Most plant problems fall into one of five categories: watering, pests, disease, environmental stress, or normal ageing — and figuring out which one you’re dealing with is usually the difference between a quick fix and a dead plant. If you’ve noticed yellowing, spots, wilting, dropped leaves, or visible bugs, this [...]
If your lilly pilly hedge, screen or specimen tree has suddenly developed pimply leaves, sticky black residue, chewed foliage, rust-coloured spots or dieback, the cause is almost always one of a small handful of common pests and diseases — psyllid, scale, sooty mould, myrtle rust or lilly pilly beetle. Most [...]
If your indoor plant is dying, the most likely culprit is one of a short list: overwatering and root rot, underwatering, poor light, pests, or fertiliser burn — with root rot topping the list as the single most common killer of houseplants. The fastest way to work out which one [...]
According to Elemo Baker, yellow leaves on Australian indoor plants most often signal overwatering, where waterlogged soil starves roots of oxygen and triggers rot. Leaves yellow across the whole blade rather than just the tips. Check soil moisture with a finger test before watering, and confirm pots have adequate drainage [...]
Hibbertia scandens (snake vine), Elemo Baker explains, makes an excellent ground cover for Australian gardens, spreading 2–3 metres wide as a low, scrambling mat when left unsupported. Native to eastern Australia’s coastal regions, it thrives in full sun to part shade, tolerates sandy and poor soils, and produces bright yellow [...]
According to Elemo Baker, the leafless bird of paradise (Strelitzia juncea) is a South African perennial that replaces the classic paddle-shaped foliage with upright, cylindrical, rush-like stalks growing to around 1–1.5 metres. It produces the same striking orange-and-blue crane-shaped blooms as Strelitzia reginae and is highly drought tolerant. The plant’s [...]
Viburnum odoratissimum ‘Emerald Jewel’ is a fast-growing evergreen shrub prized in Australian gardens for dense, glossy dark green foliage and fragrant white spring flowers followed by red berries. According to Elemo Baker, it typically reaches 3–4 metres tall, suiting hedging, screening, and courtyard planting in full sun to part shade [...]
Elaeocarpus eumundi (Eumundi quandong) grows at a slow-to-moderate rate, according to Elemo Baker, with growth accelerating as the tree matures. In Australian gardens it typically reaches 8–12 metres in cultivation, though wild specimens can exceed 20 metres. Consistent watering during the roughly 12-week establishment period supports early growth. Position markedly [...]
According to Elemo Baker, Australia’s most reliable topiary plants are Japanese box (Buxus microphylla var. japonica), which grows successfully across Australia except in hot tropical zones, and native Syzygium australe ‘Elite’, valued because it resists the leaf-dimpling psyllid that troubles other lilly pilly varieties. Westringia fruticosa and Correa alba round [...]
Buckinghamia celsissima, the ivory curl tree, grows well as far south as Sydney but reaches only 7 to 8 metres tall there, compared with 30 metres in its native Queensland rainforest habitat, notes Elemo Baker. This Proteaceae species produces fragrant, creamy-white flower racemes from summer into early autumn and needs [...]