Favourite Plants
My favourite Australian native plants are members of the daisy family, Correas (sometimes referred to as native fuschia) and Eremophilas (known as emu bushes). There are numerous others that I like very much, but those I listed are the ones that I collect.
I joined the Australian Daisy Study Group years ago because I had fallen in love with a local daisy, Olearia pannosa, which is a threatened species I have since found out. I could not believe that a native daisy could have such a large flower, 2 inches or 5cm diameter. I was able to germinate some seed that winter, and have since struck cuttings of the plant. It grows naturally not far from home on the road side and is a lovely thing in flower in mid spring.
It is amazing which plants are daisies. Lettuce is an example that comes to mind. When I did some research on daisies for a talk that I gave, there was a huge list of common garden plants which come into this category, including a few vegetables.
The ADSG is a very proactive group. The first book published by the group was a general book on Australian Daisies, covering a few of the species which fit into this category of plants. Later came one on Brachyscomes, and the last was on Paper Daisies. Currently work is being done on a book on Olearias, like the one on the roadside near here.
The newsletter arrived yesterday, with a new seed bank listing!
Going to “Pot”
No Comments »14th March, 2006; Category: General
I have been planting on the rooted cuttings from the hot house. Can’t keep up with them. There has been a sudden surge of activity in the cuttings and I am wondering if the change in watering pattern has stimulated this. It helps too, that the number of severely hot days has diminished. Will need to be a little more scientific than I have been to work out what is happening.
Potting mix for the cuttings is always a continuing saga. Finding a mix that does not lose its “wettability”, does not weigh a ton when wet, is open and well drained, is readily available to me without travelling great distances, or paying a fortune in delivery charges… I don’t really want much!
There is certainly a great deal of pleasure to be had in potting on seedlings and cuttings that I have sown and set myself. That goes for the vegetable garden, too!
Pruning Plants
No Comments »10th March, 2006; Category: Caring for Native Plants, General, Pruning Australian Native Plants
Lost my right hand man to Writers’ Week again today. Hopefully I can get some potting on done and also finalise the plant list for the plant sale. I keep finding species that I missed when I did the list the other day.
Meanwhile I have plants presenting great cutting material and I would love to be sidetracked by that job also. Everything comes in waves in the Nursery. Zillions of jobs needing to be done now, and then periods of watching things grow until the next wave of potting on. (Until I visit someone with a native garden and plants presenting cutting material).
Sometimes I feel like Peter Cundell on the ABC TV gardening programme, Gardening Australia. Put a pair of secateurs, or loppers in his hands and the personality changes as he attacks plants with glee. He is usually pruning, while I go mad taking cuttings.
The above reminds me of a friend whose plants always looked wonderful, in flower or not. She was a self confessed mad pruner but without the tools. She made a practice of constant tip pruning of all her native shrubs. That is, removing the top growing tip containing a couple of leaves. This forces the plant to make new growth back along the branches. As a result, flowering is much improved because of the greater number of shoots on the bushes. It often looked as though she had used shears to trim the plants.
I remember seeing her after one Plant Sale with a basket of plants and before she had got back to her car every one of them had been tipped pruned. “Can’t help myself!” she said.
It is a hint I often pass on to customers at Plant Sales. People are often disappointed with the appearance of native plants as they get older. They don’t usually have time to prune at a particular time in the plant’s seasonal growth. Tip pruning often solves this. The exception to this is for a plant which has a naturally upright habit, where tip pruning could ruin the shape of the plant.
Correas are Great Plants
Husband Trevor has gone to Writer’s Week sessions today. This is part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and it is the first time Trevor has been able to attend. I had thought of going to Adelaide with him to look for some fabric to go on with a patchwork project done with English paper piecing but will try to go tomorrow.
Meanwhile some of the zillions of Nursery jobs need to be achieved today. I need to complete the plant list for the Australian Plant Society Autumn Plant Sale for a start. Then begin sowing seed for the Spring sale. This is the bit that I really enjoy, along with taking cuttings.
I have to get to my friend’s place and prune her Correa ‘Pink Pixie’ and Correa ‘Firebird’. Both are in bud at the moment but have taken over the area they are in. Marvellous growth for this location. However Correas do very well in alkaline soils even with the high pH. I love them, and so do the Honeyeaters which work over every flower looking for nectar. I can highly recommend them (the Correas) in any garden. I must do a list. There is at least one that would be in flower at any time of the year. To have that progression of flowering would certainly keep the Honeyeaters around.
If you should be visiting Victoria, a great Australian Native Garden where you will see many Correas is Katandra Garden. The owner, Bob O’Neil, won Australian Gardener of the Year (ABC) and is an active member of the Correa Study Group. He is also going to be a guest at the Regional Conference for the Australian Plants Society in Adelaide later in the year.
Planning to plant
We arrived back from Sydney this evening after two weeks’ holiday with son Simon (ITWhiz) and wife. What they say about the “tyranny of distance” is true. Distance is a tyrant when it separates family. Of course we have come home to zillions of jobs waiting to be done. They don’t go away, unfortunately. On the other hand some jobs are quite exciting. I need to take some of my own advice, given in my last post and get on with preparations for planting out some of the tube stock I have had waiting since January. It was too hot then to try to keep young plants going. Several days over 40C including some as high as 45C! I have a patch where I want to establish a small arboretum of local mallee species, and broaden the planting to species from other mallee areas. There are several species of Olearia that I want to get going, as well as Podolepis, Brachyscome and Cassinia, all of which are members of the daisy family. These all grow in the scrub (bush) within a few kilometres of our property. There are also some everlasting daisies (Helichrysm and Xerochrysm) which are native to this district. It would be nice to have them self sow themselves after this next season. The local form of Brachyscome ciliaris pops up every year in a new place on our block. This is a dainty pale mauve daisy about 1-1.5cm in diameter on a small plant which grows to about 30cm tall here. I should be collecting the seed and scattering it further afield on the block as it seems to come up right where we need to mow the grass each spring. It is a hardy little plant. Would be great in a cottage garden. There are a number of suppliers of seed of Australian native plants. See the list on the ANPSA website called Australian Seed Supplies.