Native Alpine Garden Planning
(Hopefully the formatting works on this post!!!)
We bought our house in Orange, NSW - a 1920 cottage, not heritage listed but in a "Heritage Area" - about 18 months ago so now its time to start fixing up a few things so it can survive another 100 years.
One thing I'm particularly keen on is ripping out the front garden (already 80% done) and replacing it with a Native, Alpine themed collection of plants.
Lots of flowering plants for the birds and insects, some bush-tucker and not a blade of conventional grass in sight (I personally don't see the point of perfectly manicured lawns). A couple of medium sized rocks, broken schist/scree/dolerite for anywhere there isn't a plant growing and a few "insect-hotels".
And while not strictly an Alpine plant, I bought a Wollemi Pine earlier this year for my birthday, named Bob Fossil (+5 points for anyone gets the reference) who will be a pot dweller for the time being as it might get a bit big for the front garden in the ground.
Another thing that people in this sub might be interested in is my attempt to grow Tanglefoot/Tasmanian Fagus from seed. It was easy to get the seed from eBay, but harder to find info about how to germinate. So I'm running a few trials - direct sowing (control), water soak, cold treatment (ie fridge for a few weeks before sowing). I still have a few seeds, so if anyone has other tips or ideas I'm all ears.
After researching for a week or two, here's a list of the plants that piqued my interest:
✅️ = Already Sourced
❔️= Found Commercial Source (Tubestock, seed, small plants etc), not purchased yet
❌️ = No Commercial Source Found (yet)
Screening/Hedge
✅️Alpine Bottlebrush (Pink) - Callistemon pityoides
❔️Alpine Bottlebrush (Yellow) - Callistemon pityoides
✅️Mountain/Royal Grevillea - Grevillea victoriae
❌️Alpine Wattle - Acacia Alpina
❔️Mountain Tea tree - Leptospermum grandifolium
❌️Mountain Banksia - Banksia canei
Edible
✅️Mountain Pepper (M+F) - Tasmannia lanceolata
❔️Native Mountain Currant - Coprosma nitida
❔️Mountain Plum Pine - Podocarpus lawrencei
❌️Australian Caraway - Oreomyrrhis eriopoda
❔️Pale Vanilla Lilly - Arthropodium milleflorum
❔️Alpine Mint Bush - Prostanthera cuneata
Flowers
❔️Royal Bluebell - Wahlenbergia gloriosa
✅️Billy Buttons - Craspedia spp.
❔️Hoary Sunray - Leucochrysum albicans
❔️Chamomile Sunray - Rhodanthe anthemoides
❌️Gunn's Alpine Buttercup - Ranunculus gunnianus
❌️Australian Buttercup - Ranunculus lappaceus
❔️Thrift-Leaved Trigger Plant - Stylidium armeria
❔️Grass Trigger Plant - Stylidium graminifolium
❔️Silver Daisy - Celmisia asteliifolia
❔️Silver Snow Daisy - Celmisia tomentella
❌️Cut-Leaf Daisy - Brachyscome rigidula
❔️Spoon-Leaf Daisy - Brachyscome spathulata
❔️Snow Daisy - Brachyscome nivalis
❌️Alpine Rice-Flower - Pimelea alpina
Grasses
❔️Prickly Snow Grass - Poa Costiniana
❔️Button Grass - Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus
❔️Blue-Green Snow Grass - Poa fawcettiae
Ground Cover
✅️Cushion Plant/Lime Lava - Scleranthus biflorus/uniflorus
Medium/Shrubs
❔️Candle Heath - Richea continentis
❔️Alpine Westringia - Westringia senifolia
❔️Forest Phebalium - Phebalium squamatus
❔️Large-Leaf Daisy-Bush - Olearia megalophylla
❌️Snow Beard Heath - Acrothamnus montanus
❔️Yellow Kunzea - Kunzea muelleri
❔️Alpine Rusty-Pods - Hovea montana
Other
✅️Wollemi Pine - Wollemia nobilis
✅️Tanglefoot - Nothofagus gunnii
This isn't a concrete list of what I would like in the garden - I'm open to suggestions (especially in the flower and edible categories), criticisms, tips and tricks (And if anyone knows where to get some of the red highlighted species )