Our next meeting will be our AGM and I would advise you think about the positions to be vacated and possibly offer your services in one of these. Remember "many hands make light work". I will try to put together a slide show of some photos of past outings and adventures so we can reminisce a little, if we have time.
What is that old rhyme? "Spring is sprung, the flowers is ris' I wonder were the winter is?", or something like that! Well it has been a mild winter so far certainly not a lot of snow up in the hills as yet, not too many frosts at my place and the plants all think it is Spring. My fruit trees are rising from their seasonal slumber and one has blossom already. Last month there were lots of native plants flowering and this month there are even more. The Hardenbergia violacea group look like they are going to be a picture in the next few weeks. We have a number we have planted, mainly mauve and some white, and with the endemic version are all starting to put on a show. Our local Correa reflexa that normally flowers for a long period is probably at its best at present and some of the "bells" are quite large. Yes I will try to propagate some to share around the group.
I have heard it said that there is an Acacia in flower somewhere in Australia at any given time of the year. Certainly June and July are good months in our area, with local Acacias in flower and a line of Acacia baileyana at the end of our street creating a striking display. Last month our "Mount Morgan" was looking beautiful and at present, thanks to several dwarf form Acacia baileyana and an unknown weeping variety (possibly acinacea), we enjoy a number of beautiful splashes of gold.
Susan takes pride in the Pterostylis curta and endemic Pterostylis nutans she has nurtured in pots and they are also flowering at present. Recently I saw Correa baeuerlenii (Chef's Hat) on the display table and stated "I would like one of those". Wasn't I amazed to recently find one growing and flowering amongst a tangle of other plants at the bottom of the garden! I really must make an effort to learn the names and variety of plants I have in my own backyard.
While the garden is a beautiful place it can also be quite nasty. After Harold's episode with the red-back spider we all need to be vigilant in the garden. Susan has already had her annual reminder that certain Grevillea species do not like her, with a display of the usual rash on her forearm. Any of the Grevillea Robyn Gordon type, of which we have many and others like Grevillea "Winpara Gem" are bad news for those who suffer from this allergy. We think the latter was possibly the culprit as we have quite a few, although it was most likely the "Winpara Gold" specimen by the back door waiting to be planted. Purchased from the nursery at Tathra I had wondered why it had not "hit the ground", as Susan generally attends enthusiastically to this chore. I guess I am now a little wiser — one for John to attend to!
On the weekend I spent quite a lot of time in the garden and experienced what I believe was a significant dose of hay-fever, the first attack for the season. With a number of very still days followed by a dry but quite windy session, I believe the airborne pollen may have been the cause. On many occasions I have seen the pollen leave a pale yellow ring around the perimeter of a puddle long evaporated. It really is amazing how much pollen can be in the air and yet remain unseen.
Being relatively new to the experience I have been watching my “propagation babies” very carefully and willing them to strike. Although I have done a bit of “tugging” to see if they have developed roots I have not tried to prick any out at this stage. Fancy, a baby boom in Traralgon South!
I guess knowing when they are ready comes with experience.
It was a pleasure having Marni speak about the importance of the “Water Watch” program and what is occurring in our area. Agreeing to replace Tammy Dawson at short notice was really appreciated by all who attended. I guess we were all surprised at the lowering of the Gippsland aquifer at such an alarming rate and hope something can be achieved to redress this. However while some of the information was disturbing most of what Marni spoke about was very positive and painted a bright future for this resource in our region.
Hope to see you all at the next meeting.
John Stephens (vice leader)
By Mike Beamish
AcrotricheSpecies: Acrotriche serrulata
Family:Epacridaceae
Derivation:
Acrotriche: From the Greek akron, meaning summit or extremity, and thrix, meaning a hair, referring to the tufts of hair at the tips of the corolla lobes.
serrulata: From the Latin serrula, meaning a small saw or finely toothed.Common Name: Honeypots
Sources: Corrick and Fuhrer- Wildflowers of
Victoria.
Sharr- Plant Names and their Meanings.
The State Library of Victoria provides free web hosting for non-profit organisations on vicnet. It provides 10 Mb of space, unlimited traffic and no ads. The username forms the web address and is in the form of "http://home.vicnet.net.au/username/". The username must be between 4 and 8 characters, eg. APSLV would be suitable. The Australian Plants Society (SGAP Victoria) Inc. use vicnet for their site (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sgapvic/). There are probably other free providers available.
An alternative would be to purchase a domain name and a web hosting service. A domain name could be something like "www.apslatrobevalley.org.au" which would cost about $30/2 years. Web hosting can be provided by a multitude of different companies. Some of the cheaper ones would be http://hosting.webcity.com.au/ which can provide a hosting service from $5-6/month (50 MB space, 10 GB traffic/month); www.jumba.com.au costs from $10/month(1 GB space, 10 GB traffic/month). Jumba also has a free version if it is hosted on a US domain (500 M space, 5 GB/month traffic), but I personally don't like the use of domains registered in a foreign country because it wouldn't be picked up in a search where the top level domain is restricted to Australia, and it also seems inappropriate. Large telecommunication companies tend to be much more expensive.
A further alternative would be to engage APS to register a domain name of www.australianplantsociety.org.au for which each district group could have a sub domain eg www.latrobevalley.australianplantsociety.org.au. Generally subdomains don't cost any extra, but the implications are that extra space, traffic allowance, email addresses, and usernames would be required. I haven't approached APS about this proposal.
Once off set-up fees range from $10. Policies on excessive traffic would need to be looked into to make sure that this could be controlled.
As an example of data space and traffic, at www.gippslandheritagepark.com.au, I am using 36 MB or disk space, and the traffic has increased from about 15 MB/moth a year ago, to about 250 MB for July. The traffic spikes when GHP is mentioned in the media.
Please pay your APS LV & APS Vic. Memberships now otherwise you are over due.