So glad you got it to work. That photo is fantastic! Please post more when you can, I know that your gardens must be beautiful.

Have seen this one before. Looks, somehow, regal.

I grow everything from all over the world, together. I keep things from overwhelming their neighbors through pruning and careful placement of the larger ones. Eventually it will look like the jumbled mess that nature is up close. I am careful about leaf color and avoid anything that looks too civilized or has large over-hybridized flowers. So it is mostly natives of Mediterranean climates from around the world. I especially like things that spread by underground runners and self sow as long that they are not too vigorous. Most self-sowers can be kept under control by judicious deadheading and runner pulling. I avoid plants that have been labelled noxious weeds in our climate, even those that might not be a problem where I live. I have seen enough broom and pampas grass in the wild to want to perpetuate the problem.

Jane, I had a Banksia coccinea for a few years in the same general district as you. It never flowered. It did not die of root rot, but my soil is alkaline and it was always affected by an iron deficiency. I stopped feeding its expensive dependency and it yellowed with some branches dying before I finished it off. I have another young WA banksia (can't remember the species)in the same part of the garden, which is alkaline-tolerant and successful in Sydney. Not as showy as the B. coccinea, but so far so good. Your soil is probably alkaline too. You might have better luck with WA hakeas. I have several although the Pin cushion Hakea is going to get the chop soon because it is diseased (black leaves, dying branches). Try Hakea cinerea - mine is in flower right now, quite pretty yellow flowers aging to orange. Also H. victoriae. I can give you a seedling of that if you want (just to second leaf stage, just recented propagated from one in my garden).