Autumn is a beautiful season in the Australian native bush because so many plants are busting out in bloom with incredible shapes and textures. Hakea laurina is one of those plants and considering that it has to compete with all the acacia, eucalypts, banksias and grevilleas it needs to be darned impressive to even get noticed.

Fortunately, this hakea is stunning for as soon as it begins to flower it instantly catches your attention. It's a great Australian native to plant in your garden growing to approximately 3-5m with little fuss and no maintenance required. In fact, I've seen hakea laurina growing in the middle of some people's lawns engulfed with kikuyu and still flowering its head off.

Many gardeners mistake hakea laurina for hakea petiolaris as they have very similar flowers. But, the way to distinguish them is via their leaves - H. laurina are elongated and thin whilst H. petiolaris are round and wide. Regardless, if you ended up with either in your garden you ought to be happy.

Hakeas aren't impressed with being fertilised so a once per year application of a slow-release fertiliser should do the trick. They don't require much watering and are happy to be pruned by the birds that they attract.