Kevin and Cathy Collins of the Banksia Farm had provided  fresh blooms of at least eleven species of Western Australian banksias (B. attenuata, baxteri, caleyi, coccinea, grandis, ilicifolia, lemanniana, nutans, petiolaris, praemorsa, speciosa. Here they are used as part of the stage decoration together with yellow kangaroo paw  Anigozanthos pulcherrimus,  hybrid red kangaroo paws, the silvery-grey leaves of E. rhodantha, bright-red bottle-brush (Callistemon phoeniceus) and  Barrens Regelia (Regelia velutina) with its crimson flowers and silky leaves.

They tell us that native flowers are only available in Spring and anyway they are only suitable for fillers in flower arrangements - to occupy space behind the "real" flowers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Elizabeth George provided about ten species of verticordia which were included in vases such as this. The species present are V. monadelpha var. monadelpha, and var. callitricha, dichroma var. syntoma, muelleriana ssp. minor, lepidophylla var. lepidophylla, comosa, albida, blepharophylla hybrid, helmsii, × eurardyensis. To learn more about verticordias, consider buying the verticordia book.

Here are some flower arrangements made by Sybil Speak for the opening of the Fremantle Maritime Museum on the 1 December 2002. In Western Australia, that is well into summer.