I guess we should give the Aussies a place too.
Here is a hybrid "waratah" - Telopea 'Shady Lady'.
This one was available in the SF Bay Area for a few years some years ago, but no more. Everybody I know who tried it lost it except my buddy, who has kept a couple going. His biggest is about 6' (183 cm.); it lives in a warmer city in a densely planted garden with about half sun. It flowers repeatedly in spring and summer, and has even made viable seed. This hybrid does not have the big bracts of the mainland parent, but it got some of the hardiness of the Tasmanian one.
Does anyone grow Telopea?

Do you know about Wollemia? Discovered in 1994 in a remote part of a national park in NSW Australia, and kept a secret for its protection, it created a sensation in the botany world.
In 2020 the one area where it occurs was threatened by wildfires and a special division of firefighters was deployed to protect it.
I first saw it in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney in 2000, and it was protected by a very stout steel cage. The species has been tissue-cultured, and is now available (for a price).
This one in SF Botanical Garden must be one of the bigger ones in North America. At about 10 years old it is over 20 feet (6 m.)
I have no idea how frost-tolerant they are here, but they have survived below 15 F. (-10 C.) elsewhere.

Wow.. never seen a tree like it. I looked it up and info on it thought that a dryer, more flammable continent is likely to have driven the tree to near extinction over the millennia, leaving just a very small remnant of the Wollemi in a secluded deep gully not far from Sydney. And there these trees remained, hidden, until they were discovered by a canyoning national park worker in 1994.
Very interesting tree.

More random Australian stuff from my old phone:

A little mini Banksia they tried in the flowering potted plant market (people didn't go for it). Might be B. ericifolia 'Little Eric'.


"Kangaroo apple" - this is growing wild in a park but is probably Solanum aviculare. Over 7 ft. tall (2.2 m.)

Wow Rj, I love how the buds of the king Protea are so reflective.
Are they expensive as a cut flower in your area?

I have never purchased them as cut flowers, however I'm sure they are expensive. Those Protea were in New Zealand.

I need to get back to the SF Botanical Garden again, it's been years, 2009 and 2011 were my last visits. My favorite sections were the Australian and South African.
I still lust over this petable protea I photographed there!

Beautiful!
Of course the Protea and Leucodendron are South African.

You might be disappointed with the state of things at SFBG…
On the other hand the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley has been making steady improvements and additions. If you haven't been there in a while you will be delighted.

Here is an Aussie vine with a funny Aussie name: wonga-wonga vine.
The latin is kind of fun too: Pandorea pandorana. Blooming now here.

Yeah, I knew right after I posted that I could have added it to the other thread instead.

It's been over 15 years since I went to Berkeley Botanical, I was impressed back then! Think I'll plan a spring visit.