Next Meeting

General meeting to work on 2010 calendar, Please think about what you would like to hear about, where you would like to go for a weekend or day trips.

Date: Thursday, December 10 2009
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Horticultural Building at Morwell TAFE adjacent to Kernot Hall on Monash Way, Morwell.

Leader's Report

Around our garden I am please to say that our Banksia grandis has 4 flower heads on it this year, last year it had two. This plant didn’t have an easy start as it was heavily pruned by the neighbours cows, chewed off within a few inches of it’s life, that was 8 or 9 years ago. Now its about 2.5 to 3mts high and going strong. Other plants flowering are Grevillea longistyla, Bracteantha bracteata Golden Bronze Paper daisy, Melaleuca thymifolia ‘Little Beauty’ always puts on a lovely show with its Mauve-Pink brush flowers for such a small plant at 50cmH x 60cmW as ours is. Prostanthera (mint bush) with its pretty white-pale mauve flowers and Regelia megacephala deep pink brush flowers we’ll bring cuttings of these two as we are not sure if the names are right..

While weeding on the Sat 28th Nov, I found a visitor in the large front garden, this visitor had been heard but not seen for a long time until now. Can you guess what it was? Clue – Marg has heard it calling at night and early morning.

We wish Everyone a Very Merry Christmas and A Safe, Happy & Prosperous New Year for 2010.

See you at our meeting from Wayne.

BLACK SATURDAY FIRES 6-Feb-09 by Harold Aumann

Black Saturday what a day? We were told to get all the buckets we could find and fill them all up with water and also run out the hoses. That afternoon on going outside felt like walking into a furnace, it was so hot with a strong northerly wind and plenty of smoke. The sky had this unusual red glow about it, this was the Bunyip State Park fire heading our way, after burning out most of Labertouche, we live at Drouin.

In the afternoon the roar of the wind sounded like a jet plane stationery just above our heads. Thick smoke everywhere, embers, leaves etc coming down all over us. We could hear and see ‘Elvis’ (the fire-fighting helicopter) through the smoke a short distance away bombing the fire. We walked around the house continuously looking for spot fires to put out. Suddenly the wind changed, all the fire threat here ceased.

For the next few weeks the Red Cross was registering people affected by the fires, at Labertouche hall. Teams of volunteers were going out cleaning up burnt buildings, fallen trees and fences. Over thirty homes were burnt out. Some boundary fences on farms were quickly erected to control stock, even now volunteers are still fencing.

Soon after the fires an appeal went out to the community and business for donated plants, cutting material, potting up mix, pots etc. Several groups around the district volunteered to handle the plants. Every week we were doing cuttings, division or repotting. Thousands of trees and plants were grown and donated and these were delivered to a group at the Labertouche hall.

A couple of months after the fires I managed to drive through the Bunyip State Park, it was a terrible sight, just black large trees everywhere all the small trees and undergrowth totally gone! Driving beside the Tarago River everything black, no green ferns anywhere. All trees and debri cleared off the road but the side roads still had all the gates closed. Looking across the river towards where the Grevillea barkleyana should be about ONE km away, I could see a small green patch. I hope it was some of the Grevillea barkleyana. I must go back soon to check, as far as I know where the Grevillea barkleyana and Boronia muelleri grow, they have all been burnt out.

Even driving along in a four wheel drive the road was very rough and coming onto a gully in the park it looked like a mini cyclone had ripped through a strip about two hundred metres wide, at about ten metres up the trees, they were broken off or blown over all facing the same way. What a sight! Then driving past a Melaleuca swamp area, I could see the trees were standing in water, but the fire burnt over the top of the water, killing all the Tea Tree.

Soon after I had driven through the Park they erected gates at both ends of the Park to totally close it off to everyone. A lot of the gully crossings and roads have now been upgraded. I have been told all gates would be opened at the end of October.

A land owner at Labertouche had an old truck parked down the paddock before the fires. After the fires he went down to check the truck and all he could find was a stream of melted metal.

The APS West Gippsland Group also planted trees on farms at Labertouche.

