Next Meeting

Date: Thursday March 12, 2009
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Horticultural Building at Morwell TAFE adjacent to Kernot Hall.
A Talk On Lichens by Simone Louwhoff

Leader's Report

We have had 20.5mm of rain in March so far, which has brightened up most of our native plants in the garden that are not flowering.

These plants are all flowering in our garden at the moment; Grevillea ‘Billy Bonkers’ which is grafted onto Robusta, at 1mt high x 2mts wide, Grevillea ‘Moly’, G ‘Peaches & Cream’, G ‘Coconut Ice’, G ‘Caloundra Gem’, G ‘Carpet Queen’, Grevillea scapigera (one of Robert Browns grafted plants) and Correa “Little Kate”.

Three times in three days we have seen the White-eared Honeyeater in the bird bath out the back, this is unusal to see him that many times and the Eastern Spinebill was also there today. This means the New Hollands were else where in our garden as these honeyeaters are so noisy and such a big family of them that the other small honeyeaters stay out of their way, though the Wattle Bird always stirs the New Hollands up. The Grey Butcherbird called in last week too but was not welcomed by any of our resident birds.

Marg has had a browse through a booklet put out by the Hume City Council called ‘Sustainable Gardening”.

I found this booklet very informative and an interesting read with the contents covering topics on; Garden Design, Saving water in the garden, Rainwater tanks, Greywater, Habitat gardening, Plant selection, Local plant guide, Sustainable plant list, Environmental weeds, Vegetable gardening, Sustainable lawns, Healthy soils, Compost and worm farms, Solving compost problems, Chemicals, Sustainable product selection. After reading this booklet it made me wonder about our two local councils, Latrobe City and Baw Baw Shire, if they had a booklet like the Hume one? Well I started investigating by checking their web sites and found BawBaw Shire had pamphlets on; Grow an Indigenous garden, Mulch your patch, Cultivate water saving habits, Help protect our waterways and Cultivate waste reduction habits. These were set out with ‘How to do it now’ and ‘Why taking this action is important’. From what I could find on the Latrobe City web site they did not have any pamphlets covering any of the topics of the above, maybe I’ll have to visit the coucil office and see if they have any at all.

We had a email from Marilyn & Geoff Bull, they are safe but have lost Geoff’s house at St Andrews in the bushfires. The photo’s that Marilyn had taken were heart wrenching to say the least. If there is anything we can do for you, please let us know.

We still have some empty spots in our calendar, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

To anyone that is not feeling the best we wish you a speedy recovery.

Our raffle money of $30.00 was donated to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund.

Hope to see you all at our next meeting, from Wayne Wilkinson.

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Banksia
serrata

Species: Banksia serrata
Family: Proteaceae
Derivation:

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

serrata: From the Latin, serratus, meaning saw-edged, referring to the leaf margins.

Common Name: Saw Banksia, Red Honeysuckle, Red Banksia
Distribution: Coast and hinterland in deep and shallow sands from north-western Tasmania, eastern Victoria, NSW and south-east Queensland.
Description:A gnarled and often twisted small tree to 15m tall, usually smaller in poor soils. No lignotuber is present, but the bark is thick and corky and plants will usually reshoot after a burn. Narrowly obovate leaves are up to 15cm long with serrated and undulate margins, glossy green on top, paler matt green beneath. Flower spikes are broad and cylindrical to 15cm long and borne terminally over the late summer and autumn period. Buds are a soft grey-green, opening to yellow-green flowers with straight styles. Old flowers persist with prominent follicles until they are induced to open by death of the branch or fire.
Opinion: This is one of the first plants planted in my garden back in the late 1980’s. It lives on the eastern fenceline of the block, where it gets plenty of light from the afternoon sun all year round. This is the first year that it has suffered from sunburn, which occurred during the series of +40ºC days in late January. To describe the plant as gnarled and twisted is spot on! My plant is about 7 metres tall with a trunk over 40cm in diameter, which start offs by curving to the right at its base, but then curving back to the left as it gains height. Some of the original branches curved so far left they were almost weeping, but most of these had to be pruned off as they were snagging the clothesline. The newer shoots are much straighter and more upright. I’m not so sure about flower spikes to 15cm in length. That might be the minimum, but my plant has spikes up to 30cm long every year, giving the local honeyeaters and wattle-birds something to fight over.

Sources: Wrigley & Fagg- Banksias, Waratahs & Grevilleas, etc.