainfall.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast with Adrian O' Malley horticulturist and native plant expert.

Monday Sep 27, 2021
Dealing with a Tough Garden Bed part 3 in Design Elements
Monday Sep 27, 2021
Monday Sep 27, 2021
Part 3: The final Countdown
- Teucrium fruiticans- also known as Germander, is a very hardy small evergreen bush in the mint family with grey stems and undersides of the leaves. 1.2m
- Phillyrea angustifolia . Drought, heat, frost and salt tolerant. Phillyrea are olive related which explains their toughness-dark green glossy leaf with serrated edge, making a contrast to the other silvers in the bed. Height to 2.5m, slow growing. Alternative to English box. can be kept to under 1m in height
- Aloes
- Other succulents
- Beschoneria yuccoides-Mexican lily, is a perennial succulent with a rosette of slender strap-like leaves that can grow to 1m in length.
- Rhagodia spinescens Salt bush-Small, native shrub with silvery, grey triangular foliage growing to approximately 1.5m. Tolerates all soil types and coastal conditions
- Atriplex nummularia, commonly called Old Man Saltbush, a large grey shrub to 2 m tall and to 4-5 m wide, with brittle woody branches
We used a rotary hoe to break up the soil before planting.
Spread/dug through gypsum and watered in liquid gypsum
Dug through premium garden soil and compost.
Mulched the area with fine grade pine bark, sugar cane mulch, straw and tea tree mulch.
Continued fertilising any new plants with composted animal manure pellets and liquid fertilisers every 2 to 3 months.Continued to give any plants in the area a deep slow water by hand to ensure they receive a good amount of water closest their roots.
![]() |
Garden at the Berkshires-photo Glenice Buck |
- Selected plants that will cope with the tough conditions that area hot and dry conditions.
- Over planted the slope- I planted out all the plants with closer spacing than recommended as they will help protect and buffer each other in this tough location. They will grow, settle in and get established more quickly together.
- When you're dealing with tough locations like this you also need to have patience and give the garden soil time to take in all these improvements. Soil preparation is very important and you should try to hold off planting before the soil is ready - haha! try telling a gardener to do that when there is open soil / spare space in the garden. I didn't wait!

Monday Sep 27, 2021
Tackling a Tough Garden Bed part 2 in Design Elements
Monday Sep 27, 2021
Monday Sep 27, 2021
- We used a rotary hoe to break up the soil before planting.
- Spread/dug through gypsum and watered in liquid gypsum
- Dug through premium garden soil and compost.
- Mulched the area with fine grade pine bark, sugar cane mulch, straw and tea tree mulch.
- Continued fertilising any new plants with composted animal manure pellets and liquid fertilisers every 2 to 3 months.
![]() |
Miscanthus transmorrisonensis |
Planting Palette Glenice used for this area - lots of silvers!
- Miscanthus transmorrisonensis-Evergreen Feather grass, evergreen leaves to 80cm tall by 100cm wide fountain-like mounds
- Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’ or Blue Switch grass is special for its dramatic, metallic blue foliage and for its strong upright habit to around 140cm.
- Senecio viravira- a beautiful rounded evergreen shrub with silver-white dissected leaves topped by soft lemon flowers. One of the best silvers. Sun loving and drought tolerant. 80cm x 100cm.
- Artemisia Powis Castle- a hardy, bushy, low growing shrub that has very attractive, soft, silvery grey, deeply divided foliage
- Olea europaea 'Piccolo' suits really tough conditions - drought, frost, poor soil, no irrigation. Grows to 2m
- Teucrium fruiticans- also known as Germander, is a very hardy small evergreen bush in the mint family with grey stems and undersides of the leaves. 1.2m
- Philorea
- Aloes
- Other succulents
- Beschoneria yuccoides-Mexican lily, is a perennial succulent with a rosette of slender strap-like leaves that can grow to 1m in length.
- Salt bush
- Atriplex nummularia, commonly called Old Man Saltbush, a large grey shrub to 2 m tall and to 4-5 m wide, with brittle woody branches

Monday Aug 30, 2021
Woolly Tea Tree in Plant of the Week
Monday Aug 30, 2021
Monday Aug 30, 2021
Scientific name: Leptospermum lanigerum
lanigerum, is named using the Latin word for wool-bearing, describing the silky hairy leaves and hairy buds, shoots and young capsules.
- Not all tea trees have green leaves, and this one has pewter grey or silver tiny leaves with typical 5 petalled tea tree flowers.
- May be limbed into a small tree. Light summer water though very drought adapted. Excellent background shrub or screen or large informal hedge.