Heres hoping all the species, including the undergrowth in the area regenerate or recover quickly.

A Bit About Clay Wattle - By Col Jackson

The Clay Wattle (Acacia glaucoptera) is one native of Western Australia that seems to do very well in our corner of the country provided it has good drainage. Although planted in a fairly ordinary grey, clay soil, my specimen has been resident of the steep garden near the clothesline for about eight years now and is doing fine, thank you very much! I assume the steepness of the garden is its redeeming quality by providing the good drainage that the plant texts all seem to specify for this particular import. Although some forms of this plant can grow to a tangled metre and a half in height by two to three metres wide, my specimen is a much more civilized individual (I believe it was sold as a prostrate form) that has achieved about half a metre high and about a metre and a half across. I did try pruning it hard once in the belief that it would help its growth habit but it just seemed to slow it down for a year or so. After that little experiment I only prune out the occasional dead part and we have co-existed quite happily ever since. Spring is the most showy part of the year with yellow balls developing from a few spots here and there to a climax of golden colour over several weeks. Add to this the gradual development of purple-red new growth and red, curly seedpods and you have a display of colour and texture that just goes on and on for months. When this new growth is back-lit by the sunlight, the whole plant just seems to glow and light up that section of the garden.

Therefore, I have to say that this is one of my favorite plants, not only for the colour it provides, but also because it is so hardy. I never have to feed or water it and by keeping a layer of mulch underneath, I only have to pull the occasional weed. The one thing I have struggled with is propagation of this beastie. I have never found viable seed on it and successful cuttings have been equally elusive. I came close last year when cuttings actually took root but failed at the planting on stage.

I am trying again with the new growth this spring, a good dose of rooting hormones and some bottom heat. With a little bit of luck it might just appear in the raffle plants some time in the not too distant future!

Acacia glaucoptera

Acacia glaucoptera Detail

Plants in My Garden

By Mike Beamish

Beaufortia empetrifolia

Species: Beaufortia empetrifolia
Family: Myrtaceae
Derivation:

Beaufortia: Named after Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (?1630-1714), who had botanic gardens at Badminton and Chelsea and a large collection of botanical drawings.

empetrifolia: From the genus Empetrum and the Latin folium, a leaf, referring to the resemblance of the leaves to plants in this genus of temperate and arctic heath-like plants.

Common Name: None
Distribution: Endemic to Western Australia, on sandy soils in heath along the south coast.
Description:A small shrub, rarely exceeding 1 metre tall and wide, with almost linear leaves to 6mm long in two opposite rows. The mauve-pink flowers are produced in globular heads up to 1.5cm in diameter in spring.
Opinion: I’m a bit confused with this one! I can’t remember the name or where it came from and can’t find any records to help me. All I can remember is that I thought it was something different from what I’ve had before and decided to put it into a tub with a Boronia and Adenanthos ileticos because it probably wouldn’t survive if planted in the ground. This decision was based on my experiences with Beaufortia purpurea, which I’ve managed to grow to flowering a couple of times, only to have it turn up its toes immediately afterward. The only alternative to B. empetrifolia is B. purpurea, but I recall the flowers of the latter as smaller and more purple than red. My records show that I bought Beaufortia dampieri from Rob Sullivan at Sandy Point in 2004 and B. macrostemon and B. orbifolia from the Pomonal Nursery in 2005, but only the last one is still here and the others don’t match the description. So, I reckon it is B. empetrifolia!
Anyway, the plant has flowered for at least 3 years now, but otherwise is a small, scruffy, twiggy-looking thing that has no value at all when it is not in flower. The tub lives on the pathway around near the garage on the western side of the block, so it gets plenty of sun and all the weather that blows in from the west. I haven’t tried to propagate it yet, as suitable material would be pretty hard to find, but it has formed a couple of seed capsules which might be worth a shot sometime down the track.

Sources: Wrigley & Fagg - Bottlebrushes, Paperbarks & Tea Trees, etc.
Sharr- WA Plant Names & their Meanings