Pink Tulip Trees? What Are They?

Dear Gardening
I picked up these pots on market place, they were sold as terracotta pots, but as soon as I saw them, I knew they were concrete. I knew the guy who made these pots.

When I first started in the nursery industry there was Italian Terracotta pots and Concrete pots. The concrete pots were made here in Australia. The guy who made these pots was named John Bandiera.

John had 5 acres in Dural and he made these pots by hand. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard. The sand and cement mix was mixed so it was just moist and he would use moulds to make an assortment of shapes. Some were bigger sellers, the pot in the picture was very popular.

John was Italian, he was old school. If you got there at lunch time he wouldn’t move, he’d eat his lunch, and want to share it with you. He’d give you a nip of Grappa just to wake you up, he made it himself, it was like drinking petrol.

When I bought the nursery in Campbelltown, I went and saw John to order pots, yes he’d say, I’ll deliver them to you, but he never turned up.

Months went past, we were desperate for pots but John could sell all his pots, he didn’t need me, he didn’t want to drive to Campbelltown.
In those days there was no delivery charge.
John was never coming.

I found out where John lived, I found out what his Italians wife’s name was, I sent her the biggest bunch of flowers. I sent her a love letter, I told her John was coming to deliver pots to me next week, he’s going to need a big lunch, he might need more Grappa.

A week later I saw his old truck come over the hill, it was triple stacked with his full range of pots, he got out of the truck laughing, he told me his wife had fallen in love with me, he was sick of her talking about me. “She’s driven me crazy”.

He turned up every time I ordered, John and I were good friends, he was a wise man, he owned properties all over Dural. He was such a hard worker, when I saw these pots I thought of John, I’m going to paint them white. He only painted them white or chocolate brown. These pots were made by my old friend.

I’ve noticed Magnolias are starting to flower, there’s at least 20 different varieties but the one you see growing everywhere is Magnolia soulangiana. It has these beautiful tulip shaped flowers.

Magnolias are spectacular flowering trees, the flowers look so amazing because there’s no leaves, to hide them. They look even more amazing at night, if you shine a garden light, up through your tree.

They can be slow to get started, they love compost improved soil so buy a bag of Tim’s Cow manure and a bag of Tim’s Best Potting mix. Tip this on top of the ground then dig it into your garden soil. Once it’s all dug through you’ll have a raised mound to plant your tree in.

The plant roots will get established before the heat of summer arrives, you’ll get fresh new spring green growth. Keep it well watered and mulch around the base with sugarcane to protect the roots from the heat of summer.

They are beautiful trees and when you see them flowering you start to think that spring can’t be far away.

You may have seen this interesting plant spilling over a retaining wall in Gregory Hills. There’s several plants here and they really looking amazing. It’s an Australian native plant called “Cousin It”.

It’s a ground cover Casuarina, it grows in wet or dry soils. It grows about a metre wide and 30cms high. It thrives in full sun or part shade, it’s a great plant and very arty.

This plant rarely looks good in a pot, so when you see it in nurseries the foliage often looks brown and dead looking. But when you grow it in the ground, the plant responds with healthy green foliage.

There must be thousands of retaining walls around Macarthur that could use a few Casuarina “Cousin It”.
The greenery is much nicer than concrete blocks.
We have plants here, zoom zoom.

It’s nearly always sold as a hedging plant, but “Pink Cascade” Lillypillys, make amazing trees too. This fast growing native plant grows about 4 metres high by 3 metre wide, when you just let it grow.

“Pink Cascade” has amazing pink new growth that cascades from the tree. It gets beautiful pink flowers that attract birds and nature into your garden. The pink berries make delicious jam.

There’s one of these growing at St Peter’s Primary School in Campbelltown, I always admired it when I dropped the boys off. It’s just not planted often as a tree, but it should be.

Prune the lower branches to expose the trunk. A tree isn’t a tree, until you can see the trunk. Pink Cascade is the perfect tree for today’s tiny gardens. We have some beauties, they are inexpensive.
Happy gardening
Tim