Next Meeting

Please note our next meeting will be a Photo and Plant Night (or Bring and Brag!) on May 10th. Please bring along a plate of supper to share. This should be an enjoyable night for all members so don’t forget to raid the garden for flowers and foliage to show off! Dust off your digital photos and brag about your camera!

I will provide a computer and data projector so all you have to do is bring your photos on a memory stick, CD/DVD or portable hard disk. Or of course if you are an old “stick in the mud” bring your photo album!

Leaders Report

In the Garden

As I sit writing this report it is raining, a much needed reviver for the garden. I think I remember making a similar observation earlier in the year, however the drought persisted. This time however it appears that Gippsland may live up to its usual reputation, i.e. grey and miserable! Despite a small total rainfall over recent weeks (28 mm in April) I am amazed at the extent of the new growth that has appeared on many of our plants. Maybe it has been the continued warmth — the ground, I believe, remains at about 17 degrees &emdash; or the fact that there was just enough rain earlier in the year. However the plants are looking quite impressive at present and all augurs well for a great spring in the garden. All of the properties in our local area are looking quite green with revived gardens or pasture and things are looking more like normal. Newly established gardens with numerous new plantings that Susan and I completed recently have also fared well and we have only lost one plant so far – fingers crossed. Correas of many varieties have continued to flower well as have some of the Grevilleas, particularly the “Robyn Gordon” look-a-likes. A new variety of Grevillea we purchased last year from a local nursery, “Autumn Waterfall”, is producing a most beautiful display at present. It is still a relatively small plant and should be stunning when it is mature. Croweas continue to flower and many of the Banksias are providing a feast for the honeyeaters. A plant that fails to grow in our garden, despite neighbours having success, is the Waratah (any variety). We have tried unsuccessfully four or five times without success and our last attempt began to look sick so I re-potted it and it is just hanging on.

We have been topping up the bird bath with tank water on a daily basis and it has been fascinating to observe the constant procession, the pecking order and antics of the many visitors we have attracted to the garden. Among the more sizable regulars are the Wattle Birds, Satin Bowerbirds, Kookaburras, Bronzewing Pigeons, Gang-gang Cockatoos, Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos and a variety of other parrot species. It is also amazing to see the increased bird activity, particularly honeyeaters, in the garden after a shower of rain. The native garden really is a pleasant place to be — and not just for humans!

Lately I have been lamenting the lack of “lawn” in my backyard. While the raised garden beds and plants are looking impressive the area between them closely resembles a desert in many places. Having recently read about using native grasses for lawns I delved into the internet and other sources to see if there was something suitable to sow. One of the recommended species was Microlaena stipoides or Weeping grass. What was a huge surprise is that I think I have identified one of our existing species as, you guessed it, Microlaena stipoides! (Mind you identifying grass is harder than I thought so I may still be wrong.) All I have to do now is collect seed from neighbouring properties, roadside etc., sow it in the loosened soil and keep my fingers crossed. Just so easy!

While on the subject of research, are you familiar with the variety of books we have in our own library? As Susan and I were given the task of “baby sitting” the library I decided to investigate what was really in the bottom of the box. If you need something to read, have a look at the next meeting and you may be like me and be pleasantly surprised. Watch for a list of our library books to be published in a future newsletter. I trust that you are all scratching heads and thinking of topics to write about – anything on or around plants would do – to send into Marg. Please help to make the newsletter interesting and informative.

Last Meeting—Rescued from the Canning

Thanks to Col Jackson for rescuing us from the Canning Stock Route. As nice a place as it is I would not like to be abandoned there so far from civilisation. I am sure that I would come to a sticky end, something like Burke and Wills. For a moment it seemed we were to be with out a venue for Col to finish what he had started as the TAFE rooms had floors polished over the school holidays and the odour was most unpleasant. However thanks to Max Sargent we were able to hold our meeting and Col’s presentation at Commercial Road Primary School. Thanks once again Col for another very enjoyable journey through Australia’s amazing outback.

Hope to see you all at the next meeting from John Stephens.

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Banksia
spinulosa


Birthday Candles


Golden Candlesticks

Species: Banksia spinulosa
Family:Proteaceae
Derivation:

Banksia: Commemorates Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), who collected the first specimens of the genus during Cook’s voyage in 1770.

spinulosa: From the Latin spinulosus, derived from spinosus with the diminutive ul, in turn derived from spina, meaning thorn, and -osus, meaning abounding in, referring to the many small teeth on the leaves.

