
2 minute read
Christmas Bells
~ Blandfordia grandiflora ~
BLANDFORDIACEAE
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These cheerful blooms are dubbed Christmas Bells for their festive flowering season. I’ve illustrated the waxy, gleaming flowers in their usual colour form, but they can also be seen dressed in nothing but yellow. The Blandfordiaceae family contains just the one genus of Blandfordia, with that genus only containing four species: it’s a tight-knit fam. They are all considered ‘Christmas Bells’ and can be found congregating on the east coast of the mainland and in lutruwita (Tasmania). The four species are Mountain Christmas Bells, North Christmas Bells, Tasmanian Christmas Bells and Large Christmas Bells – it’s all in the name. Christmas Bells are known to be nectarlicious and attract our illustrated pollinating guest, the Yellow-faced Honeyeater (Caligavis chrysops).
WHERE TO LOOK
Christmas Bells prefer the temperate and subtropical zones of the east side of the country, from the Blue Mountains and inland north to the Gibraltar Range National Park in New South Wales, up to the Great Sandy National Park and K’gari (Fraser Island) in Queensland. They enjoy sandy or peaty soils in moist coastal heathland and nearby tablelands.
FEATURES
Christmas Bells are a clumping, grass-like plant with rough 70–80cm long, 1–5mm wide leaves. Their drooping red bells sit on long 80–175cm stems, in groups of three to ten flowers, and feature red lobes tinged at the tips with yellow. Inside the 3–4cm flower are six dangling stamens presenting ever so slightly out of the tubular entrance, enticing potential visitors with their pollen. The three-chambered fruit are capsules measuring 6cm, containing many seeds and held on long 6cm stalks. Underground, the plants have a corm-like rhizome similar to our Native Leek (see p. 105), which can resprout new growth.
FLOWERING SEASON
Late spring to summer → These red and yellow bells can be seen from November to February.
PLANTING
Plants and seeds are widely available online and in nurseries. Christmas Bells enjoy the sandy, well-drained soil of their homelands with a little bit of shade and moisture. You can propagate by clump division of mature plants, similar to Cat’s Paw (see p. 143) and Blue Pincushions (see p. 9). Seeds can be harvested around three months after flowering and will germinate in around three weeks. Take mature flower heads and pop them in a paper bag to harvest. Plants propagated by seed can take a couple of years to present flowers; however, they’re well worth the wait and cut flowers can sit in a vase on your table for at least one week.