Mallee Native Plants

Germinating Everlasting Daisies

No Comments »6th April, 2006; Category: Daisies, Propagating

I made a point of sowing a lot of seed of some Xerochrysms and others last season thinking that it was a few years old and therefore the germination would be poor. However I also made the decision to smoke all the older seed to see if germination rates would improve. Unfortunately I wasnâ€™t very scientific about it as I did not sow any unsmoked for comparison. I had little lawns sprouting in the seed containers, much to my delight and then consternation when I realised the work involved in potting on!Â

I tried a smoked vermiculite product called Regen 2000. It must be kept perfectly dry once the pack is open. As only a small amount of vermiculite is used on top of the seed you need to be using a lot of it considering the size of the pack. Smoke for this purpose can be bought in various forms, as a liquid which is diluted, or smoke primers which are soaked in a little water, to which the seed is added. Or of course you try lighting smoky fires and doing your own!

Paper Daisies

No Comments »3rd April, 2006; Category: Caring for Native Plants, Daisies, Using Australian Natives

I found Xerochrysm macranthum and a red flowered Xerochrysm bracteatum. These are paper daisies or everlasting daisies as they are sometimes called. When the flowers are picked they can be hung upside down so that the stems remain straight while the moisture in the stem dries. The flowers continue to open so it is a good idea to experiment with the stage of openness at picking, as to what you want the flower to be like when dry.

Another way of dealing with paper flowers is to cut the stem to within 1 cm of the flower and poke fine florist wire along the length of the stem and just into the back of the flower. Stand the wired flowers in a heavy vase until the stem dries. These are great in floral decorations, or other crafts. The flowers last a long time, at least 12 months, after which you can do a new batch to replace the old.

I cut the plants back to fresh growth to encourage more shoots along the stem and eventually flowering again. These plants should last a long time unless we get severe frost this year.

Perennials and Daisies

1 Comment »1st April, 2006; Category: Caring for Native Plants, Daisies, Plant species

Today has been a weed, prune and discard day. In doing so I discovered some treasures that I thought I had lost over the summer. Epacris impressa is not one that I would put in the ground here, but I love it. So it gets to live in a pot which is a hazard in itself. Beautiful Correa ‘Ivory Bells’ was just coming into flower.

I thought I had lost some of the native lillies, too. I knew that they died back in summer but I also thought that the watering may have rotted them. I tossed out a pot, only to reclaim it very quickly when I saw a small tuber with the beginning of a shoot. I rescued a whole box full, thankfully. A lot of Australian natives die down during the heat of summer to reappear when the weather cools down.

All the Xerochrysm (paper daisies) needed trimming and tidying and there were some beautiful colours amongst them. These were known previously as Helichrysm and then Bracteantha until it was discovered that the name Xerochrysm had the prior claim.

Other daisies like the Brachyscomes are flowering madly at the moment, particularly a fine leaved pink Brachyscome multifida and Brachyscome multifida ‘Amethyst’. Brachyscomes look like miniature marguerite daisies, although they a small perennials, rather than shrubs. I think I have said before that I love daisies.

Grevillea lavandulacea

1 Comment »31st March, 2006; Category: Caring for Native Plants, Grevillea, Pruning Australian Native Plants

I was thinking about the Grevillea species in the last post. The local form of Grevillea lavandulacea, called ‘Monarto’ is an open small shrub with deep reddish pink spider clusters. I noticed in ‘The Grevillea Book’ Olde and Marriott, that this probably should be called ‘Mt Compass’. Whatever the correct name, it is a very pretty shrub.

A form that I’ve had for years is from the Barossa Valley I think. It has almost ruby flowers in large clusters. The honeyeaters love it when it is in flower.

When I told friends last night over dinner about the deer, they reminded me of the ferral deer in the South East of SA and that there are ferral deer in the Jamestown district (mid north of SA). I did not know of them. The ones in the South East are a hazard on the road. There are more deer than kangaroos to deal with, especially at night. We were always concerned when our daughter, who was teaching in the South East, had to travel one particular road to Penola, at night. She also discovered that echidnas don’t do car tyres much good, either!

The above Grevillea do very well in high pH soils like ours which has limestone rubble in it. Once established they will cope with the winter wet, summer dry climate and 350mm (about 13inches)Â of rain. They need to be trimmed after flowering to maintain bushiness.

Grevillea in the USA

2 Comments »30th March, 2006; Category: General, Grevillea, Pruning Australian Native Plants

I was looking at blogs to do with gardening last night and came across a site called the Golden Gecko written in California (the name attracted me). That’s not too amazing in itself. What hit me in the face were the photos of Grevillea ‘Molongolo’ and Grevillea lavandulacea ‘Penola’.

These were being recommended as suitable plants for the impoverished soils in the area. And they would be good for that purpose. They also do well here (country South Australia).

“Molongolo” is a registered cultivar, a hybrid between a dwarf, yellow form of Grevillea juniperina from New South Wales and an upright, red-flowered form of G juniperina from near Canberra, ACT. It can grow up to 5m across in ideal conditions (I’d like to see that here!), with apricot coloured flowers. It needs to be tip pruned from an early age to encourage the denseness of a good ground covering plant. It also responds well to pruning.

As with most plants, pruning is best done after flowering but this plant has a long flowering period. In general I would say that when there are signs of new growth is a safe time to prune most evergreen plants. As a rule don’t prune back to bare wood, but look for small branches or shoots to cut back to (unless you know for sure that the plant will shoot from bare wood).

Grevillea lavandulacea ‘Penola’ has been in cultivation for many years. It has greyish foliage with a massed display of red and cream flowers which look wonderful against the grey foliage. Apparently there is a question about whether it is actually a true form of G lavandulacea as it is very close to Grevillea ‘Poorinda Illumina’. We’ll let the botanists fight about that! The town of Penola is in the south east of South Australia.