What to do in your garden this November

The Centennial Parklands' Horticulture team is made up of passionate people that work in many areas including the turf used by elite sporting teams, the Ian Potter Children's WILD PLAY Garden and even high up in the tree tops at Frog Hollow. Visitors often stop to talk to them about what's blooming across the Parklands, how best to take care of their plants at home or share photos to help identify plant species or diseases found in their own backyard garden. 

So we asked our Horticultural Supervisor, David Laughlin, for some tips, tricks and news that you can apply to your own garden.

November sees the weather in Sydney warm up and plant growth explode - making it one of the busiest times of the year for the Horticulture team. It's also a great time to start working in your own garden to prepare your plants for the long hot summer ahead.

The Rose Garden in Centennial Park is displaying its spring flush of flowers. As a result of the recent rain fungal disease can be seen on many plants around Sydney and can quickly get out of control, You may have noticed the Horticulture team addressing these issues around the Parklands recently, applying fungicide to control diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew.

With the moist warmer conditions weeds are growing rapidly all over the Parklands and the horticulturists are busily removing them before their seeds establish.

What's flowering

Centennial Park's formal gardens are packed full of flowers with Salvia, California poppies, Penstemon, Calendula and wallflowers putting on a great show. The gardens are packed full of flowers with Salvia, California poppies, Penstemon, Calendula and wallflowers putting on a great show. Frog Hollow, the Rose and Column gardens are the best places to enjoy the spring flower show. A variety of native plants are flowering around the Parklands with Grevilleas and Callistemon are also flowering in abundance.


Around Sydney the spectacular Jacaranda mimosifolia are flowering with their wonderful display of purple. Many native plants flower now including flannel flowers, kangaroo paws, cut leaf daisy’s and many Grevilleas. A great place to see these and lots more natives is the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan. Spring annual displays are looking amazing around Sydney and it’s a great time to visit many of the parks around the city to see the displays.

November gardening tips 

This is the time when gardeners should make sure their irrigation systems are working in preparation for summer. It’s a good idea to change watering times to summer schedule and replace the battery in your controller.

There are a few important lawn maintenance jobs to be done such as increasing mowing frequency, controlling weeds and de-thatching. It’s a good time to visit a nursery and get the garden looking great for Christmas annuals such as Zinnias, Marigolds and Petunias can be planted now.

If you haven’t already mulched your garden the plants will benefit from 75 mm of organic mulch applied now. Plants which enjoy cool root systems such as Azaleas and Rhododendrons will enjoy an application of fertiliser followed by well decayed organic mulch.

What to prune

Plants are growing rapidly, and hedges will need regular pruning to keep them looking good. Poinsettias will love a prune now followed by an application of nitrogen rich fertiliser.

May bush can be pruned after it finishes flowering followed by an application of complete fertiliser. Flowering peach can be pruned after flowering. Remove spent rose flowers and remove any leaves or flowers affected by fungal disease caused by the October rain. Work in the garden done now will see rewards throughout the growing season.

See you around the Parklands, 
David