Watsonias in Australian Gardens

The pictures on these pages were mostly taken in my garden in Adelaide - close to sea level, with a climate similar to Capetown or Los Angeles. Clicking on each thumbnail will access a larger (30-60K) image.

The systematic breeding of Watsonia for ornamental gardens and the cut-flower trade did not begin until the early 20th century and was carried out mainly in Australia and California. Most or all species are interfertile - F1 hybrids are readily produced and may show 'hybrid vigour' that makes them attractive garden subjects.

Many of the new cultivars had flowers in flesh pink, old rose, brick red, salmon and dusty pink: tertiary colours that were fashionable at a time when good taste demanded muted colour schemes. They were also ideal cut flowers in a period when home gardens often included a plot of flowers grown specifically to provide material for indoor flower arrangements. Today they seem to harmonise with the period styles of houses built in suburban Australia between the wars.

By 1930 there was probably a greater range of watsonias available in Australia than in any other country. However, they never seriously rivalled the hybrid Gladiolus cultivars in popularity or variety. Gladiolus breeding had about seven decades head start, and gladioli had the advantage of being familiar flowers in the European gardens that were still being imitated by the Australian bourgeoisie. Nor were watsonias promoted by the new wave of Australian garden designers who began to define an local garden style in the 1930s.

It is possible that hybrid breakdown also discouraged the further development of Watsonia cultivars. Progeny of the existing cultivars were often weaker plants with inferior flowers; breeders found it necessary to return to the original species as breeding stock.

In 1939 the Australian Garden Lover reported that "watsonias are becoming more popular yearly", yet none were listed in any of the nurserymen's advertisements in that magazine. More people may have been growing more watsonias and sharing the corms around, but they were no longer a hot item in the nursery trade.

Watsonias had become unfashionable by the time of the post-war boom in gardening, as shown by their peremptory treatment in popular garden manuals which no longer mentioned any cultivars by name. One reason was the continued development and increasing popularity of the polyploid Gladiolus cultivars: these were more compact plants with larger flowers whose bright colours and bouffant shapes fitted the 1950s aesthetic. A major aim of Gladiolus breeding has been to maximise the number of flowers open at the same time in a dense spike. In contrast, most hybrid Watsonia are tall lanky plants flowering more sparsely over a longer period, best seen in massed plantings but less useful in small gardens or pots.

Another factor was the rapid spread of the noxious weed 'bulbil watsonia' on the outskirts of southern Australian cities. "Watsonia" had now become the name of a notorious weed; any gardener who had cleared this plant from his block or had seen dense stands of it covering the creek flats was unlikely to plant another Watsonia.

Even the hybrids were seen as tough plants that could persist indefinitely once they became established on roadsides or in bushland. And once a plant gets a reputation as "low maintenance" or "easy", gardeners are liable to treat it with contempt and neglect. In fact, it is very easy to keep a Watsonia plant alive - but rather hard to produce exhibition-standard flowers. To give their best, they need a slightly acid soil high in potassium; high light levels; abundant water when the flower spikes are developing; and protection from thrips, whose attacks can rapidly distort and bleach the flowers.

Cooke, D.A. (1998) Bulbil watsonia is a variety of Watsonia meriana (L.)Miller (Iridaceae). J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 18: 5-7.

Cooke, D.A. (1998) Descriptions of three cultivars in Watsonia (Iridaceae). J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 18: 95-100.

Cowlishaw, G.K. (1928) Watsonias: The new Australian hybrids. The Australian Garden Lover 3: 391.

Goldblatt, P. (1989) The Genus Watsonia. Ann. Kirstenbosch Bot. Gard. 19. (National Botanic Gardens: Capetown).

Pescott, E.E. (1926) Bulb Growing in Australia. (Whitcombe & Tombs: Melbourne).