History

When first purchased DragonflySprings was just a house and property with a very overgrown backyard and creek. Formerly a pineapple growing area the old plantation was overgrown with many years of morning glory, lantana and other unpleasant weeds.  The main trees on the hill were black wattle and most were covered in weed. The creek area was impassible due to the vines and fallen trees.

Past to Present

Our original plan was just to rehabilitate the creek which we initially started on. After a while we could not stop expanding and continued on through most of the block, cutting, slashing and poisoning etc. and replanting with native trees and shrubs etc.

A few paths were added by mini-excavator to make access easier and a  spring fed watering system was expanded to include much of the property to establish the newly planted trees etc.

Over the years since we have planted hundreds of plant species in particular around 72 Heliconia varieties, around 87 ginger family plants (including 20 Torch Gingers) and many other types. We also planted hundreds of Native trees and shrubs to rehabilitate the area. Many of our plants have multiple plantings so in summer we always have thousands of flowers. Heliconia Rostrata alone has hundreds of flowers here when in season.

As a result we have had a huge improvement in the range of native birds, animals, lizards and dragonflys etc. seen around the property.

Due to our interest in Heliconias we became members of the Heliconia Society International some years back and have welcomed the knowledge we have gained from the members. Their site can be found here.

2201709 The garden is suffering a bit currently from a long running drought. As a result we are currently not planting anything new nor are we doing any propagation of some of our rare Heliconias that a few friends are after. We are however adding another new path to the front garden. In spite of the dry weather we have many varieties of orchards in bloom currently and the summer Heliconias are starting to flower.

20180116 The new path was completed and looks great. Have had good rains since September so the flowers and plants are awesome now. Approximately 40 Heliconia types are in flower now in the yard making thousands of lovely flowers at the moment! Our new variety Rostrata Orange has been flowering non-stop since spring!

20180316 It has been an interesting summer of unusual weather. The demand for Heliconia plants is increasing big time as well. Even if we did our garden as a business and wanted to put the work in we could not keep up the supply of plants to people. Thankfully we are retired and don’t need to do it to eat, we do it a bit out of love for these lovely plants and a few extra dollars gets us better holidays! We do supply plants to friends and plant lovers who have found us and persuaded us to let go a few. We also have 21 species of Costus Gingers that we have stopped doing potting cuttings of but are happy to swap most with people for other tropical plants or cuttings we don’t have or wish to have.

20181026 Well the rains came and the garden is looking healthy again! 34 Varieties of Heliconias in flower today. Also many Torch Gingers and Costus are in flower.

Behind the house creek side

We can be contacted at plants @ dragonflysprings.net (Remove the spaces)

We are a private garden so no drop in visitors without prior arrangement.