Next Meeting

Garden Visit

Date: Saturday July 12, 2008
Time: 10:00 am
Venue: 42 Ashdowns Road, Tanjil South

Leaders Report

Around the Garden

As I write the wind is howling through our trees and I am not looking forward to the official “windy season” as usually it means more damage to our garden which is looking particularly pleasing at present. Maybe it’s a timely reminder that all good gardeners ensure their “talls” are securely staked. It is amazing how quickly the plants recover after the summer heat and dry. Susan and I had a big planting session a few weeks ago and, believe it or not, extended an existing bed to add even more plants to the existing collection. Many of these were plants that I have developed from cuttings taken from places as distant as Tathra, Otway Ranges and Macarthur areas. I now have difficulty manoeuvring the 4WD around the back yard and successfully avoiding precious plants. We won’t need any lawn mowers the way we are going!

Epacris Impressa

The Australian garden in winter is truly spectacular, so much so that you would suspect it was spring. There are still an abundance of species in flower at present - many mentioned in the last newsletter - however a number of additional plants have come into flower, particularly Grevilleas. Some of the numerous new additions to the “Grevillea Show” are “Apricot Charm” (apricot flowers), “Tucker Time Entrée” (golden and pink flowers), “Deua Grevillea” (orange-red flowers), Gr lanigera Lutea (green-lemon flowers) and Gr alpina (the tall Grampians form). My last remaining “ground based” Gr chrysophea, which is gradually receiving more and more shade from developing eucalypts, is still looking extremely healthy however has not as yet flowered. I was talking to Peter Cox (West Gippsland) about “our” Grevillea. He has some cuttings that are looking strong and was looking forward to the next step – The Planting! I wished him well for the impending “placement in the ground” after explaining our members’ attempts with this “lovely”, *, @, (apologies for those words) local. The Mt Morgan acacia is striking, a real standout at the bottom of the garden and the local Epacris impressa is adding to the assortment of colour.

Kit Shade House

I recently purchased a shade house in kit form and it has finally been erected and put to use. Constructed of galvanised steel tubing, the ten by six feet and three levels of shelving at each end should be all that I require however I have now added additional shelves at ground level to afford supplementary storage and to provide extra weight to anchor the structure against wind. I will I have also added a dual sprinkler system with automatic timers so I am really prepared for the warmer season. The whole setup looks great. Having previously found that it was relatively easy to strike cuttings, the next stage was where I was loosing plants, and was the step I needed to address. Over the last few weeks I have been taking numerous cuttings to place in the propagator so I can find out if the shade house is going to help. Yep, more native “babies” to plant in the garden in the future.

Susan and I will be absent for the next meeting – hopefully “toes up” somewhere in a quiet spot on the south coast of NSW. We hope to give the Bateman’s Bay botanical gardens a more thorough study than we had time for last visit. You may remember from a previous newsletter that we had a couple of hours but were very impressed with the work completed there by volunteers (many APS members) – just beautiful.

I would also love to visit the “Grevillea Gardens” at Bulli however that may be too far north, particularly with the current price of fuel.

We will unfortunately miss the “Wilkinson Weekend Wildflower Wander” which replaces our next night meeting. I am sure members will appreciate what Marg and Wayne have in store.

Last Meeting—Making the Most of Your Digital Camera by David McPhee

I have known David for many years and he has always been a valuable source of information when it came to photography/cameras and he did not disappoint at our meeting.

The main point David made was that much that applied to film cameras still applies to digital format. Some of the useful tips from David were –

1. Watch the depth of field – when close it is usually very shallow
2. Watch for background objects – what undesirables are also included?
3. Use reflected light if possible by using a commercial reflector or substitute
4. Take advantage of natural light rather than flash
5. Five mega pixels is more than adequate for up to A4 size prints
6. Use a UV/Skylight filter – mainly to protect the camera lens
7. Take photos from further away to reduce the effect of being too close
8. Use a shield (maybe shade cloth) to reduce the effect of wind movement

David also mentioned the use of special gadgets/tripods. The practical side of the night was also excellent as a few photographers were able to receive assistance from those with greater experience. We have decided to endeavour to follow-up with future practical sessions to assist members in this area.

See you all soon.
John Stephens
Leader

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Grevillea
jephcottii

Species: Grevillea jephcottii
Family:Proteaceae
Derivation:

Grevillea: After Charles Francis Greville (1749-1809), a correspondent of Robert Brown and one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society.

jephcottii: Honours members of the Jephcott family of Ournie, on the upper Murray River, especially Sydney Wheeler Jephcott who first collected the species in 1878.

Common Name: Green Grevillea, Pine Mountain Grevillea
Distribution: Found in Victoria and NSW in several small areas in and adjacent to the Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park in north-eastern Victoria. Grows in the thick scrubby understory of closed Eucalypt forest or as the dominant shrub in open woodland, often on steep hillsides and among granite boulders.
Description:Plants in open situations are usually low and bushy, while those in shaded forest are up to 3m tall and leggy. Leaves are ovate to oblong-lanceolate, up to 3.5cm long and 3mm wide, covered with long, soft hairs when young but becoming smooth with age. Flowers are small, only about 5mm wide and 10mm long, pale green in colour, although with subtle tones on close inspection, with a maroon style, green on the tip. Flowering occurs for long periods, with the terminal clusters being highly attractive to insects and birds.
Opinion: My plant is situated in the bed on the north wall of the house, which historically has proven the most difficult for me to keep under control. At the moment it is a jungle, in need of some severe pruning. Plants in this bed either die quickly (too hot and exposed or they dislike the soil) or do the opposite and grow much bigger and faster than they are supposed to in an attempt to out pace their competitors. This one is about 2m tall and a bit leggy, with its foliage mainly concentrated around the ends of the branches, making it a little ugly overall. I’ll need to work out some plans to knock it back a bit and get it to thicken up. The flowers are not particularly showy and don’t stand out from a distance, but close up they have all sorts of subtle colours from pale green to cream with suffusions of pale pinks and yellows. The beasties certainly like them, anyway.

Sources: Olde & Marriott - The Grevillea Book, Volume 2
Corrick & Fuhrer - Wildflowers of Victoria
Grieg - The Australian Gardeners Wildflower Catalogue