Sydney Local Native

The only gardening book ever published that focuses on Sydney native plants. Now in its second edition, revised and with 64 new profiles added. A gardener-friendly selection of 215 plant species that are native to greater Sydney, easy to grow, and attractive in gardens. Until this book, it has been very difficult for the average Sydney gardener to get this information. Each species is given a full-page profile including much more detail than is usually found in gardening books. In the back of the book, there are 17 indexes, by growth form (e.g., shrubs, trees, grasses etc.), soil preference and more. Eight comparison tables by growth type help the gardener choose species that will do well in their own gardens, with headings for light preference, drought tolerance and so forth. To the gardener, all this wealth of information means you can select great candidates for your garden. Each species is given a thorough and detailed profile including: full colour photograph(s)average maximum height and widthdescription of the plant’s formflower colour and flowering seasonthe plant’s best featuresits preferences for soil, water and lightpropagation notesbirds and butterflies that depend on the plantother interesting ecological facts about the plant(for many species) where the plant can most easily be seen in the wild on bushwalkswhere it is naturally distributed.A short section on how to choose plants for your own garden helps to make sense of why some Sydney gardens have clay soil and some have sandy soil, and how to test your own soil. About 70% of the species profiled are clay tolerant, and the vast majority are also drought tolerant.About a third of the species profiled are found in Pittwater-Wagstaffe Spotted Gum Forest (PWSGF), an endangered plant community that occurs in Sydney’s Northern Beaches local government area around Pittwater, and on Scotland Island, as well as around Gosford on the north side of the Hawkesbury River, across Broken Bay. Many of these PWSGF species are excellent garden subjects. They tend to be very hardy and are sure to thrive on Pittwater shale-based soils. They would also thrive on clay soil in Sydney’s Inner West and Cumberland Plain, and most of them are native there too.View sample pages at https://bushcareblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/sample-pages-from-sydney-local-native-book/