[MikeHardman]

In 'The Garden' this month (Oct12, p.10) there is a little piece on Correa' Canberra Bells', mentioned because 2013 is Canberra's centenary. I was not familiar with Correa, and did a search on this forum, and found nothing. Hence this posting, because it is described as a 'drought tolerant native'. Do we good folks of the MGS have any experiences or thoughts to share regarding this shrub?

Here's one of many links giving an idea what 'Canberra Bells' is like
http://www.pma.com.au/view_plant.asp?plant_id=259
...which also describes it as frost-tolerant.

But there are other species and cultivars...

[oron peri]

Mike,
I use Correa alba in my projects,
It is an excellent small shrub, tuff [despite its delicate appearence] and a real grought resistent.
Highly recommended !!
I have tried 'Canberra Bells' but definatly not strong as Alba, well at least in my dry climat.

[anita]

Hi,
Having had reasonable experience with correa I would describe them as moderately drought tolerant. Say on par with rosemary.  They are natives of South-eastern Australia running from rainfall zones of around 20 inches to double that. In Adelaide they grow wild in the damper regions of the Adelaide Hills but not into drier areas of the plains. There sre a good number of delightful hybrids and selections of various species.
Depending on the species they grow from about 30 cm to 1.2 m in height. They are very attractive to honey eating birds but can be shortlived... Lasting about five years. They do grow well from semi hard cuttings so the are easily replaced. Checkout pictures and iformation at the Australian plant Society website http://anpsa.org.au/gall2b.html.
Anita

[Alisdair]

Oron, I can see why you use Correa alba so much, with its starry open white flowers contrasting so well with strong rounded leaves. It is quite different from other correas (we saw a lot on the MGS trip to Australia). Most of the ones we saw instead had hanging tubular flowers in shades of red, yellow or orange - I did see one green one. Reminiscent of desfontainea.