News Flash!!

IT’S A BOY! Congratulations To Carolyn and Warren Simpson on the arrival of ‘Bubs’, FRIDAY 26th SEPT 08. ‘JADEN LEIGH’, named at last; mum, dad and bubs are all doing well. Birth weight: 2565grams; 49cm long.

Next Meeting

WHAT TO BRING FOR GREVILLEA GRAFTING DEMONSTRATION NIGHT WITH HAROLD AUMANN.
Suitable Grevillea robusta as stock for wedge and approach grafts.
Suitable scion material for the wedge graft.
Suitable grevillea species to use as an approach graft.
Sharp knife and secateurs, tapes will be supplied.

Date: Thursday November 13, 2008
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Horticultural Building at Morwell TAFE adjacent to Kernot Hall.

Leader's Report—September

What a busy month we have had, it started off on Saturday 6th September at Wilson Park, Berwick, buying plants for our garden and the windbreaks in the top paddocks. I picked up some more Banksias, Banksia violacea and Banksia praemorsa Wine Red Form; while Marg and Will brought Grevillea fasciculata Coastal form, Adenanthos pungens Coral Cover, Dianella revoluta and Dianella caerulea Paroo Lily, just to name a few.

Thursday 11th Sept was our general meeting and some great ideas have come from members on what we can do over the next year, more on this when we sort it out.

Saturday 13th Sept found us Orchid Hunting out around Moondarra State Forest, as you will see by the list that Wendy Probert emailed us. A lot of buds were found so this showed the Orchid Club some of what will be flowering here in our area in October and November. There was a convoy of 19 vehicles to 5 sites along the Moe-Rawson Road, 6 of our members joined the ANOS group led by Warren Simpson. What a lovely warm sunny day we had for ambling around the bush looking intently at the ground for orchids.

Saturday 20th Sept our group braved the weather (such a contrast to the Saturday before) and had a guided tour around ‘Tyalge’ by Alvina Smith. What a special place it is and the ideas you get wondering around the different parts of the garden. Marg and I were amazed to see the difference in Alvina’s ‘Rainforest Garden’ compared to when we first saw it about 10 years or so ago. Lunch was consumed at tables set up in the garage, many thanks to George Smith and Diane & Harold Aumann for setting up the tables and chairs. With coats placed around any available hanging spot, one member hung her coat on the door of her car, hoping the breeze would dry her coat out a bit. I’m not sure said ‘coat’ will dry when it is hanging on the ground, Doris. After lunch and thanking Alvina & George on their hospitality we headed back to inspect Harold Aumann’s Garden. We were blown away with how and what Harold has done in his garden, it proved what you can do with some well learnt knowledge and experience with grafting native plants. To see how the garden beds have been set out and what has been planted is a credit to Harold’s love of native plants. The weather had improved as we walked around and afternoon tea was well timed, as the heavens opened up while we were sitting inside enjoying our hot cuppas and Diane’s yummy cake. Many Thanks to Diane & Harold for letting us invade their Garden and home. Harold will be passing on some of his knowledge on grafting natives at our November meeting.

The following was emailed to us from Mike. A recipe for a scale treatment that won’t burn your plants was put forward by Warren (I think) and the attendees thought it a good idea to publish it in the newsletter.

Ingredients are: 1 litre of generic, cheap vegetable oil, 500ml of water, 100ml of eucalyptus oil, 10ml of generic, cheap dishwashing detergent. Mix the ingredients well and store. Add 40ml of the mixture to 1 litre of water for spraying onto affected plants. The beasties should quickly suffocate without damaging your plant.

Leader’s Wife Report

Saturday 27th Sept, found Wayne, Brenda (my mum) and I travelling to Bairnsdale for a Surprise 80th Birthday party of one of my cousins. Watching Aunts, Uncles and cousins catching up with each other was good to see and be involved in, as there were about 120 of us from my dad’s eldest brother’s family. The Gray family is not small, as my dad was 1 of 11. Sunday saw us head out to Lindenow to visit ‘Bonaccord’ Vegetable farm and to see the new dam they (the Ingram’s, more cousins) are building. Ross Ingram showed us the new dam that will hold 700 mega litres of water, over 13ha in size, water depth will be 7mts deep with the dam banks 14mts high. We also saw the damage that was done by the floods in 2007 along the Mitchell River adjoining their property and what and how they have conserved that land. So if you pass or see a “Bonaccord’ Refrigerated truck on the highway you’ll know where it has come from.

Leader's Report—October

Due to unforseen circumstances our Geelong trip was cancelled, but hopefully we can do it in 2009.

