Next Meeting

Date: Thursday April 9, 2009
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Horticultural Building at Morwell TAFE adjacent to Kernot Hall.
A Talk on Morwell National Park by Ken Harris.

Leader's Report

With 52mm for March and so far 31mm for April the country side has greened up, it’s heartening to see what Autumn rains can do for our gardens, paddocks and the bush.

The farm where we are fencing at the moment backs onto the State Forest, so we have seen a varied amount of native fauna. Over those extremely hot days the bird life was very quiet which gave the bush an eerie feeling but soon as we had some moister the bush came alive with noise or music which ever way you look at it. We found it music to our ears and entertaining watching the birds go about their daily search for food. Marg spotted a Robin Red Breast much to her delight and is still trying to identify some of the other birds though one was easy to identify and that was the Lyre bird fossicking about in the undergrowth in the gully near where we were fencing.

Flowering profusely is Grevillea ‘Billy Bonkers’ (I know this plant was meantioned in last months newsletter but it is worth another meantion), G ‘Peaches & Cream’, G ‘Moonlight’, G ‘Olympic Flame’, G ‘Evelyns Coronet’, G ‘Mt Tamberitha’ and Grevillea Ellendale as well as Banksia marginata (Mini Marg) dwarf form, Banksia integrifolia prostrate, Hypocalymma xanthoptelum, Brachyscome multifida (Break of Day). Banksia cocinea (Scarlet form), which I planted near the top of the steps going down to the house, looked like it was dying but has now new growth so hopefully it will survive.

The idea of helping fire ravaged gardens in the local fire area’s was brought up at the March meeting, those at the meeting voted that this would be a good idea for our group to get involved in some way, shape or form as in doing cuttings, planting out gardens, etc. This will be looked into and on this note; we will be having a talk on ‘Plants in or for Fire Prone Areas’ by Jeanette John from Ficifolia Native Nursery, possible in June or July. I know Jeanette & David have been researching this topic for the Baw Baw council.

See you at our next meeting.

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Scaevola
aemula

Species: Scaevola aemula
Family: Goodeniaceae
Derivation:

Scaevola: A Roman surname, from Caius Mucius Scaevola (507BC), who attempted to assassinate Porsena and, on being apprehended, burnt off his own right hand. It is derived from the Latin scaevus, meaning left or left-handed, and refers either to the resemblance of the dried flowers to a withered hand or the one-sided fan-shaped corolla of some species. Pronounced SEE-vo-la, but invariably altered to SKE-vo-la in Australia.

aemula: From the Latin, aemulus, meaning striving after or emulating.

Common Name: Fairy Fan-flower
Distribution: Found in NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania. In Victoria, it is more common in the dry, inland parts of the north-west, but occasionally found east of Melbourne.
Description:In the wild, this is a perennial herb to 50cm high, with leaves to 9cm long, usually toothed. Flowers are 16-25mm long, usually lilac, mauve or blue, rarely white. In cultivation, many forms are available which may be selected varieties, but are often hybrids with other species.
Opinion: I have three varieties in the garden, all are probably hybrids. The most spectacular is Scaevola ‘Purple Fanfare’, which has large, bright purple flowers with yellow centres for most of the year and the unfortunate habit of dropping dead at the end of summer when the weather turns cool. The latest plant is a cutting from a deceased parent that resides in a small tub/large pot on the southern fenceline in the backyard, where it gets full sun over the warmer months and a fair amount over winter. A beautiful plant if you can keep it alive, cuttings every autumn are a good idea if you want to retain it.
The other varieties are sold in Bunnings as Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters’, one obviously has mauve flowers, but the other is white. The white one doesn’t flower as prolifically as the mauve form, but grows ok in its position along the pathway on the western side of the house and shows no sign of dying off like the Purple Fanfare. The mauve form was originally planted on the north side of the house, but has self-seeded all over the front yard, where it likes to establish on the edge of the paths and then sets about covering them. There is no need to propagate this form, it looks after itself!

Sources: Wrigley & Fagg- Australian Native Plants
Corrick & Fuhrer- Wildflowers of Victoria
Sharr- WA Plant Names & their Meanings