Worth a visit
October and early November are the months in the Gardens for the magnificent Australian Waratah. The state floral emblem of New South Wales, but adopted as a floral favourite by all Australians. We have both the white Waratah and the red flowered forms in the Gardens and they are now well worth a visit to see in person.
There are many aboriginal stories regarding this beautiful flower, with a couple of memorable ones as detailed in an article from Wikipedia below:
The New South Wales waratah featured prominently in the folklore of the Darug and Tharawal people in the Sydney basin and Gandangara people to the southwest. A dreamtime legend from the Eora tells of a female wonga pigeon searching for her husband who has been lost while out hunting. A hawk attacks and wounds her, and she hides in a waratah bush. Her husband calls and as she struggles in the bush her blood turns the white waratah blooms red.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telopea_speciosissima
Tasmania boasts it’s own Waratah species known as Telopea truncata, a truly spectacular form that flowers in the Tasmanian moist forests from mid December each year. It has also been known to have the occasional white and even yellowish forms.