Our apologies to everyone for not getting the Oct Newsletter out, but as our computer power supply died just at the wrong time, it did not help us at all. Now all we need is to fix our hard drive problem, fingers crossed everything will be ok after that. UPDATE: A 160 GB hard drive was successfully placed into our computer without loosing anything of importance, phew! So it’s onwards and upwards from here.

Our Nov meeting will be interesting with Harold demonstrating the approach and wedge grafts, so don’t forget to bring along your materials as listed above so you can have a go at grafting yourself.

Around our garden these plants are putting on quite a flower display even with the lack of our spring rains. Lechenaultia biloba Sky Blue, Leptospermum merinda, Leptospermum Tickled Pink, Leptospermum Mesmer Eyes, Leptospermum scoparium, Leptospermum pageant, Grevillea Peaches and Cream, Hibbertia stellaris, Verticordia chrysantha and Grevillea longistyla and Marg’s favourite Alogyne huegelii with the deep purple flower and the white form has been flowering for weeks. We have been busy weeding garden beds in between moving both our daughter & partner, and son & partner. Oct has tuned out just as busy as Sept was.

We did an interview on our native gardens and why we love native plants. So we mentioned our involvement with APS LV and how, what, where the group meets, so the article will be in the next issue of the ‘Link’ section of the Express.

Christmas Break-up

The Bairnsdale Weekend is on for the last weekend in November, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th Nov 08. Mike has confirmed with Geoff Cooke that we will visit his garden at Wiseleigh, near Bruthen, on Saturday morning. On Sunday morning we will visit Jan Donnan's garden at Eagle Point, finishing up with a BYO BBQ lunch before heading for home. If time and interest permits, we may organise a visit to Barbara Bates at Paynesville on Saturday afternoon, to look at her Bonsai collection.

Cathy and Mike are travelling to Bairnsdale on Friday 28th Nov (Cathy will actually already be there, as she has a work conference in Paynesville on Thursday and Friday of that week; how convenient!). They are staying in a 2 bedroom cabin at the Bairnsdale Holiday Park, 139 Princes Hwy (1.2km east of the Mitchell River Bridge) which has already been booked and paid for.

Kate Richardson has indicated she is happy to share the cabin with them. Mike has booked a cabin for Saturday night only for Alan & Doris Chambers, a powered tent site for 2 nights for Brian & Marilyn Ingram and an unpowered tent site for 2 nights for Colin & Mary Jackson. Others members have indicated they are unsure of their attendance, but if they decide to come they will organise their own accommodation. The Bairnsdale Holiday Park contact number is 1800062885 (a free call).

Thursday 11th Dec 08 – Christmas Break-up Tea or Supper night for those that are unable to join in at the Bairnsdale Weekend. This can be discussed at the Nov meeting.

See you all at our November meeting, from Wayne Wilkinson.

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Acacia
curranii

Species: Acacia curranii
Family: Mimosaceae
Derivation:

Acacia: From the Greek, akazo, to sharpen, or akis, a sharp point, referring to the sharp spines on many African species, where the genus was defined back in the 18th century.

curranii: Named for the priest, Father Curran, who is recorded as first finding the shrub at Cobar in 1887.

Common Name: Curly-bark Wattle
Distribution: Found in Queensland in the Darling Downs district at Gurulmundi, north of Miles, in shallow, poorly drained soils over sandstone and on the western plains of NSW in the Eubalong West area.
Description:A slender shrub up to 4 metres tall, with reddish-brown ‘minni-ritchi’ bark that curls off in thin strips. Branchlets are slender, slightly angular or rounded and usually silky-hairy. The grey-green, flattened, very fine, linear, erect phyllodes are up to 18cm long, but only to 1.5mm wide and have scattered hairs, fine obscure longitudinal nerves and end in a curved, non-sharp point. Flower spikes are bright yellow, up to 7mm long and borne on short, densely hairy stalks, mainly in pairs in the leaf axils in August and September.
Opinion: I’m not too sure what ‘minni-ritchi’ bark means, but I don’t think my plant is old enough yet to have developed this feature. It has only been in the ground for 12 months or so, being a gift from Geoff Cooke, but has grown to about 2 metres in height in that time. It still has a very narrow trunk though and has had to be staked to withstand the blustery conditions of our spring weather, this year and last year. It is planted on the nature strip on the north side of the block, so gets plenty of sun, but no protection from the elements. The books say it will do well in well-drained sites in full sun (or some shade in hot inland areas), so I’ve met half the requirements: we’ll see how it copes with the heavy Boolarra soils, but unless we get a really wet year that waterlogs the place like it used to be, it should be ok. It has flowered pretty well this year (I had a piece on the table at the September meeting), but is such a slender, open shrub that it is not as striking as a denser plant would be. The books tell me to prune after flowering, sounds like good advice, time permitting.

Sources: Simmons - Acacias of Australia, Volume 2.