Episode: Seven
Date: 19 April 2008
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Story Title: Velvet Series Kangaroo Paw

Landscapers and Landscape architects and designers have avoided using Kangaroo Paws because of their weaknesses. Standard flavidus varieties are tall and tough, but generally there flowers are disappointing. The Velvet Range of Kangaroo Paw has gone back to basics, and regathered the toughness of the original larger varieties, but with a mid sized height. Unfortunately, too many smaller Kangaroo Paws, bred mainly for pot culture, and beautiful flowers have been used in gardens, and not surprisingly, they fail within a short period. Now you can have confidence again in Kangaroo Paws; Use the Velvet Range of Anigozanthos.

• Tough (Very drought tolerant and better frost tolerance)
• Cleaner Foliage ( More disease tolerant, much more resistant to black spot)
• Mid Sized (Smaller ones get disease, and larger ones although tough, may be too large for many Landscapes)

Featured Plant- Anigozanthos ‘Regal Velvet’
The great foliage on this plant makes it a stand out compared to any other Kangaroo Paw available. It’s dense clean foliage is much better at out competing weeds than other Paws, and needs less trimming, or removal of older leaves to keep it looking good. It is also quite a compact foliage plant (to 50cm), with a slightly higher flower compared to others in the range. For mass planting in large landscapes, this along with Gold Velvet are probably the pick of all the range.
It’s flowers are also very attractive, with both red and green highlights. The flower stem generally grows to approximately 1.0 to 1.4 metres in height. In show gardens it is a good idea to remove the older flowers in late summer, but for mass planted areas this may be difficult, so the stems can be left to decay on there own. To reduce maintenance on large sites, one technique is to plant Regal velvet behind a couple of rows of almost no maintenance plants like Tanika, or Little Jess. (See Ozbreed Plants) That way trimming is definitely optional.

Featured Plant- Anigozanthos ‘Gold Velvet’ PBR
For landscaping and low maintenance gardens, Gold Velvet performs as good as Regal Velvet. It has very clean foliage, has magnificent yellow flowers, which are shorter than Regal Velvets flowers, and is still a good dense plant. Its leaves are wider than Regal velvet, so its foliage is distinctively different. Its bold yellow flowers reach a height of 1 metre, whilst its foliage gets 50 to 60cm tall.
Again this plant was bred for toughness, and general landscape conditions. Its drought and frost tolerance is very high compared to other Kangaroo Paws. It is very resistant to black spot. Flower trimming requirements are similar to Regal Velvet.

Featured Plant- 'Amber Velvet' PBR
Amber Velvet is an attractive new hybrid Kangaroo Paw, featuring large strappy leaves reaching 50cm in height. Amber Velvet has a stunning range of red and yellow flowers growing to a height of 1m from the ground, appearing in Spring and early Summer. These folwers produce large amoungst of nectar, attracting honey eating birds to the garden. Amber Velvet is frost hardy and will survive in full sun, in well drained positions. It is an ideal plant for pots and tubes. For best results plant with a slow release fertililser for Australian plants. After flowering remove the older stems and leaves to help promote new growth and foliage the following year.

Contact
Ozbreed Pty Ltd
Phone 02 4578 0866
Email: info@ozbreed.com.au
For More Information visit: http://www.bestplants.com.au/