I was eager to return to Western Australia ever since my visit in 2016, and one of the top places on my list was Kings Park. It boasts the largest collection of Western Australian plants globally, featuring over 3,000 native species out of the more than 12,000 species of wildflowers found in Western Australia.

Kathy and I spent the afternoon there. The following day, we spent the whole day in the park and were rained on for most of it, leaving the park almost exclusively to us. We also enjoyed a private tour of the propagation house, where many new garden cultivars have been developed, especially kangaroo paws in unique colors and the Kings series of Grevilleas. In my home garden, I haven’t been able to keep the blue/green kangaroo paws alive for a year, but they admit these are hard to grow even in Australia. I’ve had much more success with Grevilleas and cultivate many of the Kings hybrids.

A short video of our visit to Kings Park.

I believe the Qualup bell, Pimelea physodes, is among the most beautiful Australian plants. In 2016, we discovered it growing in Fitzgerald National Park on white granite domes that emerge from the South Australia Sea.

One of the most interesting and spectacular displays in the park is the collection of Banksias. But out in the wild Banksia seems to grow everywhere, often creating forests.

We were hoping to see the fields of pink everlastings, Rhodanthe chlorocephala, that grow north of Perth, but we never found them. Fortunately, there is a large planting in the park. We were fortunate to catch them on a sunny day with the petals open. The other two days we were there, they were closed due to the rain.

Some videos of the other places we visited on our Australian trip