One of the most vibrant colours in the winter season is the native climber known as Hardenbergia. Once known as the “native sarsparilla climber”, the modern variety “Happy Wanderer” is a much improved form which provides a long lasting display of deep violet pea flowers throughout the winter season. The evergreen foliage is a rich green colour and resembles the foliage of a young eucalyptus tree. It is a tough, dry tolerant climber which has very low water requirements and will grow to a height of 1.8 m if given some structure to climb on.
It is a great plant for covering a blank fence or growing over a garden shed or a dead tree stump. All it requires is a well drained soil and a sunny aspect and some trellis or wire mesh for support.
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As well as Happy Wanderer there are a few other colour combinations in the Hardenbergia group which give a great contrast to the winter palette. Hardenbergia “Free ‘n Easy” is a pure white form which flowers at the same time and looks spectacular when paired up next to the rich purple of Happy Wanderer. There is even a combination of the two, known as “Happy Duo” where a purple and white form have been grown together in the same pot. This way the two colours are interwoven together as the plants grow giving a stunning bi-colour effect.
If you don’t want a climbing hardenbergia there is also a bushy dwarf form called “Mini Ha Ha” which carries the same deep violet flowers but only grows to a maximum of 60cm high x 50cm wide.
Most of the Hardenbergia varieties originate on the eastern coastline of Australia from Queensland all the way down to Tasmania so they are very well suited to our Victorian garden conditions. There is also a ground cover variety called Hardenbergia comptoniana which is endemic to the Western Australia coastline. This shows the hardiness and versatility of the hardenbergia genus and their adaptability to various locations. Hopefully you have a space for one or two in your garden. The winter display will not disappoint.