Unknowns, natives, flowers and celery

Initially I started creating garden pockets of plants here and there throughout the front garden. I wanted to do a lot to the garden but was reluctant to do anything major to the garden. I had several potted up plants which some have now been planted into the garden whilst others are still in pots.

All the plants, in my opinion, are mine as I have bought them or collected them myself. Every plant I put into the ground is a risk of it being removed and killed by the next new landlord. A risk I often don't want to take for the most part. I'd prefer to keep the plants in pots so they at least remain alive and have a longer lifespan than 7 years.

Struggling with the idea of having my pot plants in the ground, I also wanted to start a vegie garden somewhere, as another neighbour had the same idea. So I bought some celery seedlings and planted them in the ground. I was quite surprised to find that my celery plants were not only frost tolerant but also survived icy cold southerly winds and 2cm of snow that happened back in mid July.

The wattle tree I transplanted into the ground.

Celery at the back and to the right of the wattle tree.

Leaf litter at base of my unknown tree/shrub.

Unknown tree/shrub surrounded by succulents and flowers.

Closeup of leaves of the unknown tree/shrub.

My unknown tree/shrub is a mystery to me. I found it a few years ago growing across the road in my neighbour's garden. It had germinated through the dispersal of bird droppings on the west side of their garden. I originally thought it was a plant species seedling from my neighbour's garden. Only recently I found out this to be untrue.

It is not a privet or lantana or even a firethorn plant. It is not decidous and it seems to grow in a shrub habit with open branches. This plant is about 8 years old now and it has not flowered or fruited in all that time. Despite it's often rough treatment by me it has survived snow, heavy frosts, drought, infrequent rain, being transplanted several times, lightly root pruned, and heavy pruning by me. It's a tough plant to kill.

Currently it does not look at all that good but it has stopped dropping leaves and looks like it is starting to show signs of growth. Not long after I transplanted it into the ground I sprayed it with Eucalyptus Oil as it looked like it had an infestation of bugs on it. The plant began dropping it's leaves for almost 2 weeks then suddenly stopped doing that and then stabilised and stopped growing. Mind you, it stopped growing the moment the colder weather set in, in late Autumn.

This unknown plant/shrub has barely done anything at all since I planted it into the ground but as the warmer weather is now upon us, to a degree, I suspect it may take off and do some growing this spring/summer. Over winter and during the times of our Autumn frosts, it's lovely lime green leaves began turning yellow. Those yellow leaves are beginning to green up now, albeit ever so slowly.

All I know about this plant is it has shallow roots, loves lots of water, seems to prefer TLC and lots of leaf litter and for it's roots to be cool and deep. When I transplanted this plant into the ground I planted it deeper than normal so it's roots would always remain cool, even in the height of summer, and pruned it so it looks more open and there are no cross branching. I throw all my kitchen scraps onto the ground surrounding this plant.

Why this plant has not flowered yet is beyond me. Being 8 years old (or even older), and very slow growing, you'd think at least it would've shown some signs of flowers by now. Some Australian native plants will not flower before they are 7 years old and then they start flowering. These 7-8 year old plants are always longer lived than other natives. So, I'm assuming it is a long-lived species of tree or shrub. I'm hoping it will flower either this year or next year, so I can identify what species it is. But because I heavily pruned the plant and transplanted it into the ground I have my doubts that it will flower this year. It will be busy trying to establish itself into the ground, which means, it will be growing roots still.