Plant of the Month: Purple bush pea

Our Plant of the Month is the “Hovea acutifolia”, commonly known as Purple bush pea or Narrow-leaved Hovea.

This plant grows to an open upright shrub to 1-2 metres and flowers in early spring with beautiful mauve to purple pea shaped blooms that grow in the leaf axils and have the typical ‘pea’ shape consisting of four petals.

They are followed by green pods to 15mm, which ripen to black and pop audibly when they explode to release their seed.

The flowers attract bees and other beneficial insects to your garden.

This Hovea has alternate, narrow, oval shaped dark green leaves to 7cm, with young growth covered in rusty hairs, (as are the underside of mature leaves, stems and branches).

This is a hardy shrub that does well in most well drained soils, and will grow in full sun but prefers dappled shade and benefits from mulching.

Cooloola City Farm Nursery is located opposite the Community Centre on Tin Can Bay Road and is open to the public now, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays 8am-3.00pm.

Our contact number is (07) 5486-2304. Email address: ccfni09@gmail.com and our Website address is: www.cooloolacityfarm.org