Common Name: Hairpin Banksia (referring to the dark-coloured, hooked styles on some forms) or Golden Candlesticks (referring to the yellow-styled forms).
Distribution: Grows right down the east coast of Australia, from North Queensland through NSW to the eastern side of Melbourne in Victoria. I thought I had read of selected forms originating from plants on the north coast of Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands, but this is not confirmed in my references. It grows in a variety of habitats and soil types, generally in open forest.
Description:There are many varieties and forms of this species and some which have been selected and cultivated for the nursery trade. As a general rule, it is a compact, rounded shrub up to 2 metres tall with a lignotuber, but some forms don’t have a lignotuber and grow into a small tree up to 6 metres tall. Leaves are dark green above, pale below, up to 12cm long and 8mm wide, usually narrower with the margins rolled under, with different degrees of serration between forms. Flowering occurs from April onwards, with the flower spikes being cylindrical up to 20cm long. Flower colour also varies from golden yellow to orange, with some local forms around Boolarra and Mirboo North being almost green. The styles can be the same colour as the flowers, but some of the most visually spectacular forms have contrasting style colours from orange to maroon to dark red to black.
The styles can be the same colour as the flowers, but some of the most visually spectacular forms have contrasting style colours from orange to maroon to dark red to black.
Opinion: A lovely, small shrub with interesting foliage and flowers of a beautiful purple with golden tips, this species fits into my definition of a drop dead plant. My current specimen, in a long line of long gone specimens, has survived in the ground for a couple of years now, planted under the drip line of the big blue gum on the north-west corner of the block, on a raised bed. I’m expecting it to curl up its toes as soon as the weather breaks and my Boolarra soils return to their normal soggy states, but some positive thinking might hope that the gum and the elevation will keep its feet dry enough to survive a little while longer. None of its predecessors lasted longer than a few months in the ground in various positions around the block, usually suffering from the NZ pronunciation of ‘SIDS’, that is, SUDS (Sudden Immediate/Unexpected Death Syndrome, my apologies to any offended kiwis, get over it) during the following summer/autumn period. The best I have managed so far is to keep one alive in a tub for 3 years, flowering twice, but it still did the SUDS trick on me. Luckily, the tetchy little feller is pretty easy to propagate from both cuttings and seed, so it is possible to have a few young plants on standby for when the inevitable arrives, assuming that you are more organised than I am.

Sources: Wrigley and Fagg – Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas, etc.
Costermans – Native Trees and Shrubs of SE Australia.
Sharr – Plant Names and their Meanings.

Attaining my Green Thumb? - John Stephens

I had had a very small venture into propagation using cuttings in about 1996. I read some information and enthusiastically purchased some hormone powder ready to make a start. I cannot remember what time of year it was however I took cuttings from plants in my garden and proceeded to place them into the milk containers I had saved for the purpose. I only remember two of the species I took material from, Grevilleas rosmarinifolia and “Ellendale”. I placed the containers on the edge of the path under my Gr. rosmarinifolia, facing the morning sun and out of the direct heat of the day. After several months of “TLC” I managed to succeed with a solitary “Ellendale” out of the dozen or more containers! My lack of success put paid to any immediate future attempts. My “Ellendale” finally ended up in the new garden at Traralgon South however did not relish its new freedom and eventually faded away.

Last year I decided to have another attempt to master the art of cutting propagation. I purchased a mini hot house and commenced taking cuttings to place in small yoghurt containers that I thought would be ideal for the task. I painstakingly drilled four holes in the base of each container and followed the recommended procedure. I was pleased to see some success however not to the extent I believed that I should achieve. A discussion with Col revealed “It is very easy. Come over one day and I will show you how I do it”. That was an offer I could not refuse and I headed to Col’s place on the first available opportunity. He took me through his procedure including the “lick the stem” method, i.e. wet the stem in your mouth PRIOR to dipping it into the hormone powder. By the way Mary does not condone the use of this method as a reversal of procedure could have dire consequences! Anyway, whatever Col passed on to me appeared to work as a high percentage of the cuttings were successful.

Some time later, still being excited about my success, I was telling my dad about the details of propagating native plants when his partner overheard what I was saying. She stated that there was some sort of gadget to do with plants down the side of their house. In all the times I had been there I had rarely had need to go down the side of the house so I was not familiar with the gadget. She was saying that they were cleaning up and wanted to get rid of it—a green metal “house” on a gal stand. As you’ve probably guessed, it was a propagation house complete with heating element, misting equipment and the automatic water sensing device. As you can imagine I could not get the trailer quickly enough to remove the “rubbish”. It was only missing one vital part, the transformer.

On my holidays last year I was asking Phil Williams at his Pomonal Wildflower Nursery how he propagated all of his stock and he stated that he only used heated beds. During the conversation I mentioned that I had the unit, minus the “tranny”. He immediately offered an old unit he had in the shed and was willing to sell it to me for a nominal fee. Now the “house” has been repainted and is happily looking after several new batches of cuttings. I have not used the heating element as yet, just the mister, however I have had reasonable success. Unfortunately I had my latest batch of plants in the mini hothouse and they dried out in the recent spell of hot weather—they don’t have their own watering system. Totally my fault of course, however I look forward to being able to supplement the plants in my garden and to provide others with my surplus. No, I don’t believe I have attained my green thumb quite yet!

Editors's Say

Rainfall?