Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
Scent-sational boronias
THEY’RE PERFUMED PERFECTION BUT THESE SEASONAL DELIGHTS CAN BE VERY FINICKY
1 spread your Garden bed
Create the perfect growing conditions for the sweetscented sticky boronia
(B. anemonifolia) by pu ing it in a pot on a table.
2 lovely in lilac
If you crush the tiny leaves of the Sydney boronia (Boronia
ledifolia) you’ll get a strong, musky aroma.
your heart will miss a beat, then go all aflutter when you take in their intoxicating scent. Next, your heart is sure to break when the small shrubs curl up and die, leaving a hole in your garden and a searing ache in your memory for that sweet, citrusy, spicy aroma. Springtime is when the little brown boronia (Boronia megastigma) shrub is smothered with tiny cup-shaped, yellow and brown flowers, putting out the sweetest of all smells in the season. Or there is the native rose (B. serrulata) or red boronia (B. heterophylla) that produce crowds of pretty pink, red or white cups with a milder but still profound perfume. But, like anything that has such exquisite properties, it doesn’t come easy. Despite your e orts they can die within months of planting. However, don’t blame yourself. This perfection is achieved because of its pernickety nature.
Here’s how you can nurture these beauties to last in your garden for longer.
3 SO PRETTY IN PINK
The so boronia (B. mollis) is one of the hardiest in your garden. Tiny pink, star-shaped flowers cover the rounded shrub (to 1.5m) from mid-winter to mid-spring.
4 ATTENTION SEEKER
Just to be contrary, the pinky lilac petals of the Sydney or showy boronia (B. ledifolia) close up when flowering is finished to look like a bud.
5 SMELL THE LEAVES
The flowers of the pinnate boronia (B. pinnata) don’t have much perfume, but the leaves do!
6 CRIMSON TIDE
The prey lile pink boronia (B. pulchella) is from Western Australia, so is particularly sensitive to humidity.
7 tiny clusters
The beautiful deep pink flowers of the native rose (B. serrulata) have an exquisite, rose-like scent and the leaves go bronze when the weather is cool.