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Christmas
Favourite!
The NSW Christmas Bush, Ceratopetalum gummiferum
has a distinctive folklore among New South Welshmen. All states have their own
Christmas Bushes, Victoria has Prostanthera lasianthos and Western Australia has
Nuytsia floribunda. These plants are certainly not a challenge for NSW, the
premier state. The NSW Christmas Bush occurs in forests and gullies of eastern
NSW including the Blue Mountains, certainly not in great numbers but wide
spread.
 Contrary
to popular belief, it is easily grown and tends to respond to more exotic
treatment rather than emulating its native habitat. It is not the white flowers,
which are rather insignificant, but the colourful red calyces, which enlarge and
stay with the plant long after the flowers have gone and its long life as a cut
flower that have made it such a popular choice for floral displays. The
brilliant splashes of red against green foliage in the weeks leading up to and
following Christmas, have made it the natural choice as our Christmas Bush.
In the last decade, several cultivars have been selected for
their excellent colour eg. ‘Alberys Red’ and ‘Florists Choice’. There is even a
white form, ‘White Christmas’.
Ceratopetalum is a genus of five species, one of which is coachwood (C. apetalum),
a much prized tree and common around creek beds in the lower mountains. It also
has the distinctive red flowers. The Christmas Bush flowers were widely picked
from the wild in early days but now most come from commercially grown crops.
 We
can all help the fauna that lives on our doorstep by turning our gardens
and backyards into natural havens. Visit the
Flora for Fauna web site and find out what Flora to select to attract
Fauna in your local area. Flora for Fauna is an initiative of the Nursery
& Garden Industry and is supported by the Federal Government through its
Natural Heritage Trust.
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Mountain Arks is a cottage
industry based in Warrimoo
amid the beautiful Blue
Mountains, West of Sydney.
They manufacture tastefully
well designed and
constructed timber pet
enclosures for use as
chicken coops, rabbit
hutches, guinea pig cages,
dog kennels and nesting
boxes.
